When Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, was a schoolboy, he was terrible at math because whenever the teacher had him write a number on the chalkboard, he saw something different. The number four looked like a nose to him and he kept doodling until he filled in the rest of the face. The number 1 looked like a tree, 9 looked like a person walking against the wind, and 8 resembled an angel. Everyone else in the classroom saw numbers on the chalkboard; Picasso perceived a variety of different images.
Creativity, no matter which of its many definitions you favor, requires looking at the world in a different way and trying fresh approaches to problems. An easy way to shake up your thinking is to think metaphorically. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that means one thing is used to describe an object or idea to which it is not literally applicable - a ship to plow the sea, for example, or a lover’s lane described as a ribbon of moonlight.
The ability to think metaphorically increases the likelihood that one can appreciate it in a new light, which, in turn, may lead to solutions that might not otherwise be anticipated.The American research team struggling to understand the theories of superconductivity worked in conjunction with a dance troupe to see if they could grasp the choreography of how sub-atomic particles paired and interacted. Physicist Edward Witten – to explain “string theory”– the most revolutionary idea in physics in more than half a century – likened the tiny loops or closed “strings” to doughnuts.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, believing that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts. If unlike things are really alike in some ways, perhaps, they are so in others.
Thinking metaphorically opens your eyes to see the similarities between dissimilar things - a technique available to any of us. All we need do is cultivate a taste for metaphor.
-from an article posted at creativethinking.net
When we ask students to compare a math, science or poetry concept in class with something unusual, they need to fully understand it. Breaking it down and analyzing the individual pieces will help them to understand the conecpt better or make it more familiar. So, when Cindy Babauta went looking for a differentiated activity to provide for a few students who had passed their cells unit pretest, we made them think in metaphors.
CELL ANALOGY COLLAGES
The two students were provided the requirements of the collage via Edmodo, so they could access information anywhere and communicate with me if they had questions or concerns. Basically, the girls had to find representations of everyday objects that had similar functions as several cell structures. Then they had to write an analogy to show the similarity between the cell structure and the everyday object, along with reasoning to explain the comparison. To extend their thinking, we asked them to consider a theme to tie all the objects together. Here is what the girls created:
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| A.P. compared a plant cell to a well functioning home. |
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The mother is the nucleus of the home!
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| A toll both operates much like a cell membrane. |
