Brainstorming Ideas

This lesson was developed for The 2025 Tech Challenge: Gravitate to Navigate. 

Develop brainstorming and research skills which can be applied to any problem.

Materials 

Each session in this activity uses three different brainstorming strategies. Students will have a chance to use and reflect on at least two of these strategies. 

Brainstorming Strategies PDF 

• See the Brainstorming Strategies PDF above for descriptions of the strategies and some accompanying student handouts.

See the table below for the recommended materials and related strategies.  

Preparation

1. Draw the creativity diamond (Discover and Refine) on the board or chart paper. See Image Below
2. Prepare materials for each of the brainstorming strategies. Make sure there are multiple sets of materials for each strategy to accommodate your class size.
   • Example: if you have 8 teams, you might prepare 3 sets of Picture Brainstorm, 3 sets of Storytelling and 2 sets of Mash-Up for Session 1.
3. Try using the brainstorming strategies yourself, with other educators or students you know. This will allow you to anticipate student questions.

Session 1 Directions 

Frame the Activity

Activate Prior Knowledge (10 min) 

1. Start by asking learners how they think engineers and other professionals come up with solutions to the problems they face daily.
   • Where do they think good ideas come from?
   • How does this work in a team or group?
2. Let learners know that today they are going to be exploring strategies for brainstorming ideas. They will be working in teams to develop a solution to a design prompt they will be given.
   • If they are participating in The Tech Challenge, tell them they will be working in their Tech Challenge teams.
3. Have students consider why they think brainstorming is an important step in the engineering design process. If they do not mention the following in their responses, make sure they are aware that brainstorming:
   • Can help break down the problem.
   • Is a method for generating and discovering lots of ideas that can then be narrowed down or expanded upon.
   • Provides an opportunity for blue-sky thinking, or including creative ideas that are unrestrained by practicalities.
   • Helps groups develop a shared vision on how to move forward.
4. Ask students for suggestions of class guidelines to ensure everyone is able to share their ideas. Write the list on the board or chart paper.
   • Example: Give everyone a couple minutes to brainstorm individually before sharing their thoughts with the whole group.

Introduce the Process (10 min) 

1. Point learners' attention to the creativity diamond on the board or chart paper.
   
   
2. Tell learners that while they are brainstorming, they will be using two different processes called discovering and refining. (In design thinking this is sometimes called divergent and convergent thinking.)
   • Explain that they will start by discovering lots of ideas, or exploring the question as many ways as they can.
     • Let them know that this is where the blue-sky stage of thinking takes place. Their goal is to generate lots of ideas, even wild and crazy ones.
   • Once the team has compiled a lot of ideas, they will then switch to practicing refining, or narrowing all their thoughts down to a couple possible solutions they can then prototype.
3. Let the learners know that teams will be assigned one of three possible brainstorming strategies. 
4. Introduce all of the brainstorming strategies for Session 1: 

For more details on see the Brainstorming Strategies PDF  

Prompts

Choose one of these design prompts or use your own: 

Brainstorming Ideas

Brainstorming (20 min) 

1. Have learners get into their Tech Challenge teams.
   • If the class is not preparing for the Tech Challenge, have them get into teams of 3-4.
2. Pass out the brainstorming strategy materials. 
   • Each team will get the materials for one type of brainstorming strategy.
   • Try to split the strategies equally among groups. 
     • Example: If there are 9 groups, pass out 3 sets of each strategy.
3. Ask learners to first brainstorm independently for 5 minutes. Let them know when the time is up.
4. Have learners spend the remaining time brainstorming with the rest of their team.
   • Encourage learners to build on each other’s thoughts and consider how they can combine different ideas into more powerful solutions.

Share Solutions (10 min) 

1. Have the teams take turns sharing their brainstorming process.
   • What are your favorite solution(s) so far?
   • Tell us about your team’s experience brainstorming together.
   • Was this brainstorm strategy effective at helping your team generate lots of ideas?
     • Why or why not?
2. After each team shares, invite the other students to give positive feedback and encourage them to share suggestions.

Refine an Idea (10 min) 

1. As a final step during this session, teams will narrow their focus to a list of 1-3 ideas to research during the next session. 
   • Remind students that they do not need to reject ideas just because they seem impossible. During the next session they will research their ideas more closely. 
   • Instead encourage them to select the ideas that spark their interest enough to investigate them more closely.
2. Teams should return to their groups and rank their top three ideas as a team. 
   • It may be useful to have students vote or choose their favorite ideas invididually before they discuss as a team.
   • Encourage them to write down their choices and the reasons why they made these decisions so they have the information in the next session.
3. If time remains have each team share the idea they plan to research in the next session.  

Session 2 Directions

Research

Review the Problem (5 min) 

1.  Start by reviewing the problem and brainstorming strategies from Session 1.
   • Their goal is to find a solution for (design problem here).
   • They discovered lots of ideas and also refined them down to a few solutions to explore more.
2. Address any lingering question learners may have about the problem or the brainstorming strategy they used in Session 1.
3. Ask learners what they think their next step might be for developing their solution.
   • What do engineers do after they have collaborated on some initial ideas?
   • What else might your team need to do before building a prototype?
4. Let them know that today their goal is to practice doing research and development (R&D).
   • They will start by learning more about the problem and the solution(s) they brainstormed in Session 1 by conducting research.
   • Then they will develop their ideas further by incorporating what they find into a second round of brainstorming with a new strategy.

Conduct Research (20 min)

1. Ask students to get back into their teams from Session 1.
2. Have teams get out their engineering or The Tech Challenge journals and record what they find in their research.
3. Ask Guiding Questions to help teams that are stuck on what to explore.
   • Does this solution already exist in the real world
   • How have other people solved this problem? 
   • What kinds of materials are used to solve the problem? 
4. Encourage teams to split into smaller groups so they can research different solutions.
5. Let teams know when there is only a few minutes left. Ask them to return to their full team so they can share what they discovered.

Share Out (10 min)

1. Have the teams take turns sharing some of the biggest findings from their research.
   • What were you able to discover about your idea
   • How did the information you found support your idea? How does it refute or challenge your idea?
   • What excited you most in your research?
   • How can you build on this information in your next brainstorm? 
2. Some teams may have discovered other tests or prototypes of the same idea they had. For other teams, the background information on their idea may be limited. 
3. If additional time remains, invite a discussion around how scientists, engineers, and designers credit and build on the ideas of others.

Development

Brainstorm More Ideas (20 min)

1. Let students know that their next step is to do a second round of brainstorming. This will help them incorporate what they have gathered from their research into the solutions they developed in Session 1.
2. Introduce all of the brainstorming strategies for the second brainstorm:
   

   Materials Investigation *Requires engineering materials

   Mind Map

   Educator's Choice!  Choose your favorite strategy or look through our resources for another option.

3. Pass out the brainstorming strategy materials. 
   • Like Session 1, each team will get the materials for one type of brainstorming strategy.
   • Continue to encourage teams to develop Mild, Medium and Spicy versions of their ideas.
4. Let the teams know when the time is up.

Debrief (5 min)

1. Wrap up the session by asking students to reflect on how they came up with creative ideas. Possible Debrief Questions could include:
   • Was it challenging to generate and discover a lot of ideas? What helped you come up with them?
   • How did  you refine your ideas? What strategies helped you narrow in on a solution? 
   • What was it like to collaborate on a solution with others? How did you decide how to proceed as a team?
   • If we were to do this again, which brainstorming strategy would you pick? Why?

Standards Connections

Vocabulary