Problem and Solution Outline:

What it is:
 Shows steps to the development of a problem.
 Shows how there could be more than one way to find the solution.
 Typically comes in the form of a makeshift outline.
Who created it?
 Alex Osborn is credited with founding “Creative Problem Solving”
 Himself and Sydney Parnes helped improve it
 It is said to have been formed in the 1940s
 Osborn didn’t create the specific Outline, but he came up with the idea of
creative problem solving.
How it would go:
 Write the original problem up top. (can be a summarization of the problem)
 Write the multiple ways you could solve it, and attempt to find answers
 Write out the best procedure/result that you found, and the answer you got
Why would I use it?
 It is a simplified version of the problem.
 It helps us get rid of info we don’t need, and specifically focus on finding
the solution.
 It breaks things down into smaller bits and pieces that are easier to
understand.
Marzano’s Top Nine:
 Summarizing and Note-taking: This is because I would have students
work on summarizing the problem into a smaller piece to simplify it.
 Cooperative learning: This is because I would want my students to work on
this both in pairs, but also solo, depending on the assignment.
 Generating and Testing Hypothesis: This strategy requires my students to
generate a Hypothesis and test if their potential solution would work.
How other classes could use it:
 Science: you could use this in a physics or chem class to also solve
mathematical problems. In a bio class you could use it to break down the
lifecycles, or other things like that. You could provide the “problem” and
then allow students to determine how to find a good solution, and finally
what the actual solution is
 History: In history you could use this organizer to identify problems that
have come about during history. You could allow students to think of
different solutions to solve them, and then also show them the actual
solution taken and how it resulted.
 English: In English you could use this to have students help interpret their
readings. They could identify the problem in the book, and then determine
their own solutions, and then continue to read and find the final solution.