What is creativity?

Eighth grade students were given a series of challenges to encourage them to think creatively and examine problems from fresh perspectives to find solutions. These activities were led by Dr. Cyndi Burnett, Associate Professor at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State, as part of the students’ preparation for their capstone projects.

​Students drew portraits of each other without looking at their paper, then wrote down three questions and modified their drawings with each question.
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After, students worked in small groups to build a free-standing structure to support a piece of paper out of pipe cleaners and playdough.

So what is creativity? Dr. Burnett defines creativity as the generation of novel (new) and appropriate (useful) ideas.