POOR INVENTIONS

Home / POOR INVENTIONS

Recommended age : 8-18 years
Place: Indoors
Time required: 10-30 min, depending on the group size

Material/tools: Pieces of paper with verbs and nouns
Purpose: Getting started, having fun together
Where in the process: Anytime it is needed

ABOUT THE METHOD

‘’Poor Inventions‘’ is an icebreaker, a way to start up a workshop and have a laugh together, create a good atmosphere and get the imagination going. Sometimes it can be hard to get started creating. When ideas don’t flow naturally, it can feel like pressure to get creative and come up with ideas. This exercise makes creativity unpretentious. If the group is struggling and are stuck , it can be liberating. It can also be used as an entry point to talk about what creativity is – that it’s not actually about inventing completely new things, but about combining things you know in new ways.

REPARATIONS

Write verbs and nouns on slips of paper, one word per slip, dividing the two categories with different colours. You can download our words here (link), where the verbs are blue and the nouns are green, and cut them apart. Put the two categories in different bowls. Make sure there are enough notes so that each child gets one note from each bowl.

HOW TO DO IT

The instructions you give the children are:

Pick one note each from both bowls.
Write down the words you got on the note.
Now the challenge is to come up with the worst possible invention by combining these two words! For example, if you got ‘fly’ and ‘tap’, you could end up with a tap that flies away when it senses you are thirsty.
When you have come up with your bad invention, write down your idea on the note, explaining why it is so bad.

Share your new inventions with the group – there will be lots of laughs!

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT

The most important thing about this method is to have fun!

THE METHOD AS PART OF THE DESIGN PROCESS

This method can be used whenever the mood needs to be lightened, the imagination kicked into gear or when you just need a break and a laugh.

Tip box

Creativity is really just putting two things you know together, but in a new way.

download

Here you can download the collected material for the method. On the one hand, the actual paper with instructions, and on the other hand, our suggestion of words you can use.