Thinking about thinking is an interesting thought. How do we think about thinking? The movie Inception has some out-of-the-box concepts about thinking and the layers of thought that are applied to a situation. The Design Studio has another alternative for thinking strategies. This week the class was introduced to two types of thinking; 1) divergent 2) convergent. Divergent thinking encompasses the creative, integrative and innovative thought processes; the right-brain thinking. Meanwhile convergent thinking includes all logical, mathematical and symmetrical left brain thinking processes.
Growing up, I was primarily involved in everything to do with fine arts; therefore I was immersed in divergent thinking. My parents saw this and wanted to ensure that I was equally strong in – what I know now as – convergent thinking. In high school they enrolled me in an underwater robotics club. The club’s mandate was to build an underwater robot to compete in the First Annual MATE Underwater Robotics Competition at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The unique part about this project, however, was the fact that it did not just focus on analytical, problem-solving processes. This club modeled design thinking.
In order to fully integrate a project, there needs to be a marriage between divergent and convergent thinking; this is design thinking. The team designed, prototyped and built an underwater robot in eight months before flying to Florida to compete. Along with team troubles, technical problems and design mishaps, I learned the importance of using BOTH creative, integrative thinking along with logical, systematic thinking. As a result of our hard work and learning, the team placed 3rd at the competition. The exciting part about this was the fact that our team was comprised of four grade 8-10 high school girls. The team who placed second were high school seniors and the team who placed first were 3rd year college engineering students.
My parents enrolled me in the underwater robotics program to teach me convergent thinking, but instead, I learned the importance of using BOTH divergent and convergent thinking.