expanding our students' brainpower: idea generation and critical thinking skills
TRANSCRIPT
Mlchael Johnson North Shore ASSocloteS 153 Antigua Court Reno NV 8951 1 USA tl (775) 849-3085 + I (775) 849-3085 (Fax) Imiohnsonleeeorg
Introduction by JMJ
In this months PACE Report we once again focus on teach- ing methods and practices and their application to the training o f the next generation o f engineers As the title suggests the ultimate goal of the author of the article reprinted helow i s to expand the brainpower of her students Who couldnt use a l i t t le brainpower expansion Among other things the author presents some inter-
esting and innovative ideas for fostering idea generation and criti- cal thinking skills among her students
The article below i s reprinted with permission from the Pro- ceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference amp Exposition The article i s Copyright 2002 by the American Society for Engineering Education
Expanding Our Students Brainpower Idea Generation and Critical Thinking Skills
Julie L P Jessop
Chemical 8 Biochemical Engineering 4130 SC University of Iowa 4133 Seamans Center Iowa City IA 52242-1527 USA
Tel +1 (319) 335-0681 E-mail julie-jessopuiowaedu
Abstract
How do we teach our students to think This is not a skill that they can pick up by doing X number of homework prob- lems it is the product of good habits that must be practiced and honed on a daily basis It is a state of mind that csntinually questions Who What Where When How Why In light of this reality we developed this segment for the Introduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writing graduate course this past summer Our goals during this three-day class period were
To define the creative process To identify techniques that enhance creativity To practice idea generation and critical thinking skills in controlled settings
This segment helps smooth the transition between the undergraduate mentality of teach me to the desired graduate- student mentality of enable me It attempts to demystify the creative process which most people associate with inspired moments and geniuses so that students can deliberately foster an atmosphere that will help them generate new research ideas
Keywords Education engineering education technological innovation
140 IEEE Antennas and Propagalion Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
1 Course History
ntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo was ldquoI first developed two years ago as a required core course for incoming chemical and biochemical engineering (CBE) graduate students The course has been offered two summers with a CBE faculty member coordinating course content and projects Various CBE faculty members delivered individual lectures and a team of CBE faculty members graded student work
This year course delivery has been modified to increase instructional continuity by assigning it to one CBE faculty member who delivers the majority of class lectures It has also been moved to the spring semester of the first year for incoming graduate stu- dents In this way the students will move into their first summer prepared to focus on their research projects without the distrac- tions of coursework
2 Introduction
New graduate students are often ovcnvhelmed by the thought of developing innovative research ideas and writing a dissertation Too often they are intimidated by the end product and do not realize that it is a process not sheer luck or genius that will lead them to their goals Many students have developed bad habits that short circuit a healthy creative process and leave them dreading certain aspects of their educational experience For example instead of reviewing course material on a regular basis which would promote better understanding and long-term retention some students cram the night before exams This type ofbehavior is also seen with writing assignments students may wait to write a paper the night before it is due because ldquothey work better under pres- surerdquo This ldquobingeingrdquo behavior does not promote effective and efficient learning and in fact it creates a sense of anxiety in the studentrsquos mind when faced with these assignments because they associate the pain and suffering of these all-night sessions with them In his book Advicefor New Faculty Members [I] Robert Boice strongly argues against this bingeing behavior Rather he touts the motto nihil nimus (nothing in excess) which advocates working at tasks a little at a time but in a continuous manner It is this approach to the creative process ~ purposeful and ongoing - that we strive to instill in our graduate students during this segment ofthe course This paper provides an overview of the lectures dis- cussions and activities that comprise the coaching we give our students in idea generation and critical thinking during these classes
3 Defining Creativity
The creative process is not a magical concept It is simply the exercise of the higher-level skills listed in Bloomrsquos taxonomy (see Table I) analysis synthesis and evaluation Throughout their undergraduate education students have spent much of their brain- power on the lower-level skills which makes the transition to a critically thinking graduate student more challenging
That these higher-level skills are pivotal to successful idea generation is reiterated by the following definition of critical thinking
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing applying
IEEEAntennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
Table 1 Bloomrsquos taxonomy 121
Lower-Level Skills Knowledge 1 Finding out
Comprehension 1 Unlt---rsquo--rdquorsquo-- Application 1 Making use of
Higher-Level Analysis 1 Taking apart the known
1 Putting things together in another way Synthesis Evaluation
Table 2 Brainstorming- alone or together 161
Individual Grou Ran e o ideas Wide Narrow
Fmedom o ex ression More Less
analyzing synthesizing andor evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation experi- ence reflection reasoning or communication as a guide to belief and action [3]
Thus critical thinking paves the pathway of the creative process The higher-level thinking skills are not innate or instantaneous but must be practiced and honed on a continual basis Students must realize that this is a life-long leaming process that requires disci- pline of thought and cannot be achieved in a moment of inspira- tion or mastered at any given time
Exercising critical thinking must be done in a deliberate man- ner This includes fostering an atmosphere for creativity and par- ticipating in activities that use the higher-level thinking skills There are numerous ways to promote creativity in students lis- tening to classical music taking walks recording all ideas down in a notebook holding debates etc [4] In the ldquoIntroduction to Lit- erature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course we focus on two specific activities brainstorming and critical reading
4 Brainstorming
Linus Pauling the recipient of two Nobel prizes stated that ldquothe best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideasrdquo [5] In other words for every great idea brought forth there will be many others preceding it that were less than stellar In brainstorming participants generate enough ideas so that the probability that one or more idea is viable increases The quality and quantity of the brainstorming session may vary according to the number of par- ticipants (see Table 2) For example if an individual were brain- storming the ideas generated would not be very developed because there is a limit to the depth of their knowledge To con- trast in group brainstorming the ideas could be more fully devel- oped because what one person in the group does not know another might
There are numerous suggestions for organizing a brainstorm- ing session including rules on the recording and reception of ideas in a group setting [7-121 However the basic format can be broken down as follows [ 121
1 Discuss the problem
141
2 Think ahout how to solve it
3 Screen the contributions
4 Commit to action
The first step is the key to generating great ideas identification and clarification of the problem John Dewey the philosopher commented that ldquoa problem well-stated is a problem half-solvedrdquo [5] William Deming the quality-control expert echoed that sen- timent when relaying the following
When asked what single event was most helpful in developing the Theory of Relativity Albert Einstein replied ldquoFiguring out how io think about the problemrdquo 151
Thus becoming familiar with the critical issues in an area or spending time developing the physical picture of the system will speed the generation of new research ideas In essence by clearly viewing the problem from all angles it is easier to start the brain- storming process It is also imperative when brainstorming in a group that all members understand the question to he answered before suggesting solutions (ie they are all on the same page) If some group members misinterpret the problem they will not be contributing to the solution and they may slow down the hrain- storming process
The second step is the actual brainstorming for solutions or ideas It involves collecting as many ideas as possible and building upon one anotherrsquos ideas (in group brainstorming) to generate even more ideas Judgment of these ideas is reserved for the third step Only at this time are similar ideas combined criteria for judging the ideas determined and the best ideas chosen The final step involves acting upon the best ideas and evaluating the results (eg run the experiment and determine if the hypothesis was proven or not)
In this course students are given practice brainstorming indi- vidually and as a group After discussing how to brainstorm effec- tively in class the students are assigned one of two topics new uses for agricultural oils or methods for removinglreducing green- house gases in the Earthrsquos atmosphere They are then asked to gather information on the subject (clarify the problem) which they will brainstorm during the next two class periods This hrain- storming session leads the students through a series of exercises that alternates among individual small group (two students) and large group (all students) brainstorming to compare the quality and quantity of ideas gathered Finally the small groups develop a ldquobusiness proposalrdquo for their best solution and present it to the entire class The class votes upon the viability of each proposal to determine what plan would most likely he funded and imple- mented
5 Critical Reading
The philosopher John Locke said ldquoreading fumishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read oursrsquorsquo [13] Reading provides the fodder for idea genera- tion however creativity is not fostered by simply readinl but by critically reading The key difference is in the attitude of the reader a critical thinker asks questions while reading and does not take what is written for granted or accept it at face value True critical reading requires asking questions that invoke the entire spectrum of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy (see Table 3)
Most students have no problem with summarizing what they read but this activity is merely a lower-level thinking skill By encouraging students to read using the higher-level skills Ianalysis synthesis and evaluation) the wheels of the creative proctss begin to tum They start to see holes in the work where further investi- gation is needed faulty arguments or unfounded claims hat open up new possibilities for research they can conceive ideas that will extend in new directions and meet a need in that area Several authors have suggested specific questions readers should ask when critiquing scientific articles [15-161 many of these quehons are summarized in the following list suggested by Seals an3 Tanaka [17]
Is the experimental question significant - Is a clear and testable hypothesis presented Is the overall experimental approach valid Are the results properly presented and believable
Are the conclusions reasonable on the hasis of the results
- Are the major findings both novel and important obtained
Since students may find the first and last questions difficult to evaluate it is important to describe the qualities entailedjn a good idea An excellent framework for this discussion is the rtview cri- teria found in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide [18] In this case reviewers are asked to evaluate the intellectual merit (novelty) and the broader impacts (significance and importance) of the research The definitions of these attributes are summarized in Table 4
With this framework students can develop a tangible method to judge the journal articles they read In addition they are made aware of the yardstick others will use to measure their proposals and papers
In this course students are given practice critically reading several journal articles in their research area some of which may be suggested by their advisors AAer discussing how 10 critique scientific manuscripts in class the students are assigned ii literature review on their research topic They choose IO articles and sum- marize their content They then select the four best papers and the
Table 3 Thinking skills used while reading critically
What are the reas
142 IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 NO 6 Deamber 2002
intellectual merit
Underrepresented groups I - Scientific rsquo rsquo community Brouder impacls I
- New knowledge and understanding Creative and original concepts Well conceived and organized plan - Teaching training and learning
1 Society
weakest paper to critically review they must point out the strengths and weaknesses of the research and discuss how this research impacts their project These reviews are distributed to a panel of three professors (including their advisor) for grading and feedback as well as given as oral presentations in class Based upon the comments from their fellow classmates and the review panel students revise and expand the literature summary and incorporate it into a research proposal which is the final course project
6 Segment Evaluation
In the brainstorming segment we have found that the stu- dents generate more ideas if the facilitator asks a series of ques- tions on the first day to ldquoprime the pumprdquo The students leave that first session to research the topic and return with fresh ideas based on the answers they found We have also adopted the guideline that each student must provide an answer to every question To increase the pace of discussion and ensure that the students can meet this guideline the students individually write three to five answers to a question on a note card and then share one idea with the larger group This process is repeated a second time with the same question to get ldquospringboardldquo ideas before moving on to the next question The quality of the session is evaluated by the num- ber and originality of the ideas Records of the brainstorming results from the last yearrsquos class are used as a challenge to the cur- rent class (eamp can they come up with more ideas than the previ- ous class did) As a result of this experience a greater percentage of the students participates fully in discussions and brainstorming sessions of subsequent lectures
In response to the critical reading assignment the studentsrsquo literature reviews are typically superficial at first and they fail to examine the methods results and discussions in papers closely enough to identify true strengths and weaknesses When the fac- ulty panel challenges their analyses the students must rewrite their reviews to address the noted deficiencies Although they do not achieve ldquoexpertrdquo status during this course their summaries and critiques show a marked improvement from the first assignment to its incorporation in the final research proposal submitted for the course Future modifications of this segment will include providing students with anonymous excerpts of reviews from previous years (good and bad) as well as an in-class exercise in analyzing a short research paper
7 Conclusion
In this segment of ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo we define creativity as the application of criti- cal thinking skills (analysis synthesis and evaluation) Developing these skills is a life-long practice that must be deliberately pursued
IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagaiion Magazine VoI 44 No 6 December 2002
During the course graduate students practice two methods to enhance their creativity brainstorming and critical reading These activities are designed to help them begin generating research ideas and developing their research proposal for their graduate studies
8 References
1 R Boice Advice for New Faculg Members Nihil Nimus Bos- ton Allyn and Bacon 2000
2 Kent School District ldquoTeaching Using Bloomrsquos Taxonomyrdquo 2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwkentwedneteduKSDMAresources~loomsteacher~ bloomshtml
3 M Scriven and R Paul ldquoDefining Critical Thinkingrdquo retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwcriticalthinkingorgiuniversitylunivclasslDe~ninghtml
4 J Baumgartner ldquo I O Steps for Boosting Creativityrdquo 1996 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwjpbcomcreativecreativehtml
5 C Cave ldquoCreativity Web Resources for Creativity and Innova- tionrdquo2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpllmembersozemailcomau-cavenianlCreativelindex2html
6 Mind Tools ldquoBrainstormingrdquo 2002 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmindtoolscombrainstmhtml
7 A Levine rdquoBrainstormingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmclidistmaricopaedulauthoringistudiolguidehoo~ brainhtml
8 M E Guffey ldquoFive Steps to Better Critical-thinking Prohlem- solving and Decision-making Skillsrsquorsquo 1998 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwwestwordscomlGUFFEYlcriticalhtml
9 J Baumbartner ldquoThe Step-by-step Guide to Brainstormingrdquo 1997 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpll~wjpbcomcreati~e~rainstorminghiml
10 B Bennett rdquoBrainstormingrdquo The Chemical Engineer 492 1991 pp 40-42
11 R Gamache and K W Eastman ldquoRunning a Creative Meet- ingrdquo ChemicalEngineering 97 11 1990 pp 165174
12 H Kling ldquoGet More Out of Group Projects by Using Struc- tured Brainstormingrdquo Quaamp Progress 23 3 1990 p 136
13 Baertracks ldquoCreative Quotationsrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwcreativequotationscom
14 Counselling and Development Centre ldquoReading Skills for University 4 Critical Thinkingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwyorkucdadmincdcdclspreadread4htm
143
15 H S Fogler Remenls of Chemical Reaction Engineering Second Edition New Jersey Prentice Hall 1992
16 D M Brunette Critical Thinking Understanding and Evalu- I ~
sting Dental Research Chicago Quintessence Publishing Co Inc 1996
17 D R Seals and H Tanaka ldquoManuscript Peer Review A Helpful Checklist for Students and Novice Refereesrdquo Advances in Physiology Education 23 12000 pp 52-58
18 National Science Foundation rdquoGrant Proposal Guide NSF 02 22002 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpwwwnsfgovpuhs2002ns~22nsf02
Introducing the Author
Julie Jessop is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bio- chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa She is actively involved in polymer research and teaches a series of polymer courses in addition to the ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course She received her PhD in chemical engi- neering from Michigan State University E
Editorlsquos Comments Conrinuedjiom page 124 2000 I quickly discovered that certain symbols in MalhType 50 which had printed correctly under Offire 97 did not print correctly from Office 2000 One example was the ldquoover-amwrdquo denoting a vector E I spent several days () of experimentation and dialogue with very senior technical support people at Microsoft Hewlett Packard and Design Science (publishers of MuthType) This included downloading and trying essentially every HP printer driver that would work with the LaserJet 5 Finally with people from Microsoft and HP talking together with me on a conference call a very frustrating conclusion was reached apparently there is no printer driver available that can be used with Office 2000 and the Laserlet 5 that will solve this problem The only solution was to get a more-modem printer
Actually things were more complex than the above com- ments suggest I could get all of the MathType symbols to print correctly if I was willing to chose the printing options such that the complete character set for every TrueType font being used was downloaded as a bitmap each time a document was printed How- ever that turned a 12 ppm (page per minute) printer into some- thing that printed at 3-4 ppm which wasnrsquot acceptable
I ended up with an HP LaserJet 4100 (as a single-user printer this model has now been replaced by the HP 4200 which is a similar printer and for which most the following comments should apply) Some experimentation with printer drivers was
needed with the Laserlet 4100 in order to get things printing prop- erly I can repon that the HP LaserJet 4100 PCL 6 driver does work correctly with MathType and Ofice 2000 As importmtly if yoursquore not already using one i t tums out that it is well worth upgrading to a 1200 dpi laser printer and the HP 4100 is a good one to consider
1200 dpi resolution (by this 1 mean 1200 dpi x 100 dpi) makes a very significant difference in two areas halftone images and print quality (and that covers much of what I think is important in using a printer) 1200 dpi resolution permits good-quaity ren- dering of halftones (eamp black-and-white photographs) with an equivalent line screen of about 85 Ipi (lines per inch) That is a common line screen for newspapers It isnrsquot considered ldquopublica- tion qualityrdquo (the Mugazine - with the new paper - uses screens of 133-150 lpi which require an output device with a resolution of about 2400 dpi) but it is visually quite significantly better than the 50-65 Ipi screens that can be simulated with a 600 dpi primer (such as the LaserJet 5) The improvement in the visual quality of half- tone images with an increase in the line screen can be much more than the difference in the numbers might suggest Goigg from 65 Ipi to 85 lpi will usually be perceived by most people to be a huge improvement HP also uses some additional enhancements (involving varying both dot density and dot size in printing half- tones) that noticeably improve the quality of printing halfiones to my eye In spite of my rather poor eyesight I can also see a very significant improvement in the quality of the rendering of text in going from 600 dpi to 1200 dpi This becomes particularly notice- able in the smaller elements in equations (subscripts supwscripts and diacritical marks)
The HP 4100 has a number of other very nice features It prints at 25 ppm (the 4200 is a 35 ppm printer) and its standard paper tray will hold a full ream of paper I will admit that I delayed writing about the HP 4100 for several months because I was wor- ried about some of the mechanical noises it made when printing (indeed I exchanged the original unit for a second one hccause of such concerns) However Irsquove now used it enough to believe that such noises are normal (and once you get used to them not at all objectionable) the printer seems to he quite reliable
The HP 4200 starts at a ldquostreetrdquo price of around $1 100 You donrsquot have to pay that much to get similar features hcwever I have also recently used the WP 1200 (also a 1200 dpi printer hut with a speed of 15 ppm) which starts at about $400 To my eye the quality of the output is the same as for the HP 4100
Happy New Year
The holiday season is here and a new year will arrive around the time you receive this issue (hopefully yoursquoll get it that promptly) I hope your holidays are joyous and I hope you have a most happy healthy safe and prosperous New Year $
144 IEEE Anfennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
1 Course History
ntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo was ldquoI first developed two years ago as a required core course for incoming chemical and biochemical engineering (CBE) graduate students The course has been offered two summers with a CBE faculty member coordinating course content and projects Various CBE faculty members delivered individual lectures and a team of CBE faculty members graded student work
This year course delivery has been modified to increase instructional continuity by assigning it to one CBE faculty member who delivers the majority of class lectures It has also been moved to the spring semester of the first year for incoming graduate stu- dents In this way the students will move into their first summer prepared to focus on their research projects without the distrac- tions of coursework
2 Introduction
New graduate students are often ovcnvhelmed by the thought of developing innovative research ideas and writing a dissertation Too often they are intimidated by the end product and do not realize that it is a process not sheer luck or genius that will lead them to their goals Many students have developed bad habits that short circuit a healthy creative process and leave them dreading certain aspects of their educational experience For example instead of reviewing course material on a regular basis which would promote better understanding and long-term retention some students cram the night before exams This type ofbehavior is also seen with writing assignments students may wait to write a paper the night before it is due because ldquothey work better under pres- surerdquo This ldquobingeingrdquo behavior does not promote effective and efficient learning and in fact it creates a sense of anxiety in the studentrsquos mind when faced with these assignments because they associate the pain and suffering of these all-night sessions with them In his book Advicefor New Faculty Members [I] Robert Boice strongly argues against this bingeing behavior Rather he touts the motto nihil nimus (nothing in excess) which advocates working at tasks a little at a time but in a continuous manner It is this approach to the creative process ~ purposeful and ongoing - that we strive to instill in our graduate students during this segment ofthe course This paper provides an overview of the lectures dis- cussions and activities that comprise the coaching we give our students in idea generation and critical thinking during these classes
3 Defining Creativity
The creative process is not a magical concept It is simply the exercise of the higher-level skills listed in Bloomrsquos taxonomy (see Table I) analysis synthesis and evaluation Throughout their undergraduate education students have spent much of their brain- power on the lower-level skills which makes the transition to a critically thinking graduate student more challenging
That these higher-level skills are pivotal to successful idea generation is reiterated by the following definition of critical thinking
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing applying
IEEEAntennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
Table 1 Bloomrsquos taxonomy 121
Lower-Level Skills Knowledge 1 Finding out
Comprehension 1 Unlt---rsquo--rdquorsquo-- Application 1 Making use of
Higher-Level Analysis 1 Taking apart the known
1 Putting things together in another way Synthesis Evaluation
Table 2 Brainstorming- alone or together 161
Individual Grou Ran e o ideas Wide Narrow
Fmedom o ex ression More Less
analyzing synthesizing andor evaluating information gathered from or generated by observation experi- ence reflection reasoning or communication as a guide to belief and action [3]
Thus critical thinking paves the pathway of the creative process The higher-level thinking skills are not innate or instantaneous but must be practiced and honed on a continual basis Students must realize that this is a life-long leaming process that requires disci- pline of thought and cannot be achieved in a moment of inspira- tion or mastered at any given time
Exercising critical thinking must be done in a deliberate man- ner This includes fostering an atmosphere for creativity and par- ticipating in activities that use the higher-level thinking skills There are numerous ways to promote creativity in students lis- tening to classical music taking walks recording all ideas down in a notebook holding debates etc [4] In the ldquoIntroduction to Lit- erature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course we focus on two specific activities brainstorming and critical reading
4 Brainstorming
Linus Pauling the recipient of two Nobel prizes stated that ldquothe best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideasrdquo [5] In other words for every great idea brought forth there will be many others preceding it that were less than stellar In brainstorming participants generate enough ideas so that the probability that one or more idea is viable increases The quality and quantity of the brainstorming session may vary according to the number of par- ticipants (see Table 2) For example if an individual were brain- storming the ideas generated would not be very developed because there is a limit to the depth of their knowledge To con- trast in group brainstorming the ideas could be more fully devel- oped because what one person in the group does not know another might
There are numerous suggestions for organizing a brainstorm- ing session including rules on the recording and reception of ideas in a group setting [7-121 However the basic format can be broken down as follows [ 121
1 Discuss the problem
141
2 Think ahout how to solve it
3 Screen the contributions
4 Commit to action
The first step is the key to generating great ideas identification and clarification of the problem John Dewey the philosopher commented that ldquoa problem well-stated is a problem half-solvedrdquo [5] William Deming the quality-control expert echoed that sen- timent when relaying the following
When asked what single event was most helpful in developing the Theory of Relativity Albert Einstein replied ldquoFiguring out how io think about the problemrdquo 151
Thus becoming familiar with the critical issues in an area or spending time developing the physical picture of the system will speed the generation of new research ideas In essence by clearly viewing the problem from all angles it is easier to start the brain- storming process It is also imperative when brainstorming in a group that all members understand the question to he answered before suggesting solutions (ie they are all on the same page) If some group members misinterpret the problem they will not be contributing to the solution and they may slow down the hrain- storming process
The second step is the actual brainstorming for solutions or ideas It involves collecting as many ideas as possible and building upon one anotherrsquos ideas (in group brainstorming) to generate even more ideas Judgment of these ideas is reserved for the third step Only at this time are similar ideas combined criteria for judging the ideas determined and the best ideas chosen The final step involves acting upon the best ideas and evaluating the results (eg run the experiment and determine if the hypothesis was proven or not)
In this course students are given practice brainstorming indi- vidually and as a group After discussing how to brainstorm effec- tively in class the students are assigned one of two topics new uses for agricultural oils or methods for removinglreducing green- house gases in the Earthrsquos atmosphere They are then asked to gather information on the subject (clarify the problem) which they will brainstorm during the next two class periods This hrain- storming session leads the students through a series of exercises that alternates among individual small group (two students) and large group (all students) brainstorming to compare the quality and quantity of ideas gathered Finally the small groups develop a ldquobusiness proposalrdquo for their best solution and present it to the entire class The class votes upon the viability of each proposal to determine what plan would most likely he funded and imple- mented
5 Critical Reading
The philosopher John Locke said ldquoreading fumishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read oursrsquorsquo [13] Reading provides the fodder for idea genera- tion however creativity is not fostered by simply readinl but by critically reading The key difference is in the attitude of the reader a critical thinker asks questions while reading and does not take what is written for granted or accept it at face value True critical reading requires asking questions that invoke the entire spectrum of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy (see Table 3)
Most students have no problem with summarizing what they read but this activity is merely a lower-level thinking skill By encouraging students to read using the higher-level skills Ianalysis synthesis and evaluation) the wheels of the creative proctss begin to tum They start to see holes in the work where further investi- gation is needed faulty arguments or unfounded claims hat open up new possibilities for research they can conceive ideas that will extend in new directions and meet a need in that area Several authors have suggested specific questions readers should ask when critiquing scientific articles [15-161 many of these quehons are summarized in the following list suggested by Seals an3 Tanaka [17]
Is the experimental question significant - Is a clear and testable hypothesis presented Is the overall experimental approach valid Are the results properly presented and believable
Are the conclusions reasonable on the hasis of the results
- Are the major findings both novel and important obtained
Since students may find the first and last questions difficult to evaluate it is important to describe the qualities entailedjn a good idea An excellent framework for this discussion is the rtview cri- teria found in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide [18] In this case reviewers are asked to evaluate the intellectual merit (novelty) and the broader impacts (significance and importance) of the research The definitions of these attributes are summarized in Table 4
With this framework students can develop a tangible method to judge the journal articles they read In addition they are made aware of the yardstick others will use to measure their proposals and papers
In this course students are given practice critically reading several journal articles in their research area some of which may be suggested by their advisors AAer discussing how 10 critique scientific manuscripts in class the students are assigned ii literature review on their research topic They choose IO articles and sum- marize their content They then select the four best papers and the
Table 3 Thinking skills used while reading critically
What are the reas
142 IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 NO 6 Deamber 2002
intellectual merit
Underrepresented groups I - Scientific rsquo rsquo community Brouder impacls I
- New knowledge and understanding Creative and original concepts Well conceived and organized plan - Teaching training and learning
1 Society
weakest paper to critically review they must point out the strengths and weaknesses of the research and discuss how this research impacts their project These reviews are distributed to a panel of three professors (including their advisor) for grading and feedback as well as given as oral presentations in class Based upon the comments from their fellow classmates and the review panel students revise and expand the literature summary and incorporate it into a research proposal which is the final course project
6 Segment Evaluation
In the brainstorming segment we have found that the stu- dents generate more ideas if the facilitator asks a series of ques- tions on the first day to ldquoprime the pumprdquo The students leave that first session to research the topic and return with fresh ideas based on the answers they found We have also adopted the guideline that each student must provide an answer to every question To increase the pace of discussion and ensure that the students can meet this guideline the students individually write three to five answers to a question on a note card and then share one idea with the larger group This process is repeated a second time with the same question to get ldquospringboardldquo ideas before moving on to the next question The quality of the session is evaluated by the num- ber and originality of the ideas Records of the brainstorming results from the last yearrsquos class are used as a challenge to the cur- rent class (eamp can they come up with more ideas than the previ- ous class did) As a result of this experience a greater percentage of the students participates fully in discussions and brainstorming sessions of subsequent lectures
In response to the critical reading assignment the studentsrsquo literature reviews are typically superficial at first and they fail to examine the methods results and discussions in papers closely enough to identify true strengths and weaknesses When the fac- ulty panel challenges their analyses the students must rewrite their reviews to address the noted deficiencies Although they do not achieve ldquoexpertrdquo status during this course their summaries and critiques show a marked improvement from the first assignment to its incorporation in the final research proposal submitted for the course Future modifications of this segment will include providing students with anonymous excerpts of reviews from previous years (good and bad) as well as an in-class exercise in analyzing a short research paper
7 Conclusion
In this segment of ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo we define creativity as the application of criti- cal thinking skills (analysis synthesis and evaluation) Developing these skills is a life-long practice that must be deliberately pursued
IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagaiion Magazine VoI 44 No 6 December 2002
During the course graduate students practice two methods to enhance their creativity brainstorming and critical reading These activities are designed to help them begin generating research ideas and developing their research proposal for their graduate studies
8 References
1 R Boice Advice for New Faculg Members Nihil Nimus Bos- ton Allyn and Bacon 2000
2 Kent School District ldquoTeaching Using Bloomrsquos Taxonomyrdquo 2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwkentwedneteduKSDMAresources~loomsteacher~ bloomshtml
3 M Scriven and R Paul ldquoDefining Critical Thinkingrdquo retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwcriticalthinkingorgiuniversitylunivclasslDe~ninghtml
4 J Baumgartner ldquo I O Steps for Boosting Creativityrdquo 1996 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwjpbcomcreativecreativehtml
5 C Cave ldquoCreativity Web Resources for Creativity and Innova- tionrdquo2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpllmembersozemailcomau-cavenianlCreativelindex2html
6 Mind Tools ldquoBrainstormingrdquo 2002 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmindtoolscombrainstmhtml
7 A Levine rdquoBrainstormingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmclidistmaricopaedulauthoringistudiolguidehoo~ brainhtml
8 M E Guffey ldquoFive Steps to Better Critical-thinking Prohlem- solving and Decision-making Skillsrsquorsquo 1998 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwwestwordscomlGUFFEYlcriticalhtml
9 J Baumbartner ldquoThe Step-by-step Guide to Brainstormingrdquo 1997 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpll~wjpbcomcreati~e~rainstorminghiml
10 B Bennett rdquoBrainstormingrdquo The Chemical Engineer 492 1991 pp 40-42
11 R Gamache and K W Eastman ldquoRunning a Creative Meet- ingrdquo ChemicalEngineering 97 11 1990 pp 165174
12 H Kling ldquoGet More Out of Group Projects by Using Struc- tured Brainstormingrdquo Quaamp Progress 23 3 1990 p 136
13 Baertracks ldquoCreative Quotationsrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwcreativequotationscom
14 Counselling and Development Centre ldquoReading Skills for University 4 Critical Thinkingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwyorkucdadmincdcdclspreadread4htm
143
15 H S Fogler Remenls of Chemical Reaction Engineering Second Edition New Jersey Prentice Hall 1992
16 D M Brunette Critical Thinking Understanding and Evalu- I ~
sting Dental Research Chicago Quintessence Publishing Co Inc 1996
17 D R Seals and H Tanaka ldquoManuscript Peer Review A Helpful Checklist for Students and Novice Refereesrdquo Advances in Physiology Education 23 12000 pp 52-58
18 National Science Foundation rdquoGrant Proposal Guide NSF 02 22002 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpwwwnsfgovpuhs2002ns~22nsf02
Introducing the Author
Julie Jessop is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bio- chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa She is actively involved in polymer research and teaches a series of polymer courses in addition to the ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course She received her PhD in chemical engi- neering from Michigan State University E
Editorlsquos Comments Conrinuedjiom page 124 2000 I quickly discovered that certain symbols in MalhType 50 which had printed correctly under Offire 97 did not print correctly from Office 2000 One example was the ldquoover-amwrdquo denoting a vector E I spent several days () of experimentation and dialogue with very senior technical support people at Microsoft Hewlett Packard and Design Science (publishers of MuthType) This included downloading and trying essentially every HP printer driver that would work with the LaserJet 5 Finally with people from Microsoft and HP talking together with me on a conference call a very frustrating conclusion was reached apparently there is no printer driver available that can be used with Office 2000 and the Laserlet 5 that will solve this problem The only solution was to get a more-modem printer
Actually things were more complex than the above com- ments suggest I could get all of the MathType symbols to print correctly if I was willing to chose the printing options such that the complete character set for every TrueType font being used was downloaded as a bitmap each time a document was printed How- ever that turned a 12 ppm (page per minute) printer into some- thing that printed at 3-4 ppm which wasnrsquot acceptable
I ended up with an HP LaserJet 4100 (as a single-user printer this model has now been replaced by the HP 4200 which is a similar printer and for which most the following comments should apply) Some experimentation with printer drivers was
needed with the Laserlet 4100 in order to get things printing prop- erly I can repon that the HP LaserJet 4100 PCL 6 driver does work correctly with MathType and Ofice 2000 As importmtly if yoursquore not already using one i t tums out that it is well worth upgrading to a 1200 dpi laser printer and the HP 4100 is a good one to consider
1200 dpi resolution (by this 1 mean 1200 dpi x 100 dpi) makes a very significant difference in two areas halftone images and print quality (and that covers much of what I think is important in using a printer) 1200 dpi resolution permits good-quaity ren- dering of halftones (eamp black-and-white photographs) with an equivalent line screen of about 85 Ipi (lines per inch) That is a common line screen for newspapers It isnrsquot considered ldquopublica- tion qualityrdquo (the Mugazine - with the new paper - uses screens of 133-150 lpi which require an output device with a resolution of about 2400 dpi) but it is visually quite significantly better than the 50-65 Ipi screens that can be simulated with a 600 dpi primer (such as the LaserJet 5) The improvement in the visual quality of half- tone images with an increase in the line screen can be much more than the difference in the numbers might suggest Goigg from 65 Ipi to 85 lpi will usually be perceived by most people to be a huge improvement HP also uses some additional enhancements (involving varying both dot density and dot size in printing half- tones) that noticeably improve the quality of printing halfiones to my eye In spite of my rather poor eyesight I can also see a very significant improvement in the quality of the rendering of text in going from 600 dpi to 1200 dpi This becomes particularly notice- able in the smaller elements in equations (subscripts supwscripts and diacritical marks)
The HP 4100 has a number of other very nice features It prints at 25 ppm (the 4200 is a 35 ppm printer) and its standard paper tray will hold a full ream of paper I will admit that I delayed writing about the HP 4100 for several months because I was wor- ried about some of the mechanical noises it made when printing (indeed I exchanged the original unit for a second one hccause of such concerns) However Irsquove now used it enough to believe that such noises are normal (and once you get used to them not at all objectionable) the printer seems to he quite reliable
The HP 4200 starts at a ldquostreetrdquo price of around $1 100 You donrsquot have to pay that much to get similar features hcwever I have also recently used the WP 1200 (also a 1200 dpi printer hut with a speed of 15 ppm) which starts at about $400 To my eye the quality of the output is the same as for the HP 4100
Happy New Year
The holiday season is here and a new year will arrive around the time you receive this issue (hopefully yoursquoll get it that promptly) I hope your holidays are joyous and I hope you have a most happy healthy safe and prosperous New Year $
144 IEEE Anfennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
2 Think ahout how to solve it
3 Screen the contributions
4 Commit to action
The first step is the key to generating great ideas identification and clarification of the problem John Dewey the philosopher commented that ldquoa problem well-stated is a problem half-solvedrdquo [5] William Deming the quality-control expert echoed that sen- timent when relaying the following
When asked what single event was most helpful in developing the Theory of Relativity Albert Einstein replied ldquoFiguring out how io think about the problemrdquo 151
Thus becoming familiar with the critical issues in an area or spending time developing the physical picture of the system will speed the generation of new research ideas In essence by clearly viewing the problem from all angles it is easier to start the brain- storming process It is also imperative when brainstorming in a group that all members understand the question to he answered before suggesting solutions (ie they are all on the same page) If some group members misinterpret the problem they will not be contributing to the solution and they may slow down the hrain- storming process
The second step is the actual brainstorming for solutions or ideas It involves collecting as many ideas as possible and building upon one anotherrsquos ideas (in group brainstorming) to generate even more ideas Judgment of these ideas is reserved for the third step Only at this time are similar ideas combined criteria for judging the ideas determined and the best ideas chosen The final step involves acting upon the best ideas and evaluating the results (eg run the experiment and determine if the hypothesis was proven or not)
In this course students are given practice brainstorming indi- vidually and as a group After discussing how to brainstorm effec- tively in class the students are assigned one of two topics new uses for agricultural oils or methods for removinglreducing green- house gases in the Earthrsquos atmosphere They are then asked to gather information on the subject (clarify the problem) which they will brainstorm during the next two class periods This hrain- storming session leads the students through a series of exercises that alternates among individual small group (two students) and large group (all students) brainstorming to compare the quality and quantity of ideas gathered Finally the small groups develop a ldquobusiness proposalrdquo for their best solution and present it to the entire class The class votes upon the viability of each proposal to determine what plan would most likely he funded and imple- mented
5 Critical Reading
The philosopher John Locke said ldquoreading fumishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read oursrsquorsquo [13] Reading provides the fodder for idea genera- tion however creativity is not fostered by simply readinl but by critically reading The key difference is in the attitude of the reader a critical thinker asks questions while reading and does not take what is written for granted or accept it at face value True critical reading requires asking questions that invoke the entire spectrum of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy (see Table 3)
Most students have no problem with summarizing what they read but this activity is merely a lower-level thinking skill By encouraging students to read using the higher-level skills Ianalysis synthesis and evaluation) the wheels of the creative proctss begin to tum They start to see holes in the work where further investi- gation is needed faulty arguments or unfounded claims hat open up new possibilities for research they can conceive ideas that will extend in new directions and meet a need in that area Several authors have suggested specific questions readers should ask when critiquing scientific articles [15-161 many of these quehons are summarized in the following list suggested by Seals an3 Tanaka [17]
Is the experimental question significant - Is a clear and testable hypothesis presented Is the overall experimental approach valid Are the results properly presented and believable
Are the conclusions reasonable on the hasis of the results
- Are the major findings both novel and important obtained
Since students may find the first and last questions difficult to evaluate it is important to describe the qualities entailedjn a good idea An excellent framework for this discussion is the rtview cri- teria found in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide [18] In this case reviewers are asked to evaluate the intellectual merit (novelty) and the broader impacts (significance and importance) of the research The definitions of these attributes are summarized in Table 4
With this framework students can develop a tangible method to judge the journal articles they read In addition they are made aware of the yardstick others will use to measure their proposals and papers
In this course students are given practice critically reading several journal articles in their research area some of which may be suggested by their advisors AAer discussing how 10 critique scientific manuscripts in class the students are assigned ii literature review on their research topic They choose IO articles and sum- marize their content They then select the four best papers and the
Table 3 Thinking skills used while reading critically
What are the reas
142 IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 NO 6 Deamber 2002
intellectual merit
Underrepresented groups I - Scientific rsquo rsquo community Brouder impacls I
- New knowledge and understanding Creative and original concepts Well conceived and organized plan - Teaching training and learning
1 Society
weakest paper to critically review they must point out the strengths and weaknesses of the research and discuss how this research impacts their project These reviews are distributed to a panel of three professors (including their advisor) for grading and feedback as well as given as oral presentations in class Based upon the comments from their fellow classmates and the review panel students revise and expand the literature summary and incorporate it into a research proposal which is the final course project
6 Segment Evaluation
In the brainstorming segment we have found that the stu- dents generate more ideas if the facilitator asks a series of ques- tions on the first day to ldquoprime the pumprdquo The students leave that first session to research the topic and return with fresh ideas based on the answers they found We have also adopted the guideline that each student must provide an answer to every question To increase the pace of discussion and ensure that the students can meet this guideline the students individually write three to five answers to a question on a note card and then share one idea with the larger group This process is repeated a second time with the same question to get ldquospringboardldquo ideas before moving on to the next question The quality of the session is evaluated by the num- ber and originality of the ideas Records of the brainstorming results from the last yearrsquos class are used as a challenge to the cur- rent class (eamp can they come up with more ideas than the previ- ous class did) As a result of this experience a greater percentage of the students participates fully in discussions and brainstorming sessions of subsequent lectures
In response to the critical reading assignment the studentsrsquo literature reviews are typically superficial at first and they fail to examine the methods results and discussions in papers closely enough to identify true strengths and weaknesses When the fac- ulty panel challenges their analyses the students must rewrite their reviews to address the noted deficiencies Although they do not achieve ldquoexpertrdquo status during this course their summaries and critiques show a marked improvement from the first assignment to its incorporation in the final research proposal submitted for the course Future modifications of this segment will include providing students with anonymous excerpts of reviews from previous years (good and bad) as well as an in-class exercise in analyzing a short research paper
7 Conclusion
In this segment of ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo we define creativity as the application of criti- cal thinking skills (analysis synthesis and evaluation) Developing these skills is a life-long practice that must be deliberately pursued
IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagaiion Magazine VoI 44 No 6 December 2002
During the course graduate students practice two methods to enhance their creativity brainstorming and critical reading These activities are designed to help them begin generating research ideas and developing their research proposal for their graduate studies
8 References
1 R Boice Advice for New Faculg Members Nihil Nimus Bos- ton Allyn and Bacon 2000
2 Kent School District ldquoTeaching Using Bloomrsquos Taxonomyrdquo 2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwkentwedneteduKSDMAresources~loomsteacher~ bloomshtml
3 M Scriven and R Paul ldquoDefining Critical Thinkingrdquo retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwcriticalthinkingorgiuniversitylunivclasslDe~ninghtml
4 J Baumgartner ldquo I O Steps for Boosting Creativityrdquo 1996 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwjpbcomcreativecreativehtml
5 C Cave ldquoCreativity Web Resources for Creativity and Innova- tionrdquo2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpllmembersozemailcomau-cavenianlCreativelindex2html
6 Mind Tools ldquoBrainstormingrdquo 2002 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmindtoolscombrainstmhtml
7 A Levine rdquoBrainstormingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmclidistmaricopaedulauthoringistudiolguidehoo~ brainhtml
8 M E Guffey ldquoFive Steps to Better Critical-thinking Prohlem- solving and Decision-making Skillsrsquorsquo 1998 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwwestwordscomlGUFFEYlcriticalhtml
9 J Baumbartner ldquoThe Step-by-step Guide to Brainstormingrdquo 1997 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpll~wjpbcomcreati~e~rainstorminghiml
10 B Bennett rdquoBrainstormingrdquo The Chemical Engineer 492 1991 pp 40-42
11 R Gamache and K W Eastman ldquoRunning a Creative Meet- ingrdquo ChemicalEngineering 97 11 1990 pp 165174
12 H Kling ldquoGet More Out of Group Projects by Using Struc- tured Brainstormingrdquo Quaamp Progress 23 3 1990 p 136
13 Baertracks ldquoCreative Quotationsrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwcreativequotationscom
14 Counselling and Development Centre ldquoReading Skills for University 4 Critical Thinkingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwyorkucdadmincdcdclspreadread4htm
143
15 H S Fogler Remenls of Chemical Reaction Engineering Second Edition New Jersey Prentice Hall 1992
16 D M Brunette Critical Thinking Understanding and Evalu- I ~
sting Dental Research Chicago Quintessence Publishing Co Inc 1996
17 D R Seals and H Tanaka ldquoManuscript Peer Review A Helpful Checklist for Students and Novice Refereesrdquo Advances in Physiology Education 23 12000 pp 52-58
18 National Science Foundation rdquoGrant Proposal Guide NSF 02 22002 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpwwwnsfgovpuhs2002ns~22nsf02
Introducing the Author
Julie Jessop is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bio- chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa She is actively involved in polymer research and teaches a series of polymer courses in addition to the ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course She received her PhD in chemical engi- neering from Michigan State University E
Editorlsquos Comments Conrinuedjiom page 124 2000 I quickly discovered that certain symbols in MalhType 50 which had printed correctly under Offire 97 did not print correctly from Office 2000 One example was the ldquoover-amwrdquo denoting a vector E I spent several days () of experimentation and dialogue with very senior technical support people at Microsoft Hewlett Packard and Design Science (publishers of MuthType) This included downloading and trying essentially every HP printer driver that would work with the LaserJet 5 Finally with people from Microsoft and HP talking together with me on a conference call a very frustrating conclusion was reached apparently there is no printer driver available that can be used with Office 2000 and the Laserlet 5 that will solve this problem The only solution was to get a more-modem printer
Actually things were more complex than the above com- ments suggest I could get all of the MathType symbols to print correctly if I was willing to chose the printing options such that the complete character set for every TrueType font being used was downloaded as a bitmap each time a document was printed How- ever that turned a 12 ppm (page per minute) printer into some- thing that printed at 3-4 ppm which wasnrsquot acceptable
I ended up with an HP LaserJet 4100 (as a single-user printer this model has now been replaced by the HP 4200 which is a similar printer and for which most the following comments should apply) Some experimentation with printer drivers was
needed with the Laserlet 4100 in order to get things printing prop- erly I can repon that the HP LaserJet 4100 PCL 6 driver does work correctly with MathType and Ofice 2000 As importmtly if yoursquore not already using one i t tums out that it is well worth upgrading to a 1200 dpi laser printer and the HP 4100 is a good one to consider
1200 dpi resolution (by this 1 mean 1200 dpi x 100 dpi) makes a very significant difference in two areas halftone images and print quality (and that covers much of what I think is important in using a printer) 1200 dpi resolution permits good-quaity ren- dering of halftones (eamp black-and-white photographs) with an equivalent line screen of about 85 Ipi (lines per inch) That is a common line screen for newspapers It isnrsquot considered ldquopublica- tion qualityrdquo (the Mugazine - with the new paper - uses screens of 133-150 lpi which require an output device with a resolution of about 2400 dpi) but it is visually quite significantly better than the 50-65 Ipi screens that can be simulated with a 600 dpi primer (such as the LaserJet 5) The improvement in the visual quality of half- tone images with an increase in the line screen can be much more than the difference in the numbers might suggest Goigg from 65 Ipi to 85 lpi will usually be perceived by most people to be a huge improvement HP also uses some additional enhancements (involving varying both dot density and dot size in printing half- tones) that noticeably improve the quality of printing halfiones to my eye In spite of my rather poor eyesight I can also see a very significant improvement in the quality of the rendering of text in going from 600 dpi to 1200 dpi This becomes particularly notice- able in the smaller elements in equations (subscripts supwscripts and diacritical marks)
The HP 4100 has a number of other very nice features It prints at 25 ppm (the 4200 is a 35 ppm printer) and its standard paper tray will hold a full ream of paper I will admit that I delayed writing about the HP 4100 for several months because I was wor- ried about some of the mechanical noises it made when printing (indeed I exchanged the original unit for a second one hccause of such concerns) However Irsquove now used it enough to believe that such noises are normal (and once you get used to them not at all objectionable) the printer seems to he quite reliable
The HP 4200 starts at a ldquostreetrdquo price of around $1 100 You donrsquot have to pay that much to get similar features hcwever I have also recently used the WP 1200 (also a 1200 dpi printer hut with a speed of 15 ppm) which starts at about $400 To my eye the quality of the output is the same as for the HP 4100
Happy New Year
The holiday season is here and a new year will arrive around the time you receive this issue (hopefully yoursquoll get it that promptly) I hope your holidays are joyous and I hope you have a most happy healthy safe and prosperous New Year $
144 IEEE Anfennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
intellectual merit
Underrepresented groups I - Scientific rsquo rsquo community Brouder impacls I
- New knowledge and understanding Creative and original concepts Well conceived and organized plan - Teaching training and learning
1 Society
weakest paper to critically review they must point out the strengths and weaknesses of the research and discuss how this research impacts their project These reviews are distributed to a panel of three professors (including their advisor) for grading and feedback as well as given as oral presentations in class Based upon the comments from their fellow classmates and the review panel students revise and expand the literature summary and incorporate it into a research proposal which is the final course project
6 Segment Evaluation
In the brainstorming segment we have found that the stu- dents generate more ideas if the facilitator asks a series of ques- tions on the first day to ldquoprime the pumprdquo The students leave that first session to research the topic and return with fresh ideas based on the answers they found We have also adopted the guideline that each student must provide an answer to every question To increase the pace of discussion and ensure that the students can meet this guideline the students individually write three to five answers to a question on a note card and then share one idea with the larger group This process is repeated a second time with the same question to get ldquospringboardldquo ideas before moving on to the next question The quality of the session is evaluated by the num- ber and originality of the ideas Records of the brainstorming results from the last yearrsquos class are used as a challenge to the cur- rent class (eamp can they come up with more ideas than the previ- ous class did) As a result of this experience a greater percentage of the students participates fully in discussions and brainstorming sessions of subsequent lectures
In response to the critical reading assignment the studentsrsquo literature reviews are typically superficial at first and they fail to examine the methods results and discussions in papers closely enough to identify true strengths and weaknesses When the fac- ulty panel challenges their analyses the students must rewrite their reviews to address the noted deficiencies Although they do not achieve ldquoexpertrdquo status during this course their summaries and critiques show a marked improvement from the first assignment to its incorporation in the final research proposal submitted for the course Future modifications of this segment will include providing students with anonymous excerpts of reviews from previous years (good and bad) as well as an in-class exercise in analyzing a short research paper
7 Conclusion
In this segment of ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo we define creativity as the application of criti- cal thinking skills (analysis synthesis and evaluation) Developing these skills is a life-long practice that must be deliberately pursued
IEEE Antennarsquos and Propagaiion Magazine VoI 44 No 6 December 2002
During the course graduate students practice two methods to enhance their creativity brainstorming and critical reading These activities are designed to help them begin generating research ideas and developing their research proposal for their graduate studies
8 References
1 R Boice Advice for New Faculg Members Nihil Nimus Bos- ton Allyn and Bacon 2000
2 Kent School District ldquoTeaching Using Bloomrsquos Taxonomyrdquo 2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwkentwedneteduKSDMAresources~loomsteacher~ bloomshtml
3 M Scriven and R Paul ldquoDefining Critical Thinkingrdquo retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwcriticalthinkingorgiuniversitylunivclasslDe~ninghtml
4 J Baumgartner ldquo I O Steps for Boosting Creativityrdquo 1996 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwjpbcomcreativecreativehtml
5 C Cave ldquoCreativity Web Resources for Creativity and Innova- tionrdquo2001 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpllmembersozemailcomau-cavenianlCreativelindex2html
6 Mind Tools ldquoBrainstormingrdquo 2002 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmindtoolscombrainstmhtml
7 A Levine rdquoBrainstormingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwmclidistmaricopaedulauthoringistudiolguidehoo~ brainhtml
8 M E Guffey ldquoFive Steps to Better Critical-thinking Prohlem- solving and Decision-making Skillsrsquorsquo 1998 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwwestwordscomlGUFFEYlcriticalhtml
9 J Baumbartner ldquoThe Step-by-step Guide to Brainstormingrdquo 1997 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpll~wjpbcomcreati~e~rainstorminghiml
10 B Bennett rdquoBrainstormingrdquo The Chemical Engineer 492 1991 pp 40-42
11 R Gamache and K W Eastman ldquoRunning a Creative Meet- ingrdquo ChemicalEngineering 97 11 1990 pp 165174
12 H Kling ldquoGet More Out of Group Projects by Using Struc- tured Brainstormingrdquo Quaamp Progress 23 3 1990 p 136
13 Baertracks ldquoCreative Quotationsrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httpllwwwcreativequotationscom
14 Counselling and Development Centre ldquoReading Skills for University 4 Critical Thinkingrdquo 2001 retrieved January 2 2002 from the World Wide Web httplwwwyorkucdadmincdcdclspreadread4htm
143
15 H S Fogler Remenls of Chemical Reaction Engineering Second Edition New Jersey Prentice Hall 1992
16 D M Brunette Critical Thinking Understanding and Evalu- I ~
sting Dental Research Chicago Quintessence Publishing Co Inc 1996
17 D R Seals and H Tanaka ldquoManuscript Peer Review A Helpful Checklist for Students and Novice Refereesrdquo Advances in Physiology Education 23 12000 pp 52-58
18 National Science Foundation rdquoGrant Proposal Guide NSF 02 22002 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpwwwnsfgovpuhs2002ns~22nsf02
Introducing the Author
Julie Jessop is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bio- chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa She is actively involved in polymer research and teaches a series of polymer courses in addition to the ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course She received her PhD in chemical engi- neering from Michigan State University E
Editorlsquos Comments Conrinuedjiom page 124 2000 I quickly discovered that certain symbols in MalhType 50 which had printed correctly under Offire 97 did not print correctly from Office 2000 One example was the ldquoover-amwrdquo denoting a vector E I spent several days () of experimentation and dialogue with very senior technical support people at Microsoft Hewlett Packard and Design Science (publishers of MuthType) This included downloading and trying essentially every HP printer driver that would work with the LaserJet 5 Finally with people from Microsoft and HP talking together with me on a conference call a very frustrating conclusion was reached apparently there is no printer driver available that can be used with Office 2000 and the Laserlet 5 that will solve this problem The only solution was to get a more-modem printer
Actually things were more complex than the above com- ments suggest I could get all of the MathType symbols to print correctly if I was willing to chose the printing options such that the complete character set for every TrueType font being used was downloaded as a bitmap each time a document was printed How- ever that turned a 12 ppm (page per minute) printer into some- thing that printed at 3-4 ppm which wasnrsquot acceptable
I ended up with an HP LaserJet 4100 (as a single-user printer this model has now been replaced by the HP 4200 which is a similar printer and for which most the following comments should apply) Some experimentation with printer drivers was
needed with the Laserlet 4100 in order to get things printing prop- erly I can repon that the HP LaserJet 4100 PCL 6 driver does work correctly with MathType and Ofice 2000 As importmtly if yoursquore not already using one i t tums out that it is well worth upgrading to a 1200 dpi laser printer and the HP 4100 is a good one to consider
1200 dpi resolution (by this 1 mean 1200 dpi x 100 dpi) makes a very significant difference in two areas halftone images and print quality (and that covers much of what I think is important in using a printer) 1200 dpi resolution permits good-quaity ren- dering of halftones (eamp black-and-white photographs) with an equivalent line screen of about 85 Ipi (lines per inch) That is a common line screen for newspapers It isnrsquot considered ldquopublica- tion qualityrdquo (the Mugazine - with the new paper - uses screens of 133-150 lpi which require an output device with a resolution of about 2400 dpi) but it is visually quite significantly better than the 50-65 Ipi screens that can be simulated with a 600 dpi primer (such as the LaserJet 5) The improvement in the visual quality of half- tone images with an increase in the line screen can be much more than the difference in the numbers might suggest Goigg from 65 Ipi to 85 lpi will usually be perceived by most people to be a huge improvement HP also uses some additional enhancements (involving varying both dot density and dot size in printing half- tones) that noticeably improve the quality of printing halfiones to my eye In spite of my rather poor eyesight I can also see a very significant improvement in the quality of the rendering of text in going from 600 dpi to 1200 dpi This becomes particularly notice- able in the smaller elements in equations (subscripts supwscripts and diacritical marks)
The HP 4100 has a number of other very nice features It prints at 25 ppm (the 4200 is a 35 ppm printer) and its standard paper tray will hold a full ream of paper I will admit that I delayed writing about the HP 4100 for several months because I was wor- ried about some of the mechanical noises it made when printing (indeed I exchanged the original unit for a second one hccause of such concerns) However Irsquove now used it enough to believe that such noises are normal (and once you get used to them not at all objectionable) the printer seems to he quite reliable
The HP 4200 starts at a ldquostreetrdquo price of around $1 100 You donrsquot have to pay that much to get similar features hcwever I have also recently used the WP 1200 (also a 1200 dpi printer hut with a speed of 15 ppm) which starts at about $400 To my eye the quality of the output is the same as for the HP 4100
Happy New Year
The holiday season is here and a new year will arrive around the time you receive this issue (hopefully yoursquoll get it that promptly) I hope your holidays are joyous and I hope you have a most happy healthy safe and prosperous New Year $
144 IEEE Anfennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002
15 H S Fogler Remenls of Chemical Reaction Engineering Second Edition New Jersey Prentice Hall 1992
16 D M Brunette Critical Thinking Understanding and Evalu- I ~
sting Dental Research Chicago Quintessence Publishing Co Inc 1996
17 D R Seals and H Tanaka ldquoManuscript Peer Review A Helpful Checklist for Students and Novice Refereesrdquo Advances in Physiology Education 23 12000 pp 52-58
18 National Science Foundation rdquoGrant Proposal Guide NSF 02 22002 retrieved January 22002 from the World Wide Web httpwwwnsfgovpuhs2002ns~22nsf02
Introducing the Author
Julie Jessop is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bio- chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa She is actively involved in polymer research and teaches a series of polymer courses in addition to the ldquoIntroduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writingrdquo course She received her PhD in chemical engi- neering from Michigan State University E
Editorlsquos Comments Conrinuedjiom page 124 2000 I quickly discovered that certain symbols in MalhType 50 which had printed correctly under Offire 97 did not print correctly from Office 2000 One example was the ldquoover-amwrdquo denoting a vector E I spent several days () of experimentation and dialogue with very senior technical support people at Microsoft Hewlett Packard and Design Science (publishers of MuthType) This included downloading and trying essentially every HP printer driver that would work with the LaserJet 5 Finally with people from Microsoft and HP talking together with me on a conference call a very frustrating conclusion was reached apparently there is no printer driver available that can be used with Office 2000 and the Laserlet 5 that will solve this problem The only solution was to get a more-modem printer
Actually things were more complex than the above com- ments suggest I could get all of the MathType symbols to print correctly if I was willing to chose the printing options such that the complete character set for every TrueType font being used was downloaded as a bitmap each time a document was printed How- ever that turned a 12 ppm (page per minute) printer into some- thing that printed at 3-4 ppm which wasnrsquot acceptable
I ended up with an HP LaserJet 4100 (as a single-user printer this model has now been replaced by the HP 4200 which is a similar printer and for which most the following comments should apply) Some experimentation with printer drivers was
needed with the Laserlet 4100 in order to get things printing prop- erly I can repon that the HP LaserJet 4100 PCL 6 driver does work correctly with MathType and Ofice 2000 As importmtly if yoursquore not already using one i t tums out that it is well worth upgrading to a 1200 dpi laser printer and the HP 4100 is a good one to consider
1200 dpi resolution (by this 1 mean 1200 dpi x 100 dpi) makes a very significant difference in two areas halftone images and print quality (and that covers much of what I think is important in using a printer) 1200 dpi resolution permits good-quaity ren- dering of halftones (eamp black-and-white photographs) with an equivalent line screen of about 85 Ipi (lines per inch) That is a common line screen for newspapers It isnrsquot considered ldquopublica- tion qualityrdquo (the Mugazine - with the new paper - uses screens of 133-150 lpi which require an output device with a resolution of about 2400 dpi) but it is visually quite significantly better than the 50-65 Ipi screens that can be simulated with a 600 dpi primer (such as the LaserJet 5) The improvement in the visual quality of half- tone images with an increase in the line screen can be much more than the difference in the numbers might suggest Goigg from 65 Ipi to 85 lpi will usually be perceived by most people to be a huge improvement HP also uses some additional enhancements (involving varying both dot density and dot size in printing half- tones) that noticeably improve the quality of printing halfiones to my eye In spite of my rather poor eyesight I can also see a very significant improvement in the quality of the rendering of text in going from 600 dpi to 1200 dpi This becomes particularly notice- able in the smaller elements in equations (subscripts supwscripts and diacritical marks)
The HP 4100 has a number of other very nice features It prints at 25 ppm (the 4200 is a 35 ppm printer) and its standard paper tray will hold a full ream of paper I will admit that I delayed writing about the HP 4100 for several months because I was wor- ried about some of the mechanical noises it made when printing (indeed I exchanged the original unit for a second one hccause of such concerns) However Irsquove now used it enough to believe that such noises are normal (and once you get used to them not at all objectionable) the printer seems to he quite reliable
The HP 4200 starts at a ldquostreetrdquo price of around $1 100 You donrsquot have to pay that much to get similar features hcwever I have also recently used the WP 1200 (also a 1200 dpi printer hut with a speed of 15 ppm) which starts at about $400 To my eye the quality of the output is the same as for the HP 4100
Happy New Year
The holiday season is here and a new year will arrive around the time you receive this issue (hopefully yoursquoll get it that promptly) I hope your holidays are joyous and I hope you have a most happy healthy safe and prosperous New Year $
144 IEEE Anfennarsquos and Propagation Magazine Vol 44 No 6 December 2002