Effects of creativity warm-up exercises on foundations 3-Dimensional Design Course

This Study is going to be the utilization of “5-minute creative exercise” warm up activities at the beginning of select classes in the 3-Dimensional Design course I am teaching in the Spring 2019 semester. One of the goals of foundations courses in the Art, Art History, and Design Department is to help the students to improve their creativity and problem-solving skills while also helping them to think conceptually. Often students struggle with thinking conceptually because it is something they are not used to doing. My goal is to get the students into the right frame of mind for thinking conceptually right from the beginning of the class and to see if this improves the overall outcomes of their work.

Research Question

This study examines whether starting the class period with a fast thinking conceptual exercise will improve their ability to break through the conceptual and creative mind block that often occurs in a foundations course. I want to know if these exercises will improve their ability to complete the assignments for the course in a more well thought out and conceptual nature.

Reviews of Literature

There have been numerous reviews and literature on the effects of warm up activities. I did find gaps in the research when it came to utilizing them in both Fine Art and in Higher Education. My research helps to address those gaps.

• Putting Physical Activity Where It Fits in the School Day: Preliminary Results of the ABC (Activity Bursts in the Classroom) for Fitness Program
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901580
• Work in progress — An innovation merging “classroom flip” and team-based learning  https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5673617
• A Motivational Perspective on Engagement and Disaffection Conceptualization and Assessment of Children’s Behavioral and Emotional Participation in Academic Activities in the Classroom
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013164408323233
• Role of Warm-up Activity in Language Classroom: A Tertiary Scenario
http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/bitstream/handle/10361/3553/10303010.pdf?sequence=1
• The Role of Warming Up Activities in Adolescent Students’ Involvement during the English Class
http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-07902008000200002

Methods

I am going to evaluate this research through a variety of methods. I plan on utilizing interviews with the students, observation of their work and focus during class after using and “5-minute creative exercise” and compare it to the days that I don’t utilize them and have them fill out simple surveys periodically to see if the students feel it is beneficial.

Constraints

I will only be teaching this course one time, so I will have no ability to compare it to a semester where I do not utilize them. Also, I only have 17 students. I believe I would need to do this study on a much larger scale to truly know how beneficial it was. I would also like to utilize this study in a variety of foundations courses. I’m interested to see how beneficial it is, if it is more beneficial in one type of course over another, and if it is dependent on the variety of 5-minute exercises I create. Future studies would be conducted to see if generalized creativity exercises are as effective as ones created specifically for the medium I am introducing in class at that time.

Results

If I see a marked increase in both the concept and creative output than I will be able to start making the conclusion that these exercises help to diminish the creative block often found in foundations students. If I see no difference in the creative outcomes, then I might start to consider that the exercise does not improve the student’s efforts toward improved Conceptual thinking and creativity.