Video Assignment

Watch the Nova The Mystery of Easter Island video assigned. Take notes as you watch regarding creative process.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR2lXZqPCkE

Write a “Harvard Outline” that clearly delineates how the scientists and volunteers in the video apply the creative process to their work. The video describes modern researchers figuring out how an ancient culture solved a particular problem. To complicate things, the creative process in the video is not necessarily given to you in a neat, linear format; that's up to you to decipher. This will take some time.

There are multiple ideas, problems, and processes in the film, many of which are in the past. You should only assess the problem the current scientists and their volunteers are trying to solve.

The paper should follow the points in "A Creative Process" closely. A “Harvard outline” form is probably the clearest and most efficient way to do this, but you are welcome to use another outline format, as long as it is clear and follows the points in "A Creative Process" closely.

So the following might be a way to lay out the project:

I Assess the problem—the “Design Question”.

     A    Identify the problem(s), question(s), or challenge(s)

          i  "How did primitive people move such giant stones?”

                ii  “How can . . .

     B    Identify the "given circumstances" of the puzzle

          i    The stones are huge and heavy

          ii   The aboriginals had no machinery, so this was all by manual labor

          iii   Other scientists . . .

          iv    

II    Understand the context within which the problem exists.

     A    How and to whom is the problem pertinent?

                i      The indigenous people of the island are curious about their history

          ii     

          iii          

     B     Identify whether the design question, given circumstances, or unknown are affected if the context  

               changes.

          i     Can we solve the problem if we make a computer model?

          ii     

And so forth. Complete with all steps of the creative process . . .

All papers must be typed using 12 point font, be spell checked, proof read, and have one inch margins. Be sure you name, my name and the name of the class is at the top. Date the paper for the day it is actually submitted. Use page numbers at the bottom of each page. Staple in the upper left corner. The outline must be clearly organized and detailed. Your outline must directly relate to the video and use its terminology and examples.