Pressure Cooker

Pressure Cooker

The aim is for the students to quickly generate ideas using their intuition.

1. The teacher outlines the task to the students.

• The pressure cooker method links fast thinking, quick reactions and the students’ use of intuition.  It requires the students to use their 'gut feeling' or intuition in creative thought-showering.
• The teacher should display the image of a pressure cooker around the room so the students are constantly reminded of the pressure to generate ideas and thoughts quickly.

2. The teacher gives small tasks to the groups.  All the tasks will generate answers to the same key question set by the teacher.
3. The students are given limited amounts of time to generate answers to the tasks.  
4. Students can also change groups to increase the pressure.
5. The students then come together and share their conclusions with all the groups.
6. The students then together discuss the next steps of the challenge.

This activity uses the disadvantage of having limited time to create spontaneous reactions from one’s feelings. It creates a lot of fun and curiosity and may encourage students to become part of your’ task force’ to work on the next part of the process.

The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.