Engaging Students in the Making of Good New Ideas
Module Six - - SCAMPER
Organizing findings

Each letter of SCAMPER stands for an approach to invention. When a student looks for a solution to a social or environmental problem such as acid rain, she or he can take all the elements of past efforts, mix them up with plenty of newer options and then apply each of the techniques below to create a new plan of action.

  • S=Substitute
  • C=Combine
  • A=Adapt
  • M=Magnify, Minify
  • P=Put to other use
  • E=Eliminate
  • R=Reverse

Later in this session you will have a chance to apply SCAMPER to the cooking of an omelet. Look at this menu showing types of hamburgers. Which SCAMPER strategies have they used?

Make a list of ten new kinds of hamburgers created with the help of SCAMPER.

Today's seminar is meant to provide a quick look at these synthesis strategies, but detailed, thorough explanations can be found in the two books by Michael Michalko below available for purchase from the FNO Bookstore at http://fno.org/fnopress/books.html You will find SCAMPER on pages 71-108 of Thinkertoys.

Please do not move to next module until instructed to do so by the facilitator.

© Jamie McKenzie, 2008, all rights reserved. No copies can be made or distributed in any format without the express written permission of the author.