At IVE we believe that human creativity generates the ideas that drive innovation. We respond directly to requests from young people to find creative solutions to real world challenges – with one of the most pressing right now being climate change.
We have developed the Applied Creativity Lab model in response, designed to empower young people to come up with their own creative and often STEM-related solutions. Last year, prior to Covid-19, we began by focusing on finding new ways to reduce air pollution in Leeds with pupils from John Smeaton Academy, Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School and Manor Wood Primary.
Cultivating creative minds
We believe that innovative ideas come from creative mind-sets and that creative mind-sets and young entrepreneurs can be cultivated by following a process we developed called Applied Creativity Lab, which includes:
- Clarifying the task
- Thinking divergently for ideas
- Choosing an idea to develop
- Thinking convergently to plan
- Doing it in practice
- Refining it to improve it
- Presenting it to an audience
- Reviewing the process
As we worked with young people on the Ideation stage of our Applied Creativity Lab on Air Pollution, we reflected on the different aspects of cultivating creative mind-sets and asked ourselves these additional questions:
- How do we best enable young people to develop their ideas?
- How do we ensure high motivation to find new solutions?
- How does the group environment individuals are working in affect their capacity for ideas development? What does this look and feel like?
- How can we support individuals and groups to talk, listen to each other and work together to develop their ideas and ways to communicate them to others?
- How do we frame the challenge, keep individuals focused and encourage persistence when they hit idea blocks?
Learning what works
Pupil from St Matthews CofE School applying his creative mindset in science
Knowing and applying school rules for getting young people to stop, listen and focus and having strong teacher support during the session is key, especially when young people are eager and excited to be engaged in the creativity training activities.
Expert advice and support was provided by our team of industry and research professionals from Leeds City Council, the University of Leeds, Magpie Creative Agency, Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, Sustrans & Mott MacDonald all of whom gave their time to deliver informative challenge- specific presentations to the young people. This is a vital and inspiring element of the labs that place the exercise in real-time with an added careers value.
Feedback from schools
Teachers commented:
‘After a fantastic introductory whole year group session last week, both myself and the children were incredibly excited to start thinking of ideas to promote clean air today. Before the project began, I naturally thought about different children of varying abilities and wondered who would be fully engaged with the project. What I have noticed in this session is that ALL children were fully engaged in the sharing of ideas.’
‘It was refreshing to observe the children grab the opportunity of being creative thinkers. So often at school they are bound by structured lessons and before embarking on long writes, we give them model texts and guide them through a series of activities.’
The Industry and Research panel at the (friendly) Dragons Den pitch event
We supported and observed young people throughout the Ideation phase, and watched with interest to see how they rose to the ultimate challenge of arriving at their final ideas, how they developed their concepts and then planned to present them back to the Industry Panel at the Dragons Den style pitch event at Leeds Town Hall. They all really enjoyed the presentations and after much deliberation selected a few ideas to be taken on the next stage of development – including an online game, an app, an air purifier, an eco-bike and a green wall idea! Young people from all three schools have asked if they can do it again!
ACL Divergent Thinking exercise exploring ideas to reduce air pollution in Leeds
For any teacher wanting to put young people in the creative driving-seat I suggest that they work through one or more of the eight stages of the Applied Creativity Lab process with students in their lessons.
Rosi Lister is CEO and Sarah Mumford is Programme Director at IVE.
For more information or how to get involved with IVE’s Applied Creativity Labs, please contact Sarah Mumford.