An Idea Factory...What???

This is exactly what I heard from my students when I sprung this idea on them last Tuesday in class. At this point, I had told them nothing regarding research or this big, innovative project I was thinking about embarking on with them, so when I told them in class we were going to create some lists of potential problems and solutions to those problems, they thought I was crazy. But, like all great ideas of seemingly great ideas, we jumped in with both feet.

I gave the students a few guidelines for their topic lists. I said their topic had to be "problem-solution" based. I did not care how big or small, public or private the problem was, but it needed to be something they felt they could learn more about and possibly solve. To be honest, I wasn't sure my students would come up with a great deal because I had been so vague in my instructions, but boy was I WRONG. By the time class ended, they had filled all of my whiteboards with ideas/problems they wanted to pursue. I cannot wait to move on to the next stage of the project---Project Proposals!!!