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Show s I - s - Standard-Examin- and Lakeside Review, Tuesday, er 9 April 10, 1990 f The grid Visualization: picture it to success Effective problem solvers use every tool at their disposal. One trick of the problem solving trade involves using pictures: graphs, charts, visual organizers, mental images, even doodles! This is called visualization. Visualization or picturing strategies can help you organize, manage, and make sense of the problems. To see how it works, consider the following problem and the grid that can help solve it. Gerry, Holly and Joe each ate something different for breakfast. One had cereal, one had eggs, and one had French toast. Joe did not have eggs or French toast. Holly did not have eggs. What did each person eat? Problems like this can give you a major headache unless ou use a grid like this one to ring them under control. The grid works like this: Joe did not have eggs or French toast, so put an x in those boxes. By process of elimination then Joe must have had cereal; place an o in the cereal spot by Joes name. Now, if Joe had cereal, neither Holly nor Gerry did. Under each girls name, place an x. Next clue: Holly did not have eggs. She must have eaten French toast; place an o under French toast for Holly. So, who ate the eggs? with permission from Reprinted Pacific Grove. Midwest Publications. fyt ( You can use the grid below for Problem 1. If you want to continue to Problem 2, make your own grid on another piece of paper. Then, you might want to write a problem of your own and try it out on a friend. The answers to these two problems appear on page 16. Problem 1 Larry, Cheryl and Bob liked to eat different foods for breakfast. One liked to eat muffins, another toast and , another bananas. Larry did not like to eat either muffins or bananas. Cheryl did not like to eat muffins. Who liked bananas? Problem 2 John, Peter and Michele play on the high school intramural soccer team. One plays goalkeeper, another is center halfback, and the other is center forward. John and the goalkeeper both celebrated Micheles birthday with her. John is not the center halfback. What position does each person play on the soccer team? ' Inductive Thinking Skills. California Strategies for steering around a mental roadblock incubates the problem for a time, new and exciting ideas seem to appear almost magically. Creativity researchers refer to this as an Aha or Eureka experience. Has a great idea ever occurred to you out of the blue, maybe while you were brushing your teeth? Sometimes, when people brainstorm for a time, they begin to run out of ideas. Researchers who study creativity describe this as hitting the wall. What a frustrating feeling! What do you do then? Incubation Imaging When this happens, one strategy is to walk away from the problem completely. Taking time out gives the brain a chance to relax and, at the same time, to subconsciously process new ideas. This strategy is called incubation. After the brain Another strategy imaging taps the brains create to power strong mental pictures. Consider the following problem and see how imaging ' works. Suppose two people are playing golf. Close your eyes and picture a sunny day. And miles of manicured greens. And little flags fluttering at each hole. Suddenly, one player swings and the ball lands in a hole deep. How can he retrieve the ball and continue the game? Picture the golf ball. Round and white, wedged in that space deep in the ground. Picture it rising up. Higher and higher. Out of the hole! How did it get out? When you are ready, open your eyes and work with a partner to list on a separate sheet of paper as many solutions as you 10-fe- et involves closing your eyes and focusing intensely on a mental movie of the problem. Imaging helps you relax. Relaxing helps the brain work more effectively. It is very difficult to think creatively when you are feeling stressed or anxious. , can. You have just used the imaging strategy, which If the imaging idea feels comfortable, use the technique next time you prepare for a big test. Review your notes in your minds eye. Create visual pictures. As you take the test, close your eyes and recall these same mental pictures. Many students use imaging as part of their solution to the problem of getting good grades in school! S |