Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Thinking Outside the Box

Thinking Outside the Box by Naree
(inspired by Matt)

Too many times these Chinese kiddos don't get a chance to practice the creativity they do have. Here's your chance to prove other foreigners wrong – your students can be creative!

1. Draw the classic 3 x 3 row of dots (9 total) and ask them how they can connect all the lines with 1 continuous line in only 4 strokes. They cannot lift their pencils/chalk off the paper/board. Give them all 5 minutes or so to try and solve this on their own

Answer: Try this yourself --- you've gotta draw one of the lines outside of the box so you can hit up the other dots. ALSO you can do this with one line! Re-draw the 9 dots on a teeny weeny scale and then take a fat marker or long side of a chalk and cross through the dots.

2. Set up a table for arm-wrestling. Divide class in two and name them Group A and Group 1 (so they are the first of something!). Then have each team select one classmate to arm wrestle. Make sure you repeat the following rule:

The number of times your hand touches the desk is the number of times I will give you candy.

They will assume the classic Win-Lose situation – only one winner (give them candy). After a few chances, show them the Win-Win scenario – both are winners (everyone gets candy). This is also an example of how you can work together and two people can help each other (synergy).

3. Divide the class into groups of 4 or so. Give them the following “lateral thinking” puzzles that encourage creative thinking. Be sure to pre-teach necessary vocab. Remind them to think outside the box and give them hints/clues as you circle around the room

The Coin

John is on a raft, adrift in the ocean with several other survivors of a shipwreck. The others are too weak, so he or Mike will swim to a nearby island to look for help. It is almost certainly suicidal, due to the circling sharks, but they have little else to hope for. Mike takes the lose change from his pocket and puts two pennies in a hat. He tells John that one is a 2005 penny, and the other 1975. If John picks the newer penny he can stay on the rat, and Mike will risk his life. If John picks the older penny, he must go. John has seen that both pennies were actually dated 1975, but he doesn't want to say anything, because Mike is a big guy. How does he win, and get Mike to go, without exposing him as a fraud in front of the others?

The Convent

A man came to visit at a convent while the superior mother was out of town. He left before she returned, and was careful to leave nothing behind. The nuns said nothing about his visit, so how did the superior mother figure out that a man had been there?

The Speech

A politician wrote a long speech. How did it help his career even before he gave the speech?

Light Switches

There are three switches outside a closed room. There are three lamps inside the room. You can flip the switches as much as you want while the door is closed, but then you must enter just once and determine which switch is connected to which lamp. How can you do it?

Hospital

Agatha spent several days in the hospital. She wasn't injured, and she wasn't sick, but she did have to be carried out when she left though. Why was she in the hospital?


Solutions To The Lateral Thinking Puzzles

The Coin: John reaches into the hat and takes out either penny. He lets it slip out of his hand and fall into the ocean. Apologizing, he suggests that if the remaining penny in the hat is the 1975 one, he must have drawn the 2005 penny. Mike cannot argue with the logic unless he wants to admit to lying. Since the others won't tolerate a liar anyhow, he makes the swim.

The Convent: Because a toilet seat was up.

The Speech: True Story solution: In 1912, President Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest. The folded-up manuscript of his speech was in his pocket, and slowed the bullet, saving his life, and so helping his career.

Switch the first one on for a minute, then turn it off and turn the second on. Enter the room and feel the two bulbs that are off. The warm one was turned on by the first switch, the light that is on is connected to the second, and the last one will be cold to the touch (and connected to the light switch you didn't touch).

Hospital: Agatha is a newborn baby

Solution to 9 Dots Puzzle


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