Other's Questions (11B)

While looking through the different questions on everyone’s blogs I saw many good college level questions. But a few stuck out as great questions too me.

The first one was by “stepphhr”. What is the relationship between creativity and people who have the greatest tolerance of uncertainty or boredom?

I think this question is great because it is specific to what it wants. There are no ambiguous words so what is desired for an answer is clear. It is easy to connect it to the reading through examples. And most importantly it is relevant to the subject or topic at hand.

The second question I thought was great is by “Jacqueline Reis”. What is the overnight test? How does not having enough time to reassess your work interfere with creativity?

I liked this question because of its simplicity. While you can write a lot on the topic the answer the author is looking for is very specific and relevant. Again it is clear and leaves the possibility to add examples.

The third great question was by “Kelsey Laudano”. What ways can parents, teachers or employers hinder a person’s creativity?

I think this is a great question because it has all the requirements of a college level question and even more. It is relevant to the topic, it’s clear and easy to connect examples to. However it goes a step further and relates the class work to real life. It is something everyone has experienced and can relate to.

This week’s activities have definitely helped me predict future quiz questions. Not in a way that I will be able to guess what exact questions will be on tests, but how to approach readings and assignments from a deeper level. I will no longer think of questions in the sense of what the article said but how the topics relate to the real world.

innovation (11V)

Google defines innovation as the “action or process of being innovative”, which is a pretty useless definition if you ask me. Innovation to me depends on the context. If someone is innovative then they are creative and have original thoughts and beliefs. If something is innovative then it is new and helpful to the world. Innovative is a synonym to creative because both mean a new original idea or creation.

Two words I learned this week are:

Activity Series: A listing of metals (and hydrogen) in order of decreasing activity

Amphiprotism: Ability of a substance to exhibit amphiprotism by accepting donated protons.

What's the question mean? (11A)

Before I give 4 good solid critical thinking questions I think it’s important to define what a good question has. The first aspect is relevance. A good question needs to be very relevant to the article or subject at hand. Second is the balance of specificity and broadness. If a question is too broad and too open-ended it’s easy to answer because you can write just about anything on a broad question. Secondly if a question is too specific the answer may be skewed with bias, or limit the persons imagination when it comes to the answer. And finally the wording of the question needs to be specific. You can’t have a question that has the possibility to mean two things or is ambiguous.

So here are some questions.

#1 In the “The joy of boredom” article it talks about how boredom is the gateway to creativity. How does creativity come from being bored? (Hint: what does one do when bored?)

#2 In the “The joy of boredom” article it says creative people have a higher tolerance for boredom. Is this true? Are they more creative than others or are the just differently creative?

#3 Technological advancements are taking up more of our spare time that we would normally be “bored”. One of the articles claims that this is a problem and is lowering our creativity. Is this true? Provide a personal scenario that is relevant to the lack of “boredom” blocking or halting our creativity.

#4 One article listed innovations that the author was looking forward to. Were there any unrealistic expectations? Any there any useless or worthless innovations? Amazing or life-changing?

               Answer to #2:

               I would say that people with a high tolerance for boredom are not more creative, but in fact just have a creative mind. A big imagination if you will. Others however think in different ways. For example we recently read of a woman who was doing poorly in school. And when presented to a psychiatrist she was discovered to be a dancer. Just because she couldn’t think in a chair or invent a new device doesn’t make her less creative than others. It’s just makes her creative in different ways.

Chase rules. (10I #4)

             This week I interviewed my R.A. Cam. He said that while there are many great benefits to being and R.A. such as free housing cost and a great experience to put on a resume, it also comes with a lot of hard work. They have to work the front desk, and while that’s not necessarily hard work, it is time consuming and required night shifts on occasion as well. They need to inspect rooms and make sure everything is up-to-code. They need to be sure everyone is getting along and that roommates aren’t in severe conflict. They also need to attend various meeting and be familiar with all the current codes and regulations. 

video (10A)

               I would give myself an A- on my midterm video post. While I believe it was well done and it did fulfill all of the requirements and I ran into many problems but only a few errors here and there. I think my video flowed, had a beginning middle and end, and most importantly kept the interest of a viewer. I did have some technical errors. One of them is that for two of the interviews there was no sound for some reason. Also I had to switch video makers because the first one was giving me problems such as not fitting things together properly and making a mess of all the material in imported. Overall though I overcame the technical issues and made a pretty good video. I clearly explained both the benefits of intramurals and the benefits of playing intramurals at southern.

               It was the proper length of time and had 3 student interviews and 1 staff interview. The interviews were hard to get because many people said standard things like “sports are fun” or “exercise is healthy”. You know the stuff everyone on earth already knows. I think I had a great intro, listing all the different intramurals southern offers, why southern is great to play intramurals and finally what benefits (besides fun and health) it brings to individuals involved.

               If I had more time the only revision I would make is spelling. I made a typo that I only noticed after it was submitted. While nothing is ever perfect I think I portrayed my topic well and included all of the requirements successfully. An A- is a fitting grade for this reason. There were only a few minor mistakes in my project and because of the many problems I ran into, both technical and in finding material, I feel it came out very well.

creativity (10V)

Creativity to me is the ability to have original ideas or create something original that has some use or relevance to the world. Everyone is creative in some way and it is my personal belief that everyone is equally creative. For example if you are a master painter you’re probably not as creative as most when It comes to inventing devices or having deep insights (mentally) about the world.

This week I learned two new words in chemistry.

Actual yield: the amount of product obtained in a laboratory experiment

Wave: A signal which propagates through space, much like a water wave moves through water.

a blessing or a curse? (10B)

               Everyone has their own side of creativity, some can draw well, others can sing, and some can play sports. However creativity is not necessarily unique to every individual. There have been many great painters and many great composers. I personally find myself to be a very philosophical person. I think deeply about the things that interest me. Many times that I share these thoughts people don’t understand me; this may be because I’m either a poor communicator or that my thoughts are too deep for people understand. I think it’s a combination of both (however I like to think it’s just the latter).

               Many people have realizations about their lives and the world, but I seem to have more than most along with the exploration of these thoughts. What mostly provokes my thoughts and deep insights is music. If I listen to the rights songs while relaxed I just think about well, infinite thoughts about anything. I had thoughts about the afterlife, if there is one, to why I did something as kid. I’ve had insights on why people shouldn’t have regrets, and how many factors go into the world being the way it is. I find thinking about life both enlightening and relaxing.

               That being said I don’t consider myself smarter or better than anyone because of my “talent” if you will. Instead I see myself as unique. When I took a personality test I found out I have the rarest personality on earth. In the descriptions for my personality it talked about how in my head (or rather people with my personality) I see things and understand many abstract concepts; however I cannot convey or illustrate them properly. In my classes I find myself having great insights about the lesson or discussion but when it comes to explaining them to the class I am unable to clearly explain myself. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

http://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html