A guide to the scamper technique for creative thinking. The acronym, scammperr, below is based on that model. In essence, scamper is a generalpurpose checklist with ideaspurring. Rather than thinking original ideas, this tool provokes us to gather ideas from divergent fields, manipulate and fuse them into our requirements. This specific activity requires them to critically analyze a frequente. The name scamper is an acronym for several actions.
Thinking creatively with scamper scamper is one of the most useful techniques in the creative thinking toolbox, and is widely used in all kinds of creative thinking. Jackson the scamper strategy is one of the most popular creati. Scamper a simple method to increase creative thinking. Alex osborn, credited by many as the originator of brainstorming, originally came up with many of the questions used in the technique. The key to generating your best ideas is to break the process into two steps. One of the successful methods used in creative thinking is the scamper technique. Bob eberle summarized these approaches in a handy mnemonic in his book scamper. Substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another. Creative games and activities for imagination development at.
Scamper with blucy yes, i am writing about the book blucy by julia. While there are different creative thinking and problemsolving techniques such as reversed brainstorming, hursons thinking model, the six hats of. Ideation is at the heart of the design thinking process. Created by bob eberle, an author of books about creativity for children aimed at teachers, scamper is a set of seven thinking techniques mean to assist those who utilize them in discovering atypical solutions to problems.
Individuals and teams have been using scamper to produce an abundance of ideas, both in quantity and variety, since the 1950s. Creative games and activities for imagination development eberle, bob on. Teach your students scamper to improve their creative thinking and problem solving abilities. Use the scamper creative thinking exercise to generate brilliant new ideas and creative breakthroughs. A meaning of scamper as a word, dictionary meaning, is to run with quick light steps especially in the presence of either fear or excitement. There is a niche for a new product, service or feature but the team doesnt have a concept of what it might be. Employing the scamper method to give your team a creative. How to generate ideas using scamper creativity tool. Bob eberle, an author of books on creativity for young people, introduced the scamper mnemonic in 1971 in his book scamper. However, it was bob eberle 1977, 1996, an education administrator and author, who organized these questions into the scamper mnemonic. Its designed to get you thinking and asking questions about your existing products, processes, and services, based on each. This book comprehensively covers topics in knowledge management and. State a problem youd like to solve or an idea youd like to develop.
This is a game where you will be asked to scamper about, but you really will not run around. What can i substitute or change in my product, problem or process. The scamper technique or scamper approach enables companies to come up with, develop and or improve products andor services. In this book, youll learn all about design thinking. This is a sample of one individual activity from my scamper packet. Scamper technique is an idea manipulation tool to guide us in generating diverse ideas. Each of the seven letters in scamper is the initial letter for the word phrases making up the checklist used to create the scamper games. This product features 9 scamper activities in which students design a new instrument. The activities in this packet provide scenarios for students to apply scamper in order to create and invent new ideas. Using scamper tool is so very compelling for carrying out brainstorm that too, in a structured manner not restrictive, yet in an organized way. There are literally hundreds of ideation techniques, for example brainstorming, sketching, scamper, and prototyping. Combinethink about combining two or more parts of your problem to create a different product or process or to enhance their synergy. In 1971, educational expert bob eberle described the term scamper in his book games for imagination development.
The most powerful ideas require teamwork, creative thinking and different perspectives. Free sample scamper activity by gifted goodies and. Design thinking is a customeroriented innovation approach that aims to generate and develop creative business ideas or entire business models. The scamper method helps you generate ideas for new products and services. Find out more about the rethinking design thinking movement by joining the book related discussion group relaunching here on linkedin. The title of this book is an acronym that serves to describe the mental activity the games of the book are intended to bring about. Use the scamper technique with your students to apply creative thinking and problem solving skills. These top design thinking books can help you learn more about the design thinking process and gain valuable tools, insights, and resources to help empower your organization to innovate creatively and become a leader in your industry. A handbook of creative thinking techniques, the scamper technique is presented here as a supplement to the public health foundation phf book public health quality improvement encyclopedia. It was created by bob eberle in the early 70s, and it definitely stood the test of time. Catalyze your inventive thinking with scamper ideas are the building blocks of innovation. Scamper and the 40 principles design thinking toronto.
Develop your students imaginations through a series of guided activities in which they imagine different events or things. Introduction to the essential ideation techniques which are the heart of design thinking. Creative thinking scamper activities become an inventor. The scamper activity creates a structured approach to creative thinking. It helps you come up with ideas for new products by encouraging you to find ways to improve your existing products. Scamper is a lateral thinking technique which challenges the status quo and helps you explore new possibilities. While each one has its advantages and disadvantages, its important that the design generates as many ideas or solutions as they can before moving to the next step and building prototypes.
These keywords represent a set of questions that will lead the team to creative and divergent thinking on an easy way. Scamper is a technique you can use to spark your creativity and help you overcome any challenge you may be facing. Brand consultancy, graphic design, data visualisation and illustration in perth. How to use the scamper creativity technique to come up with new and different ideas and thinking based on the work of alex osborn and bob eberle. Scamper this is an ideation method that will help the team to create a great amount of ideas in a short time. Scamper is an acronym that provides a structured way of assisting students to think out of the. This book is meant to be a follow up on our previously published book. One more thing before we proceed with the three techniques six thinking hats, walt disneys creative strategy, and scamper.
The scamper methodology, first proposed by advertising executive and socalled father of brainstorming alex osborne in the 1950s, remains a goto for creative professionals today. Scamper is an acronym for seven thinking techniques that help those who use them come up untypical solutions to problems. In essence, scamper is a generalpurpose checklist with ideaspurring questions which is both easy to use and surprisingly powerful. Scamper is an acronym for seven techniques ssubstitute. Instructional designdivergent thinkingscamper wikiversity. These questions help you come up with creative ideas for developing new products, and for improving current ones. A great deal of creative thinking involves combining previously unrelated ideas, goods. The scamper brainstorming technique uses a set of directed questions to resolve a. Promotes creative thinking and students have a blast designing and creating a new instrument.
Scamper is an easy concept to implement individually, however, the purpose of this article is to discuss scamper techniques for improving productivity within an organization. First there is divergence coming up with a large number of ideas. Michalko created a model to help people explore problems and potential solutions from different angles in order to establish the best solution. The thinking techniques are so common to human creative behavior that it might be more accurate to call scamper a mnemonic for the collection of techniques rather than a technique of its own. Expose students to creative thinking processes complete a teambased creative thinking exercise using the scamper method lesson overview. Storyboards do not have to be amazing works of comic book art, so. Creative thinking and problemsolving are essential parts of the design process to turn ideas into innovation and break the barriers against creativity. Scamper refers to a series of thought sparkers or provocations which help. Students are challenged to think creatively to develop their power of imagination. A great deal of creative thinking involves combining previously unrelated ideas, goods, or services to create something new. Scamper is a creative thinking technique that helps students imagine the world in a completely new way.
To get past that feeling, catalyze your thinking using scamper, a set of seven powerful, proven idea generators. Scamper is a creative thinking and problemsolving method that is used during brainstorming sessions. The thinking techniques are so common to human creative behavior that it might be. His book scamper is out of print but a followup scamper on is available. In this blog post, i explain how to use it and also provide you with two free resources you can use to get the most out of this powerful creative thinking technique during the last several decades, one of the most widely used and successful brainstorming techniques ever has been scamper. Good books books to read my books creative thinking design thinking sr1 co design design blogs graphic design. With that said, scamper in itself is a selfimprovement technique and is more difficult to implement in a. You use the tool by asking questions about existing products, using each of the seven prompts above. Invented by bob eberle, and popularised in books like thinkertoys, heres how scamper can unpick the lock on the creative treasure chest in your mind. Scamper is a technique used by successful companies and individuals to create new products and to improve their services. Scamper thinking skills printable freebie scamper is a creative thinking tool to help develop product ideas. Scamper in design thinking and engineering bvbhatt.
These activities are great for gifted and talented children. We are going to play a game called scamper from the book scamper, games for imagination development by bob eberle, 1996 which uses the components of divergent thinking you discussed with your elbow partner. Scamper technique is a process improvement tool that helps teams improve existing processes or create new ones. With the scamper method, your team can harness everyones point of view to improve on ideas and reach the best decisions.
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