By Jessica Zack, Houston Chronicle
Ever wonder what makes the cartoon light bulb of creative inspiration turn on over someone’s head? Why some people experience more aha moments of true ingenuity than others? Stanford University engineering professor Tina Seelig has devoted her career over the past 30 years to the question of how to get people’s creativity flowing. In her classes, both at Stanford and now offered free to the public online, she tests and teaches ways to catalyze breakthroughs in innovative thinking for everyone from artists to entrepreneurs. Her now-famous “Five-Dollar Challenge,” which has been replicated in courses all over the world, involves giving students $5 or a simple object, such as a water bottle or handful of rubber bands, and asking them to create as much value as possible in several hours – with “value” defined by the students. In another assignment, Seelig challenges students to create as much value as possible from the contents of a home trash can.
http://www.chron.com/life/article/Online-class-teaches-students-to-have-that-aha-4447643.php
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