See / Visualize
Using practical work to promote creative thinking
The following videos highlight how 'hands-on' involvement in practical work and experiencing phenomena first hand can really help to challenge thinking and so aid visualization skills within the classroom.
Video 1
Here a group of Year 4 children from Uplands Primary School are challenged by Matthew Newberry to think about what will happen if they push and pull a pencil into and out of a jar of rice.
Notice how the teacher questioning and experience of having a go for themselves is key to promoting engagement and thinking around the question posed. The physical experience helps develop a visualization of the phenomenon.
Video 2
In this second clip, a group of Year 7 children are challenged to think what will happen when a fully inflated balloon and a semi inflated balloon are linked via a hosepipe.
Again notice how the surprise of physically experiencing the forces involved helps to challenge their thinking. The boys are then motivated to develop and adapt their mental models so as to develop a visualization of the phenomenon.
To Professor John Gilbert's models & modelling to support creative thinking