Creative thinkers are valuable assets to any family, organization, or company. The creative person knows that there is always room for improvement. Every problem that has been solved can be solved again in a better way. Creative thinkers do not subscribe to the idea that once a problem has been solved, it can be forgotten, or to the notion that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” A creative thinker’s philosophy is that “there is no such thing as an insignificant improvement.” Activity Titles

1. Command Center of the Body
2. Left-Brained or Right-Brained
3. Two Faced
4. Dominance and Mixed Dominance
5. Lefties
6. What Is Creativity?
7. Not Accepting What Is
8. Pictures in Your Mind
9. Divergent Thinking
10. Brainstorming
11. Divergent and Convergent
12. Stimulated Imagination
13. An Attitude of Creativeness
14. Stimulate the Imagination
15. Thinking of Alternatives
16. Exercising Your Brain
17. 13 Steps of Inventing
18. Inventing a Structure
19. Combining Unlike Things
20. A Stretch of the Imagination
21. Visualizing
22. Visualizing Success
23. Visualization Sharpened
24. Visualizing an Object in Space
25. An Exercise in Visualization
26. Left and Right Partners
27. Compare and Contrast
28. Can Success Cause Apathy?
29. Failure Can Inspire Creativeness
30. A Healthy Brain
31. Practicality of Ideas

You make decisions every day of your life. You decide when to get up in the morning, what to wear, what to eat, what to say, what to do, and when to call it a day. Some decisions are easy to make and require little thought. Other decisions, such as removing the life support system from a loved one who is gravely ill, are much harder to make and require much thought. Many factors influence the decisions we make. Activity Titles

1. Rational and Irrational Thinking
2. Why Mistakes Happen
3. Mistakes and Excuses
4. Making the Same Mistake Again
5. Avoid Making the Mistake Again
6. Handling Mistakes
7. Steps in Rectifying Mistakes
8. Taking Care of Mistakes
9. Fixing a Mistake
10. Personality Styles and Decision Making
11. Poor Decision Making
12. Logical and Emotional Decision Making
13. Head or Heart Decisions
14. Making Decisions with Your Head and Your Heart
15. Dilemma Decisions
16. Impulsive Decisions
17. The Ripple Effect
18. The Ripple Effect
19. Environmental Influences
20. Influences in Your Neighborhood
21. Making Wise Decisions
22. Overcoming Undesirable Influences
23. Controlling Your Destiny
24. Feeling Ashamed
25. Confused

We listen for many different reasons. We listen for enjoyment and relaxation. We listen with empathy to give support and to gain an understanding of the other person’s feelings. We listen to gather information. We listen with a discriminating ear to understand, evaluate, and discern truth. Activity Titles

1. Testing Your Hearing
2. What’s a Decibel?
3. How Well Do You Listen?
4. Riddle Me This
5. Why Should I Listen?
6. Listening at Work
7. My Place in the Family
8. A Listening Trip
9. What Am I Hearing?
10. Panning for Gold
11. What Does That Mean?
12. Movie Preview Voice
13. Interpreting the Message
14. Slanted Viewpoints
15. The Power of Talk Radio
16. How Are You?
17. Too Much Effort
18. Listening Attitudes and Behaviors
19. A Tolerant Ear
20. Reflective Listening
21. Talk Less, Listen More
22. Eliminating Distractions
23. Evaluating Eye Contact
24. Poor Eye Contact
25. Just the Facts, Ma’am
26. Forming a Response
27. Responding Wisely
28. Experiment in Listening

The point of a logical argument is to give reasons in support of a conclusion. An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. When arguing with someone in an attempt to get at an answer or an explanation to a theory, you may come across a person who makes logical fallacies. Such discussions may prove futile. You might try asking for evidence and independent confirmation or provide another hypothesis that gives a better or simpler explanation. If this fails, try to pinpoint the problem of your arguer’s position. You might spot the problem of logic that prevents further exploration and attempt to inform your arguer of his or her fallacy. Activity Titles

1. Fallacies in Over-Generalizations
2. Jumping to Conclusions
3. Questionable Conclusions
4. Give ‘Em An Inch and They’ll Take a Mile
5. The Domino Effect
6. Fallacies in Superstitions
7. Sidestepping the Issue
8. Red Herrings
9. Name Calling
10. Popular Opinion Argument
11. Appealing to Tradition
12. False Authority
13. Oversimplification: There’s More to the Problem
14. False Dilemmas
15. Circular Argument
16. Appealing to the Crowd
17. Get on the Bandwagon
18. Absolving Yourself
19. Two Wrong Do Not Make a Right
20. What Is True for the Whole Is Not Necessarily True for the Parts
21. Speculation
22. Fear Affects Our Logic
23. Fear as a Tool
24. Straw Man Position
25. Analogies
26. Exaggerated Analogies

Knowledge is extracted from what you observe, experience, infer, and read. When you try to understand and make sense of information, you use reason. The right side of the brain seeks patterns. The left side of the brain uses the patterns (sequence of events) to predict the likelihood of something happening. This prediction is called a probability. For example, you might reason that if little Johnny has played the same wrong note in his piano piece the last two times he has performed it, there is a good probability that he will play the wrong note again the next time he performs the piece. Scientists and mathematicians use logical reasoning to prove conclusions. Policemen, detectives, and attorneys use logical reasoning to prove criminal cases. You use logical reasoning every day of your life to make and prove conclusions. If you know the structure of an argument you will be able to recognize the point of it, recognize the role that words and phrases play, and be able to evaluate the argument’s validity. Activity Titles

1. Logic and Reason
2. Are You A Logical Thinker?
3. Accuracy of Probabilities
4. Making Predictions
5. Thinking of Possibilities
6. Begin a Mystery
7. Games of Thought
8. Mind-Set
9. Stereotypes
10. A Mental Trap
11. Off On a Tangent
12. Premises and Conclusions
13. Inductive Reasoning
14. Deductive Reasoning
15. Deductive Reasoning Practice
16. Critical Thinkers
17. A Critical Eye
18. Fact or Opinion
19. Inference Doesn’t Make It Fact
20. Statistics Scrutinized

Perception is your ability to perceive your environment, to pick up clues and minutiae, including the emotions of others. It is also your native intelligence and wit and how fast you are on the uptake. Poor perception means you are oblivious to your surroundings; you are like an absent-minded professor constantly bumping into things and missing details. Average perception assumes you are capable of noticing fairly obvious details such as expressions, things lying around in plain sight, partially closed drawers, badly fitted secret doors. Good perception means you notice little things such as something odd about an expression or a glance passing between people, faint marks, hurriedly hidden objects, and unskillfully design secret doors or compartments. Great perception assumes you are aware enough to notice all but the smallest details such as a smudge, a place where a well-hidden secret door probably ought to be, or a change in expression that would escape most people. Excellent perception means that almost nothing escapes your eye such as faint scratches, fingerprints, the smallest change in expressions, places where even the most skillfully hidden objects or hiding place might be. Extraordinary perception means nothing evades your eagle eye. Activity Titles

1. Seeing Things Differently
2. Different Perspectives
3. Individual Perspectives
4. Individual Points of View
5. Perception Influenced by Attitude
6. Attitude Affects Perception
7. Perception Influenced by Attitude
8. Perception and Objectivity
9. Perception and Emotions
10. Observation Affects Perceptions
11. Perception Influenced by Observation
12. Perception and Close Observation
13. Perception Influenced by Culture
14. Cultural Points of View
15. Perception Influenced by Experience
16. New Perspectives

The air conditioner’s condensation pipe is clogged with mineral deposits causing water to drip from the overflow pan located inside the fan assembly in the garage. A bucket is used to catch the water, but that doesn’t work. The water runs down the wall and not into the bucket. How can the water be channeled into the bucket until a repairman comes? There are all kinds of problems to solve. Some problems are out of our control such as war, some disease, and natural disasters. Some problems can be avoided or lessened if there is adequate forethought and preparation. For example, if we live in an area that is prone to tornadoes, we can ensure our safety if we build a storm cellar. Some problems are of a personal nature. Perhaps there is a breakdown in communication resulting in a misunderstanding. Maybe one of the individuals involved is confused due to stress or illness, or one feels overwhelmed or inadequate. There may be a difference of opinion. There may not be enough information or the information may be wrong. Perhaps hidden feelings are revealed after the situation is looked at more closely and there is a change in perspective after thinking about something for awhile. Maybe there is a dilemma and no one can be a winner. Other problems, such as the clogged air conditioner pipe, are mechanical, scientific or mathematical. Activity Titles

1. Monster Problems
2. Personal Problem Collage
3. Characteristics of a Problem
4. Swatting Flies
5. Seeing the Whole Picture
6. Word Association
7. Stop and Think
8. What’s Wrong Here?
9. Problem Sources
10. Making Accurate Observations
11. Dealing with Details
12. What’s Different Here?
13. What Did I See?
14. Cops and Robbers
15. Brainstorming Solutions
16. Thinking of Possibilities
17. Educated Decisions
18. Gathering Information
19. Not Enough Information
20. Is It Reliable?
21. Where Information Comes From
22. Is It True or False?
23. The Three Goblets Mystery
24. Anagrams
25. Kaleidoscope
26. What Are My Choices?
27. Problem Solving Steps
28. Your Mind’s Eye
29. Visual Attention
30. Sprouting Spatial Ability
31. Left Brain: Describing Objects
32. Right Brain: Stimulating Spatial Neurons
33. Finding Solutions

Memory is the stepping-stone to thinking, because without remembering facts, you cannot think, conceptualize, reason, make decisions, create or contribute. There is no learning without memory. This section will enable you to remember anything you want to remember in less time than it takes you now. It will discuss some valuable principles that are vital to improving your ability to remember. Activity Titles

1. Why Have a Good Memory?
2. Causes of Poor Memory
3. What Causes Poor Memory?
4. Why Memory is Poor
5. Hobbies Enhance Memory
6. Hobbies That Enhance Memory
7. Activities That Enhance Memory
8. Concentration Enhances Memory
9. Not Listening
10. Not Concentrating
11. Remembering by Association
12. Using the Five Senses
13. Organizing Material
14. Organize to Remember
15. Get Organized
16. Remembering the Sequence
17. Sequence of Events
18. Categorize
19. Organize and Categorize
20. Mental Mapping
21. Remembering Numbers
22. Exaggeration and Absurdity
23. Ridiculous and Absurd
24. Using Acronyms
25. Baroque Music and Memory
26. Quiet Reflection
27. Memory Cement
28. Practice Makes Perfect
29. Repetition Makes It Easier
30. Write It Down

This document will help participants understand how to solve some of the dilemmas they may face as students. Activity Titles

1. Your Teacher is Moving
2. Teacher’s Pet
3. Potential
4. Underachieving
5. Your Teacher Hates You
6. Embarrassed Beyond Belief
7. Too Much Homework in One Class
8. Your Dog Ate Your Homework
9. Negligent Teacher
10. Infatuated With the Teacher
11. The Teacher Is Too Personal
12. The Problem with Friends
13. You Hate Your Name
14. Being Average
15. Being Tutored
16. Being Separated From Friends
17. Not Much Money
18. Shunned by Friends
19. A Friend Goes Wayward
20. Can’t Get a Girlfriend
21. Keeping Up an Image
22. Teased About Not Having a Girlfriend
23. Teased in the Locker Room
24. Teased About Being in Orchestra
25. Breaking Up
26. Breaking with the Wrong Crowd
27. Cheating
28. Could I Copy Off of Your Paper?
29. Accused of Cheating on a Test
30. Caught Cheating on a Test
31. Seeing Others Cheat
32. Plagiarizing
33. Why Have Grades?
34. Graded Unfairly
35. Being in Special Ed
36. Accelerated Classes
37. The Test Was Too Hard
38. Pressured To Do What You’d Rather Not
39. Pressured by Your Peers
40. Living in Your Brother’s Shadow
41. Not Athletic
42. Competitive Girl
43. Emphasis on Sports
44. Parents Getting a Divorce
45. High Expectations of Parents
46. Giving Oral Reports
47. Test Nervousness
48. Memory Blackout at Test Time
49. Embarrassing Good Grades
50. Required Subjects
51. Mother Volunteers Too Much at School

Knowing how to study is a fundamental skill that will dramatically increase your effectiveness as a student. The activities in this document will explore some of the principles that will increase your skill in this area, such as building study habits, avoiding the ten traps of studying, building effective study habits, avoiding procrastination, and concentrating. Activity Titles

1. How Do I Learn?
2. Classroom Styles
3. Teacher Attitudes
4. Teaching Strategies
5. Teaching Strategy Quiz
6. My Favorite Subjects
7. Blessing or Curse?
8. Problem Areas
9. Rewards
10. Available Study Times
11. Smarter Study
12. Homework Killers
13. Get Organized
14. Note Taking Styles
15. Types of “Shorthand”
16. Making It Brief
17. Making It More Brief
18. Innovative Notes
19. Memory Maps
20. Highlighting
21. Computer Nerds
22. What’s Important
23. Reading for Raisins
24. Being a Critic
25. Surviving the Classics
26. Two Heads May Be Better Than One
27. Motivation to Study
28. 5 W’s and How
29. Technical Material
30. Bad Reading Habits
31. Watch Your Speed
32. Speedier Reading
33. Reading WPM
34. Scanning the Page

Tests measure how you are doing in a course. Usually test scores are the key determinants of your course grade. Doing well on tests requires test-taking skills, a purposeful positive attitude, strategic thinking and planning, and, naturally, a solid grasp of the course content. This group of activities contain tips that apply to all types of tests. Activity Titles

1. Creating Tests
2. Testing Style Preferences
3. The Ideal Test
4. Discovery
5. Calm, Cool and Collected
6. Visualizing
7. Preparation
8. Smart Strategies
9. Mental Strength Tested
10. Self Fulfilling Prophecies
11. Self Talk
12. Death of a Problem
13. A, B, C, or None of the Above
14. Snares and Clues
15. Post Test Analysis