SCAMPER Skills
- d Kelly
- Jan 10, 2016
- 3 min read
A teacher asked me this week how I teach SCAMPER Skills in my classroom. Since it's a question I get fairly often, I thought I'd document it here in case it mght be helpful to folks.
Generally, I engage my primary students in Cognition Training by providing instruction on discrete skills, aiming first at Creative Thinking skills featured in the SCAMPER collection.
“First proposed by Alex Osborne in 1953, this thinking strategy was further developed by Bob Eberle and noted in his 1971 book, SCAMPER: Games for Imagination Development. Eberle states that much as the word scamper suggests “running playfully about as a child”, the strategy SCAMPER may also evoke the need “to run playfully about in one’s mind in search of ideas” (Eberle, 1984).”
S = Substitute
C = Combine
A = Adapt
M = Modify Magnify Minify
P = Put to Other uses
E = Eliminate
R = Rearrange Reverse
I usually start with a few of what I call "Helper Skills" including Attribute Listing, Describe, and Planning. One of my favorite activities to teach Attribute Listing is called Attribute Socks (https://www.piecesoflearning.com/index.php?route=product/download/download&product_download_id=5487). Since we live in FL and don’t often wear long socks, I usually use brown paper lunch bags… each labeled with a letter (A, B, C, etc.) and stapled shut at the top. The paper bags are flexible enough to let kids really feel the objects inside.
Order: When we’re ready to move into the SCAMPER Skills, I usually start with the most concrete skills first: Combine, Substitute, Put to Other Uses.
Progression: We usually cover 2 SCAMPER Skills each class. Once we have 4 under our belt, we usually do an activity which will engage us in applying all of the skills we’ve covered so far. This gives us some time to review before moving on Then, the next class, we continue with our next skill.
Keeping Track: For many years, I kept a progressive visual record of our thinking skills by creating a Mind Map which we added to each week. In the center was a tool box icon – since we liken thinking skills to tools we use when we’re thinking and each new thinking skill was added to our map as we learned about them. With the advent of cell phones and iPads and such, I switched to a new way to keep track of our skills, the iThink Pad. Now we begin with a blank “cell phone” graphic and we add new “apps” every time we add thinking skills. (We will leave for another day the discussion of humanity’s shift from hands-on tools to electronic-tools and the pros and cons of that shift.) I’ve used the iThink Pad with 1st and 2nd graders. We’ve used a construction paper representation of the blank iPhone/iPad, adding paper cut-out “apps”. But my favorite way is to use our presentation/projector software (ActivInspire) to create the graphic on our Promethean Board. Once we’ve complete the set of SCAMPER Skills, I color print our iPhone onto cardstock and have them laminated so that the kids can use them at their work spaced.
SCAMPER Activities: I’m often asked where the individual activities I use for teaching each SCAMPER skill comes from. Over the years I’ve used activities from books, websites, things I’ve made up, ... you name it.
Here are a few books I've used in the past:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Thinkers-Toolbox-Practical-Thinking/dp/B000UZ703K This book is an old favorite... it isn't focused on SCAMPER Skills, but a whole colleciton of critical and creative thinking skills.
If you're interested, there are several free SCAMPER downloads in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Hope that helps!
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