TITLE:  Turn on Inventiveness - Potato Possibilities

AUTHOR:  Debbie Holm,  Kessler School, MT

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:  4-6,  Science, Creative Writing, Art

OVERVIEW:  This lesson is designed to "turn on inventiveness" in students 
and to limber up their creative skills.  "Potato Possibilities" has students 
look at ordinary potatoes and transform them into something totally different.
Students practice visualization through a fantasy trip and test their powers 
of observation by blindly identifying their own potatoes.

PURPOSE:  The purpose of this lesson is to promote creative right hemispheric 
thinking by incorporating visual thinking,
inventive thinking and humor in learning.

OBJECTIVES:  In order to be creative, students will train themselves to see 
objects in new ways - they'll use their imaginations to transform the usual 
into the unusual.  After all, inventions are almost never entirely new.
  Students will practice picturing things and changes in their minds.  
This visual process is essential to the invention process.
  Students will test their powers of observation through their mental images 
of potatoes and their sense of touch.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
  Inventors Workshop by Alan J. McCormack, p.73 "Potato
Possibilities".
  Potato Fantasy Trip questions either dittoed off or copied on the chalkboard.
  Washed raw potatoes - enough for one per student.
  Inventors Workshop by Alan J. McCormack, p.80 "Absolutely
Ridiculous Eating Utensils".

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:  New and Unusual Potatoes
  The activity sheet that is used for "New and Unusual Potatoes" features 
four drawings of potatoes - plain, old potatoes.  It's the inventive 
student's responsibility to transform each potato into something very 
different - something never before thought of in a potato.

Potato Fantasy Trip -   This guided fantasy trip gives students practice 
in visualizing.
  1.  While the students close their eyes and concentrate, the teacher 
reads the following out loud to the class.  (The room should be quiet 
and the reader should pause at each series of dots for 5 seconds.)
  "Close your eyes and relax....  Imagine you are looking
at a large white wall....  Try to see a huge brown potato
on the wall....  Notice the bumps and dents on the potato....  
Now imagine touching its skin - how does it
feel?....  Now make the potato become super huge - as big
as a bus....  Imagine yourself crawling on the surface of this monster 
potato....  Take a shovel and dig a tunnel into the potato....  Crawl 
inside and taste the white potato meat....  Imagine the taste of the raw
potato....  Now continue tunneling until you completely
bore through to the other side....  Walk away from the
potato and look at it once again....  Now make it change.  First its 
shape....  then, its color. 
until it is no longer a potato....  Keep in mind what you
change it into....  Now come back to this room and open
your eyes."
  2.  The students should think about their imaginary
experiences following the Fantasy Trip.  They should
write the answers to the following questions:
Were you able to picture the huge potato in your mind?
How did the raw potato taste?
What was it like inside the potato?
What did the potato finally change into?

Potato Mixup - The students test their powers of observation.  Divide 
the class into groups of 4 or 5 students per group.  Give each student a 
raw potato to examine as closely as possible to be familiar with every 
detail.  Have each student take a turn in their group trying to identify 
their own potato when mixed with the others in the group.  The identifier 
needs to be blindfolded while the potatoes are mixed up.  Through their 
mental image of the potato and their sense of touch, see if the students 
can identify their own potato.


TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  Related activities for students to do:
  1.  Make a list of as many uses as you can think of for a
potato.  For example, a potato could be hollowed out to be used as a 
candy dish.  Try to invent something no one else would think up.
  2.  Take a raw potato and combine it with other materials to make a 
model of a new creature.  You can use markers or paint to decorate your 
creature.  Accompanying a unit about space, it could resemble a creature 
from another planet - if you were to let it sprout in the dark.
  3.  Complete the worksheet "Absolutely Ridiculous Eating
Utensils" after you've reviewed the example.  Now choose
one of your favorite "Absolutely Ridiculous Eating Utensils" and proceed 
to create your utensil.  Try out your utensil and see if it is functional.