space.discussion.Thinking+Flexibly

The ability to stretch or bend your mind and thoughts to solve the issue at hand.
September 5 2009

For this assignment, our group was instructed to create a scientific procedure to determine the amount of salt needed to make a golf ball float. This procedure was created throughout the third week of school.

Thinking flexibly, a skill that we all find difficult to obtain and use, was a key aspect of successfully completing this piece of work. We were presented with a challenge that our group had not experienced before. There was no standard protocol or set of directions as to how to create this procedure, a situation I am not usually put in. My group and I brainstormed many possible ideas as to how to determine such a thing, but met little success. At this point I realized there was no clear cut answer to this issue, and that my group and I would be forced to bend, stretch, think out of the box, and come up with an idea original and new- hence, thinking flexibly. Though we all had many different ideas and proposals, we had to make compromises and find the best ideas from each person’s suggestions to find the proper way of going about our challenge. For example, one group member believed we would solve the issue by doing the obvious solution of simply adding salt until the proper amount was apparently met, while other group members disagreed and thought that an actual mathematical calculation and prediction would better fit the requirements of our situation. Eventually we came to a compromise of adding the salt in bit by bit to determine a linear rule as to how the density of the water changes, and then add a predicted amount. In this situation, we were forced to go beyond our own ideas, and stretch to see others’, as well as formulate a new unique way of going about a unique assignment. I believe that thinking flexibly will become more habitual and natural as the year goes on, especially with the upcoming experiments and chances to experience difficult challenges.

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