Every child is a potential inventor. The desire to explore the world around us is genetically embedded in us. Breaking another toy, the baby tries to understand how it works, why the wheels are spinning and the lights are flashing. Properly organized technical creativity of children makes it possible to satisfy this curiosity and involve the younger generation in useful practical activities.
Definition
Creativity is a special type of activity during which a person deviates from generally accepted patterns, experiments and eventually creates a new product in the field of science, art, production, technology, etc. From a socio-economic point of view, new can be only an object that did not previously exist. From a psychological point of view, creativity is any process in which a person discovers something unknown to himself. The subjective significance of the invention comes to the fore when it comes tochildren.
Technical creativity is an activity that results in the creation of various technical objects (models, devices, all kinds of mechanisms). It has a special meaning when it comes to a developing industrial society.
Classification
There are several types of professional scientific and technical creativity. Let's list them:
- An invention that discovers an original way to solve a problem.
- Innovation, when a person improves an already finished mechanism.
- Designing, or creating a device in accordance with the issued terms of reference.
- Design that involves the construction of an object with certain functional as well as aesthetic characteristics.
A special place is given to constructive and technical activities, which is understood as pre-professional creativity of children and youth. Unlike adult colleagues, they solve simple problems, rediscover already known methods of action. The main goal in this case is not the public benefit of the invention, but the development of research thinking and initiative among schoolchildren and students.
Children's technical creativity
Being an inventor is not easy. To create a new device, a person must have creative thinking. It also requires a focus on the end result and a willingness to overcome emerging technical difficulties. At the dawn of industrialization, there was an opinion that such qualitiesinherent in a small number of gifted engineers.
Today, teachers are sure that technical creativity can be taught to every person. But it is necessary to do this from a very early age, so that the child gets used to thinking competently, working rationally with information, and putting into practice the knowledge learned in the classroom. It is extremely important to arouse interest in technology. Therefore, children do not study complex physical phenomena, but create models of aircraft, cars, ships, spacecraft, robots, etc. that are understandable to them.
Problems to be solved
Technical creativity is a process during which:
- the child is being prepared for future work activities;
- develop independence, activity, creative thinking, spatial imagination, criticality (the ability to evaluate the design features of devices);
- an interest in invention is being formed;
- learning knowledge from the field of physics, mathematics, computer science, etc.;
- industriousness, responsibility, purposefulness, patience are brought up;
- forming the ability to work with drawings, scientific literature, as well as the skills to use measuring instruments, tools, special devices;
- children's self-esteem grows, pride in their work appears.
Emerging Issues
During the Soviet era, a lot of attention was paid to the technical creativity of young people. The first sections of aircraft modeling appeared in the 1920s. Gradually circleactivities expanded. Schoolchildren were involved in extracurricular activities, designed rockets and agricultural machines, electrical appliances and automation. Amateur circles acted everywhere. Clubs and stations for young technicians were opened, exhibitions and competitions were held, at which students received awards. Many designers and innovators attended these classes as children.
However, with the beginning of perestroika, most of the technical institutions ceased to function. First of all, there was a lack of funding. After all, technical creativity requires special equipment, the material base becomes obsolete, fails. Until now, many circles exist only thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic teachers. The lack of modern equipment leads to a decrease in the quality of services. Meanwhile, the demand for them remains stable. Today in the regions they are trying to solve this issue at the local level. Another problem is that technical creativity has ceased to be accessible to students from low-income families.
Forms of organization
Let's consider in what ways today they try to introduce children to technical creativity. There are several of them:
- Technology lessons. They are held already in elementary school and provide familiarity with modeling, technology, and the manufacture of simple products.
- Mugs. They can operate on the basis of a school or institutions of additional education. Children attending the circle deeply study individual technical issues, are engaged in researchwork.
- Olympics, exhibitions, competitions. They allow students to demonstrate their achievements, draw attention to themselves, share their experiences with enthusiastic peers.
- Centers for children's technical creativity. As a rule, several sections operate on their basis in various areas. Educational programs are designed for children of different ages. Conferences are held regularly, where students demonstrate their own projects and gain experience in public speaking.
Didactic requirements for circles and sections
The development of children's technical creativity will proceed successfully if the following conditions are met:
- The selected circle is interesting for the child, classes are held taking into account his preparation.
- Students understand why they acquire certain knowledge and skills.
- The optimal balance between the study of theoretical information and practical exercises is maintained.
- Material support meets modern requirements.
- The methods used are primarily aimed at developing students' independence, contributing to their creative self-realization.
- Systematically, children participate in shows or exhibitions, demonstrate their achievements, see the results and their own progress.
Stages of technical creativity
In the centers and circles, the activities of students are built according to a certain algorithm. It includesincludes 4 steps:
- Problem setting. Children need to be included in the creative process, to create motivation for further work. At this stage, they are shown finished devices, videos, experiments, they are told about the significance of the mechanism being studied, its practical application.
- Collecting information. It is necessary to understand what knowledge students already have, and what they still have to get acquainted with. For this, conversations, questionnaires, game forms (quizzes, crossword puzzles, etc.) are used. Then the teacher announces the new information. Sometimes children study literature themselves, and then discussions, conferences, discussion of short reports are organized.
- Search for a solution. It is bad if children constantly make devices according to samples, doing mechanical copying. It is necessary to develop the design skills of students, encourage their initiative, teach them to creatively apply the acquired knowledge, to see different options for solving the problem.
- Implementation of the solution. It is important to choose the right objects for construction so that children are able to make them on their own with minimal help from an adult.
Choice of teaching methods
Technical creativity is a process during which a person explores a problem and independently finds its solution. It is logical that when teaching this, the teacher constantly resorts to problem-search methods. Their essence is that the children are given a task, the algorithm for solving which is unknown to them, and they are given complete freedom of action. Allowed to peep something from othersstudents, ask for help, make mistakes and redo work several times.
No less difficult is the situation of choice for a child when you can use several methods of action or means of designing crafts. At the same time, you need to realize your desires, correctly assess the possibilities. Children have difficulty making independent decisions and need to be purposefully taught to do so.
The use of active learning methods does not mean that you can forget about the usual tables, stories and explanations, demonstrations of films, experiments. All this is necessary when getting acquainted with the material being studied.
Development of technical thinking
Special methods can be used to activate students. For example, these:
- Brainstorming. A group of children puts forward various hypotheses for solving the problem, including the most absurd ones. They are analyzed only when a significant number of assumptions are gathered.
- Sudden bans. To abandon the usual patterns allows the ban on the use of certain mechanisms or details.
- New options. The teacher asks the children to come up with several solutions to the same problem.
- Method of absurdity. Students are given an impossible task (the invention of a perpetual motion machine is a prime example).
Technical creativity is an activity that requires a person to have a broad outlook, developed imagination, independent thinking and interest in search activities. Prerequisites for itare laid in childhood, and parents and teachers should remember this if they want to raise highly qualified specialists.
