Creating,+imagining+and+innovating

//Have you ever said "I can't draw" or "I was never any good at math" or "I can't sing"? It doesn't matter. You can still create and innovate-find a way. "The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination."--John Schaar//
 * Creating, imagining and innovating**

At times, creating and innovating is one of my weaknesses. I'm good at doing what I'm told, when I'm told exactly what to do, but sometimes I have troubles when I'm given a free rein to do what I want.



A more specific example of this is from Activity 1 in the measurement unit of general chemistry; one of the first activities that we did in the class. This activity asked for us to "create new knowledge" about the properties of an aspirin tablet. When I first read the instructions, I thought to myself "I must have missed something...it didn't tell me exactly what to do!" The simple instructions of "creating new knowledge" was confusing to me. I had no idea where to begin, and I had never really been told in the past to simply "spend 20 minutes creating new knowledge" about something. Luckily, I had a group to help me. After consulting with my group, we decided to try using the materials available in any way possible, as a start. We were given two different concentrations of hydrochloric acid, so we decided to place an aspirin tablet into each of the concentrations to see what would happen. We observed that there was no change. We also placed aspirin tablets into tap water and heated water. There was no change. Lastly, we tested the water using pH paper before and after the aspirin tablet was added. Before, the water was pH7, and after the tablet was added, it was pH2. Overall, we were able to "create" a lot of new data about the aspirin tablets.

Now that I have some experience with "creating" new data, I believe that similar tasks will be easier for me in the future. Knowing how to create new data is a useful skill, because it won't always be the case that you're told exactly what to do; many times, you'll be asked to do what you feel would be best, or what would lead to the best results. It's at times like these that creating, imagining and innovating is the most handy.

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