All about SCAMPER

I feel like as a society there is so much focus on quantity, but less on depth.  Not necessarily because teachers, administrators or society is shallow, but just because we are constantly asked to do more in less time.  Not that long ago I listened to a TED talk by  Sir Ken Robinson about how school kills creativity.  As a teacher, the title hurt, but as a parent I got it.  There is a lot to go over, we have a long list of facts and skills we are expected to cover in 180, 47 minute class periods.  One of the most profound things I head during the talk was "The kids that are entering kindergarten today will leave the work force around 2070."  He then went on to say, "how can we possibly prepare them for that with facts when who knows what the facts will be then." 

I can distinctly remember my very intelligent father helping me all of the time with my history, math, physics, and literature homework.  But, when it came to biology, chemistry, civics, geography, he felt that too much had changed since he went to school, for him to be able to help me.  Granted he taught me how to research, ask questions and figure out the problems, but the facts he learned were not really so useful anymore. 

Unfortunately, state and national standards are very fact heavy, but when we are thinking about creating tomorrow’s pioneers and workers, we must recognize that the facts are dynamic and evolving.  Thus, as a biology teacher, I must emphasize critical thinking, and not just the facts.

One of my favorite critical thinking strategies to use with my students is SCAMPER.  It is an acronym that stands for the following:

S=Substitute  Could you substitute some part for something else?  Could your plan be used in place of something else?
C = Combine  Are the steps in the process that can be combined?  Are there organs in a system that could be combined? 
A = Adapt  How might you adapt or change your topic, plan, invention to do something else or better survive?
M = Modify How can you modify a certain aspect of your topic, invention..?
P = Put to other uses.  How could you invention, plan, organ ect. be used in a different way than it normal is used?
E= Eliminate  is there a part that can be taken out?  If so how would this effect the entire product, plan, function of the system. 
R= Reverse/Rearrange  What would happen if you reversed the order or changed the order in some way.

I did not invent this process and it is used in a variety of settings.  Here is a great link to look more at the strategy:  http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_02.htm What I do have to share is two units I have designed using SCAMPER as the framework for students to think deeply about a topic.  I have created In depth plans for how to use SCAMPER when looking at Hurricane Katrina and with the Digestive System. 

Hurricane SCAMPER critical thinking lesson design: $3.00

SCAMPER is a wonderful tool for pushing kids to think critical on a particular item or concept. S=substitute C=combine A= adapt M = modify P=put to other uses E=eliminate R= reverse or rearrange the order. In this packet I have provided the SAMPER student assignment/rubric, a weeks’ worth of detailed lesson plans, links to helpful websites, and pictures of student projects and research. The entire assignment is geared towards hurricane Katrina but it could easily be done with other major hurricanes.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hurricane-SCAMPER-critical-thinking-lesson-design

Digestive System Alternative Creative Assessments $1

Are you tired of assessing just through a test? Do you have a group of students who need a new and exciting way to demonstrate their knowledge? I found myself in this situation when teaching about the digestive system in the middle of my human body systems unit. I had a group of very high level learners and thinkers. I wanted them to have a variety of ways to demonstrate their content mastery. In this packet, you will find four ways students can prove to you they know the basics (and usually) a lot more about the digestive system. I have also included a detailed set of directions for SCAMPER’ing the digestive system.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Digestive-System-Alternative-Creative-Assessments