How to Pick the Best Graphic Organizer

Graphic organizers are pre-drawn tables or diagrams to help organize your thoughts, i.e. they make you show your work on paper or on a screen. This leads right into the second step of problem-solving, communication. So, how do you “show your work”?

Let's start with the age-old math problem of watermelons: Sally buys 50 watermelons for her family reunion. Her cousins break 6 of them, and her family eats half of what is left. Did Sally overbuy or underbuy? By how much?

When you read this question, did you start solving it? Was your answer “overbuy by 22”? Think back to your thinking. What did it look like?

For me, my brain thought of what 50 watermelons would look like:

Then, I took away 6 watermelons.

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOO

And divided the rest in half since those were eaten.

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOO

OOOO

That left 22 watermelons not bolded (i.e. not eaten or broken). This is an example of a graphic organizer. I used the table to draw out my watermelons. I then changed the table as I applied and analyzed my information. Sure, you could do this in your head, and yes, you most likely did. BUT, if your child was reading this article with you and asked how you found the answer so quickly, could you communicate your thinking? Well enough so your child would understand the first time?

Graphic organizers are beautiful because they help us communicate with others, catch our misconceptions, and free up our brains to analyze the data because we no longer have to store and analyze at the same time.

For an exercise, I googled “problems to solve” and pasted some of the finds below. If you would like to check out the others in their lists, the links are pasted below.

For each situation, think of what your graphic organizer would need to have: columns, tables, circles for a web or Venn Diagram, arrows to connect ideas, corners or piles to sort ideas, questions that need answers, etc. Once you have an idea, scroll farther to read my first thoughts on these situations.

- Lower cost reliable Internet connections

- All new toilette models alleviating paper use

- Reaching 100k followers on LinkedIn

- The fact that the “popcorn” button on the microwave burns the popcorn.

Lower cost reliable Internet connections

While many different organizers will work for any of these situations, I would do a web or a storyboard. When we use the Internet, we use electricity. I would make a storyboard starting with my local electric plant. How do they operate? What costs do they incur? Why do they charge what they do and do they have power to change or decrease that cost? From the electric plant, I would look at the wiring in my city. What wiring options are there? Does my city have fiber? Why or why not? Would that be helpful – look at other cities with similar and dissimilar wiring to see pros and cons. Does wiring increase or decrease the Internet providers? Why are they charging more? What costs do they incur? Do they provide other services besides Internet? Who provides Internet connections? Do coffee shops benefit or are they paying more to support the wifi offering? All these questions and answers assigned to each part of the system allows me to see vulnerabilities or reasons why the end product is such a high cost.

All new toilette models alleviating paper use

I would use the 5WH Planning Questions to research other cultures, what they use for restrooms, and pair that with their culture. We shake our right hands in American culture because long before toilet paper, you wiped with your left hand. If we are to change our toilette, we need to change our culture at the same time. I would need to answers to who, what, where, when, why, and how for several cultures and their toilette customs. This would help me look at our own customs through less bias and be more objective on how to change and what change could happen to reduce paper use.

Reaching 100k followers on LinkedIn

First question – do you have a LinkedIn and why do you want 100k followers? Again, because of these questions, I would probably fill out the 5WH Planning Questions since it focuses on the why and purpose. If the purpose is to have loyal followers, then your strategy and solution will be different than simply needing the number 100k. A radio DJ I heard recently said, “follow me, and I will follow you”. This is a great strategy you could borrow to reach 100k followers, but it may not achieve the end goal or purpose.

The fact that the “popcorn” button on the microwave burns the popcorn.

New organizer! This time, I would choose the Brain Dump for Pros and Cons. Phase 1 on this graphic organizer is listing everything about a microwave. How does it work? Why was it needed? What features do people typically use? What features are not typically used? How do the “popcorn”, “defrost”, and other buttons work? After I have written as much information as I can, I would sort the information into at most four categories. I am thinking: Engineering, customer use experience, customer use. Engineering would house all the information how the microwave works. Customer use experience would be how buttons work, inputting the time works, how the door opens, etc. Customer use would be for what purposes such as cooking, reheating, cooking on the stove and microwave simultaneously, or specific foods like popcorn. Pros would be connected with green lines; red lines connect the cons or limitations of the machine. From there I would ask why are those limitations? Popcorn bags always mention the wattage of your microwave, but does anyone ever know that? What is a solution or gaping hole that needs to be filled (with information or a new feature)?

Challenge:

Work through the other situations or create your own with your family and test different graphic organizers. Were your conclusions and analyses similar? Which organizers worked best? Which ones need tweaking?

Congrats! You are on your way to being a Problem Solving Expert!

Sources

1. https://wiforum.org/global-problems-worth-solving/

2. https://medium.com/the-mission/15-typical-life-problems-and-how-to-solve-them-c56838f49738

3. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/18-problems-solved

4.(finding problems you can solve with your talents) https://www.inc.com/james-paine/entrepreneurs-here-is-how-you-can-find-problems-to-solve.html