Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen – but it is also related to both the old French word "emprouer" and the English "improve", to improve. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.
Creativity is a characteristic of someone that forms something novel and valuable. The created item may be intangible or a physical object. Creativity enables people to solve problems in new or innovative ways.
Creative problem-solving (CPS) is the mental process of searching for an original and previously unknown solution to a problem. To qualify, the solution must be novel and reached independently. The creative problem-solving process was originally developed by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes. Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of using creativity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems. The process is based on separating divergent and convergent thinking styles, so that one can focus their mind on creating at the first stage, and then evaluating at the second stage.
Tabu search (TS) is a metaheuristic search method employing local search methods used for mathematical optimization. It was created by Fred W. Glover in 1986 and formalized in 1989.
Brainstorming is a creativity technique in which a group of people interact to suggest ideas spontaneously in response to a prompt. Stress is typically placed on the volume and variety of ideas, including ideas that may seem outlandish or "off-the-wall". Ideas are noted down during the activity, but not assessed or critiqued until later. The absence of criticism and assessment is intended to avoid inhibiting participants in their idea production. The term was popularized by advertising executive Alex Faickney Osborn in the classic work Applied Imagination (1953).
Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract. Ideation comprises all stages of a thought cycle, from innovation, to development, to actualization. Ideation can be conducted by individuals, organizations, or crowds. As such, it is an essential part of the design process, both in education and practice.
Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school teams from 50 U.S. states compete each year. U.S. territories do not compete; however, since 2012 high school teams from Japan have competed at the national tournament as unranked guests.
Creativity techniques are methods that encourage creative actions, whether in the arts or sciences. They focus on a variety of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation and divergent thinking, methods of re-framing problems, changes in the affective environment and so on. They can be used as part of problem solving, artistic expression, or therapy.
The United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO) is an online computer programming competition, which serves as qualification for the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in the United States of America. Primarily for secondary school students in the United States, the USACO offers four competitions during the academic year. Participants compete in four increasingly difficult divisions, each of which is provided a distinct set of 3 solvable competitive programming problems during each contest. Coding & submitting computer programs can be done in one of four languages: C, C++, Java, and Python. Competitors begin in the Bronze division, and advance through the levels by performing well in their current division.
Product design is the process of creating new products for sale businesses to its customers. It involves the generation and development of ideas through a systematic process that leads to the creation of innovative products. Thus, it is a major aspect of new product development.
The Children's Creativity Museum is an interactive museum for children aged 2–12 years, located in Yerba Buena Gardens, in San Francisco, California. It offers workshops and exhibits that allow children to produce their own media through various interactive, creative processes: stop motion animation, programming robots, music video production, design challenges, art projects, and more. It has around 100,000 museum visitors annually. The Children's Creativity Museum is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, with annual revenues of around $2.1 million, including $600,000 of funding from the city of San Francisco.
Tournament of Minds (TOM) is an academic competition focusing on collaborative problem solving and critical thinking. It is open to both primary and secondary students in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a number of other locations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Students work in a team to create a dramatic performance outlining their solution to an open-ended Long Term challenge in one of four disciplines: STEM, Language Literature, The Arts and Social Science. Students also participate in a shorter, unseen Spontaneous Challenge on the day of the Tournament. TOM Challenge Release, Regionals and Branch Finals take place during Australian Term 3, with successful teams coming together for an International Final in a chosen state or territory.
The nominal group technique (NGT) is a group process involving problem identification, solution generation, and decision-making. It can be used in groups of many sizes, who want to make their decision quickly, as by a vote, but want everyone's opinions taken into account. The method of tallying is difference. First, every member of the group gives their view of the solution, with a short explanation. Then, duplicate solutions are eliminated from the list of all solutions, and the members proceed to rank the solutions, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.
Sherburne-Earlville Central School is a public school located in Sherburne, New York.
Calculator Applications is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Texas, USA. It is also a competition held by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, using the same rules as the UIL.
The majority of studies on sleep creativity have shown that sleep can facilitate insightful behavior and flexible reasoning, and there are several hypotheses about the creative function of dreams. On the other hand, a few recent studies have supported a theory of creative insomnia, in which creativity is significantly correlated with sleep disturbance.
The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, formerly the Minnesota Tests of Creative Thinking, is a test of creativity built on J. P. Guilford's work and created by Ellis Paul Torrance, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking originally involved simple tests of divergent thinking and other problem-solving skills, which were scored on four scales:
The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is a global robotics competition for young people. The World Robot Olympiad competition uses Lego Mindstorms manufactured by LEGO Education. First held in 2004 in Singapore, it now attracts more than 28,000 teams from more than 85 countries.
The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is a creativity test used to determine a human's creative potential. The test typically lasts forty minutes and consists of thirty to forty questions each of which consists of three common stimulus words that appear to be unrelated. The subject must think of a fourth word that is somehow related to each of the first three words. Scores are calculated based on the number of correct questions.
Physics Correspondence Seminar (FKS) is a correspondence competition primarily aimed at high school students in Slovakia. Its purpose is to provide an outlet for talented individuals by creating challenging problems and organising academic camps. The seminar organisers are mostly undergraduate students from the FMFI, Comenius University, Slovakia and other distinguished universities, such as Cambridge University. FKS is part of Trojsten, an NGO supporting educational activities in Slovakia in the field of mathematics, physics and computer science.
