Gyro Gearloose

Gyro Gearloose

The aim is to challenge students to instantly find new connections with random elements they would not normally combine.

1. The teacher picks an object from the bag of different things and demonstrates how to invent a ‘new thing’ based on the chosen object and one of the students’ objects.
2. The students are asked to form a large group in the middle of the classroom with each student taking one object from the bag. The students then pair up with someone who has the same colour of eyes as theirs.
3. The students look at the two things they collected from the bag. Within 3 mins, the pairs work together and invent ‘new things’ which are a combination of the two things they collected from the bag.
4. The students are brought together again. If they wish to, they are allowed to take a new object from the bag but they may also keep the original object they took.
5. The students are asked to pair up with someone who has the same shoe size as them. The students are asked to look at the things they collected from the bag. Within 3 mins, the pairs must develop ideas for the challenge; these ideas must be a combination of their two items.
6. The students note down the ideas that emerged during the exercise - 1 idea per post-it note.
7. The students share their ideas with the rest of the class.  The teacher may also discuss how the application of a concrete object can generate some new ideas regarding the challenge.

The bag of things can be made from random house objects e.g. from a child’s room, a kitchen, classroom etc. You can use any object for this activity. This activity removes the students from their comfort zones to collaboratively develop ideas for meaningful solutions to their challenges. Their creative thoughts are developed by acknowledging each other’s ideas by using phrases as “Yes, and…” to develop ideas.

This can be adapted to online teaching by asking each student to find any object nearby the computer. They have 30 seconds to find one. The teacher gives each student a number based on how many students there are in the class. The teacher then shouts out random numbers (e.g. numbers 5 and 13) who show their objects to the rest of the class. They then generate ideas from them. The teachers keep choosing numbers for new objects to be shown to continue the generation of ideas.