the Creative Sight

Saving the World While attempting to sneak into a top security U.S. research facility, Angus MacGyver first had to get past the front door and its attached security keypad. But how was he to see which numbers were being pressed, and in which order, without surrendering his secure hidden position in the back of a cargo truck 200 feet away? The answer was simple, or at least it was simple to MacGyver, all he needed was the sports section of the newspaper, a mag light and his watch, all conveniently located in the back of the truck he currently inhabited. My childhood hero With a few simple twists, MacGyver removed the magnifying lens from the mag light. A moment later, he popped the watch crystal off the front of his watch and rolled the sports section into a conical tube. After placing the watch crystal at the narrow end of the tube, and carefully nestling the larger magnifying lens at the opposite end, he had himself a homemade telescope. All that was required now was to wait f...

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking about creativity at the LLI Mississippi conference in Madison, Mississippi. I presented in a "fishbowl" format, meaning that I taught a lesson to 14 high school freshmen, as a group of 20 teachers observed from the outskirts of the room. This format is supposed to provide an "everyday" setting to a session. My talk was entitled "Creativity Exercises That Build Connections" and we began by broadening the definition of "creativity" to include many different types of creativity, and thus a much wider range of people. We played "FUNctionality" and the "Why? Game". The students did a fantastic job of engaging and being fearless and creative with their answers. I think everyone had fun, even the teachers observing, as shown by the photo below. A full house of creative teachers at LLI Mississippi Encore Presentation I can't stop laughing at the Santa hat on the skel...