Switch Monsters and Creativity in the Classroom

 
A couple of months ago I read an article on Newsweek titled ‘The Creativity Crisis’. The article brought to light some interesting facts about creativity scores in America and their significant demise during the last two decades. Kyung Hee Kim who is a researcher at the College of William & Mary and who is mentioned in the article, found out that creativity scores (CQ) have consistently inched downward since 1990.  One of the arguments made in the article is that ‘creativity should be taken out of the art room’, pointing out that we should stop associating creativity development with art classes and integrate it in other domains that include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) standards.
 
After reading the article I began to explore different ways curricula can support creativity in STEM domains, so when Paola Guimerans one of the Lead After-School Mentors at Quest to Learn invited me in her class last week, to help kids build ‘switch monsters’ made out of soft circuits, I decided to write a post about it. The  After-School program is centered around creativity and innovation and has been designed to support a range of STEM standards.

The day i came in the classroom the kids were about to start making a switch that would light up some device or character they would come up with. We tentatively named the project ‘switch monsters’. At that point the kids had spent some days tinkering with materials, had already learned how to attach an LED to a 9V battery and had created various creatures made out of legos, clay and paper. For the switch project they were given markers, paper, tape and a zip log bag that contained a battery, an LED, a scrap of conductive fabric and three alligator clips. Their only instruction was that they had to use all the materials to create something (a monster, airplane, interactive high five machine) that would use a switch to light up an LED.  As happens with kids, they fearlessly dived into the project and began drawing out their inventions, cutting pieces of paper and attaching LED ‘s to alligator clips. Eventually things started to light up and then one or two of the kids started figuring out how to make the switch, which led to confidence in the room and more kids figuring out how to put everything together. Eventually the room looked like a cabinet of wonders, filled with wildly imaginative switches. Tigerlilly’s cat creature, whose nose lights up when she smells a flower (see below) is one example.

It fascinates me to watch creativity being born, so I took a moment while in the class and observed how enjoyable the experience was for all the kids in the space. When i say enjoyable, I am describing a situation were the group is having such a high quality experience that it keeps everybody motivated throughout. Moreover, kids are not working on something because they have to complete an assignment, but because they genuinely are engaged in what they are doing- it’s inconceivable for them at that moment to think of something else they would rather be doing.

Now the interesting thing was that the above experience, of pure creative joy, had them struggling. They had to make a switch from scratch, without any instructions, by tinkering with the materials and exploring the possibilities of all the possible connections between the different components of the system. They had to fail again and again to make their switch, they had to take risks, challenge themselves to gain skills and knowledge they do not necessarily have and finally get exposed to the critiques of their peers. I know many adults that would flunk the task. But what made these middle-schoolers enjoy this painful, risky and difficult activity?

In his book ‘Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention’ , Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the above optimal creative situation as a ‘flow experience’.  To explain why such an experience can be so enjoyable, even if it is challenging to accomplish, he lists nine reasons. I will mention a couple of those in this post, that I think are relative to what was happening in the classroom;

There are clear goals every step of the way
The creative process starts with the notion that there is a puzzle somewhere or a task to be accomplished; A need to figure out how something works. In our case, the kids had to make a creature that used a switch to light up an LED. The goal was embedded in their assignment and was also very clear and tangible.

There is immediate feedback to one’s creations
Csikszentmihalyi says that ‘in a flow experience we know how well we are doing’ along the process. This was key for the kids during the creation of their switch projects; they got constant  feedback along the way- the switch worked or did not work, the Led lit up or flickered for a while before it went dark again, the pieces of paper and tape either stuck together or fell apart.

There is balance between challenges and skills
This was also very important to create the flow experience. The task was challenging and involved a lot of risk taking but allowed space for the use of pre-existing knowledge and tinkering. This allowed for kids to build confidence in their actions and move towards discovering how the circuit works by themselves, since the task was not too easy or too hard.

Action and awareness are combined
Csikszentmihalyi frames this very nicely so I am going to use his exact words;’ In flow our concentration is  focused on what we do. One pointedness of mind is required by the close match between challenges and skills, and it is made possible by the clarity of goals and the constant availability of feedback’

The sense of time becomes distorted
As the class was coming to an end Paula, one  of the students who was rushing to finish her ‘mini me’ creature, turned to me suddenly and with a look of terror in her eyes, asked me ‘ Is it six already?’ , without even waiting for me to reply she sighted to herself ‘ I could stay here another two hours ’. She turned back to her creature and without wasting any time continued with her project.

At that moment it seemed to me, that Switch Monsters had won a battle against ‘The Creativity Crisis’.