Practical ideas for
thinking
What am I?
1. What do you think it
is?
2. How big do you think it
is?
3. Where do you think it
might be found?
4. What do you think it
might be associated
with?
5. Why might it be
important?
What am I?
1. What do you think it
is?
2. How big do you
think it is?
3. Where do you think
it might be found?
4. What do you think it
might be associated
with?
5. Why might it be
important?
How does the activity relate to thinking?
 You have to use analytical thinking to make sense of these pictures.
Once you have analysed the objects you need to evaluate the
relationships between each observation. This means you are using
critical thinking to make relationships and evaluate the evidence. Making
others understand depends upon your communication skills.
 Explaining the pictures and deducing where they might be found means
you have to be creative in developing a reasonable explanation, but one
that is scientific and relies on all the evidence available. In other words
your explanation can only be as good as the range of evidence available
and how well you relate the bits of evidence to each other. How well
someone understands your ideas depends the precision of your language
and the effectiveness of any model you describe.
Tell the story of the graph
Here is a graph of the
motion of a person
walking across the
room.
It shows velocity plotted
against time.
You are to interpret the
graph and walk along a
line according to its
shape
Tell the story of the graph
 Suggest how you
might label the y-axis
and what values would
you place on it?
 Suggest how you
might label the x-axis
and what values would
you place on it?
 Work out what the
curve shows and
interpret the
explanation into a walk
along the floor
Tell the story of the graph
 Explain why it goes up and
down and has flat bits – what
is happening at these points?
 Explain your interpretation of
the graph and your walk
using some values and try to
calculate some values for the
changes on the curve
 Explain why ‘velocity’ is used
and not speed
 Give the change points some
appropriate values for the
rate of change
How does the activity relate to learning?
 A pictorial thinking game requiring memory, deduction, and
creative thinking.
 It involves group discussion to develop a collective
explanation of a strange graph.
 The important thing here is not a right answer but an answer
based upon deductions using the available evidence and
personal knowledge.
Six degrees of separation
 Link two pictures together by six steps or statements
 The last idea of the previous sentence starts the next
All photos courtesy of Barry Meatyard
Caterpillar
In 6 steps…
Candle
A response from a
Y10 pupil
1.
A caterpillar is the larva of a butterfly
2.
Butterflies are insects which are classified as animals
3.
Animals respire in order to provide themselves with energy
4.
Energy can exist in many forms
5.
One form of energy is thermal energy
6.
Thermal energy and light energy are produced when a candle burns
Time
Velocity
Mass
Periodic table
Soil
Leaf
Explanation: how activity relates to learning
 This activity reveals how learners have linked the
concepts in their heads. It works by asking you to think
about the links between concepts and the pathway to take
to link them.
 This encourages reasoned and analytical thinking and
because the photos are often not necessarily obviously
linked the process promotes creative thinking.