Design Step 3: Brainstorm Possible Solutions
Brainstorming is a team creativity activity that helps generate a large number of potential solutions to a problem. In this activity, students participate in a group brainstorming activity to imagine possible solutions to their engineering design challenge. Students learn brainstorming guidelines and practice within their teams to create a poster of ideas. The posters are used in a large group critiquing activity that ultimately helps student teams create a design project outline. (Note: Conduct this activity in the context of a design project that students are working on; this activity is Step 3 in a series of seven steps that guide students through the engineering design loop.)
Students reflect upon the ideas generated during their team's brainstorming session.Copyright Lauren Cooper, ITL Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder.
Brainstorming is a helpful technique for group projects, especially for teams needing to break out of the same pattern of thinking and develop a new way of viewing something. Engineering teams are usually composed of a diverse mix of individuals, including engineers with expertise in different disciplines, as well as other professionals. Brainstorming allows teams to tap into all the expertise in the group to develop the most successful solution to a design challenge. Some engineering companies specialize in brainstorming unique solutions to design challenges.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Describe and apply the "rules" of brainstorming.
- Use brainstorming as a technique to generate a large number of ideas.