Creative Problem Solving Activities

Video Transcript

"So what are some creative problem-solving activities? Hi, I'm Jimmy Chang. I've been teaching college math for nine years, and the more you can relate to the students, the more they could be...relate to the subject matter that it is that you're teaching. So here are some examples of things that you can use for creative problem-solving activities. One such example is money. Many, many students can relate to money because it's something that they use on an everyday basis, whether it be depositing, withdrawing, subtracting money, spending money, multiplying money -- anything involving currency is something that they can relate to fairly quickly. Folks can also relate to food, so if you talk about problems involving pizzas or calorie content in hamburgers or salads, it's something that they can definitely relate to as well because they consume it on an everyday basis. Other areas that you can use when it comes to creative problem-solving activities is the use of celebrities. Even the mentions of names will help because, oftentimes, students and people will be able to relate to the...and recognize celebrity names, and they'll be able to put them into equations and problems a lot easier. And lastly, uses of popular landmarks, whether it be the Sears Tower, the Sphinx -- anything like that. If you want to find out the ages or how long or how tall these landmarks are, at least it gives them something to identify with so they can make a connection to the problem and the process of solving it. And they'll find a much easier time with those kinds of problems that they recognize. So I'm Jimmy Chang, and there are some strategies to creative problem-solving activities."