I’m sitting here today, on school holidays, putting together a session for staff development for the first day back. To the students and parents, that’s a pupil-free day. To my husband (not a teacher), it’s coffee and cake day. As for the teachers, well, you’ll generally find a spectrum of attitudes to professional development days ranging from high enthusiasm to mortal dread.

The focus of my session is on Conceptual Programming. We’re in exciting times in many curriculum areas as we adapt our teaching and learning to the new Australian Curriculum. English, Maths, Science and History high school teachers all have new NSW Syllabus documents to plan from for 2014, and there are some exciting (did I say exciting again?) cross-curriculum priorities to integrate into our units of work – Aboriginal histories and culture, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability – my personal favourite – among other things.

The new curriculum offers us a chance to reflect, examine and evaluate what we do, and improve our practice. Building our programs conceptually allows us to create learning opportunities that develop our students’ ability to engage with big ideas, examine and explore key and problematic issues in society, to pose, and answer essential questions that have relevance to them. It’s exciting! (Yes, it really is.)

Partly as a form of procrastination, and partly as research, I’ve been surfing Youtube today (as you do), looking for an inspiring little snippet to get the staff thinking and engaged on that first (oft-loathed) day back at school, and I stumbled across a video that’s been around for a while. You might have seen it (if not it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U). It’s an animation of a Ken Robinson talk about society’s need to make an educational paradigm shift, reinforcing the idea that school as an institution doesn’t cater to 21st century learners; that school, in fact, stifles creativity. Which, as one of my esteemed and learned colleagues just pointed out to me over another social media platform today, is not a new idea. As she also suggested, the video has been done to death with teachers, so I won’t be using it, but it did raise some interesting questions about where we’re at with our education system.

What has all of this got to do with preschool geniuses? I’m getting to it…

Robinson cites a 1968 study by George Land and Beth Jarman, published in their book Breakpoint and Beyond, which, although dated, outlines some interesting findings. Land and Jarman administered a divergent thinking test to 1600 people; divergent thinking being the capacity for creativity, the ability to determine multiple solutions to a problem. This is the type of test administered by NASA to select innovative engineers and scientists. The results in the sample group were astounding – 98% of the participants scored at the genius level for divergent thinking. The sample group? Five-year-olds.

In this longitudinal study, only 32% of 10-year-olds, and 12% of 15-year-olds reached the same level of creative thinking. Of 280 000 adults tested, only 2% reached genius level. Robinson used an example of divergent thinking in his talk: that divergent thinkers would be able to come up with 200 uses for a paper clip, whereas most of us could only come up with 10-15. A divergent thinker would think outside the box. Does the paper clip have to be in the form we know it? If there are no limitations, why not a 200-foot paper clip made of foam?

Preschoolers are geniuses in divergent thinking, according to this study. All those questions, which we often laugh at, the way that their logic seems to have not quite sorted itself out yet, is divergent thinking in action.

An example. Three-year-old Phoebe asked me a couple of months back if Aunty Mel needed some more trees at her house. It was a question out of the blue, and I didn’t understand it at first. We had been hanging out with my friend Mel. Last year Mel celebrated 15 years since a double lung transplant, but her transplanted lungs are deteriorating. She’s on oxygen and in a wheelchair most of the time. Even though she deserves a blog tribute of her own (to come – she is the most amazing person I know), I know Mel won’t mind me mentioning her here.

After a day out with Mel, the kids asked about Aunty Mel. They asked why she has tubes in her nose, and why she’s in a wheelchair, and we told them. I tried to tell them as accurately as possible, in language that three-year-olds would understand. I told them that our lungs take oxygen from the air that we breathe in, and that the oxygen is transferred to our blood, to make our muscles and our brain work. I told them that Aunty Mel can’t walk very well because her lungs can’t absorb enough oxygen, and she gets puffed out and tired very easily, like when they’ve been running around a lot. I told them that there are lots of people whose bodies don’t work properly, and that they are so very lucky that they are healthy kids.

When Phoebe asked about whether Aunty Mel needed more trees at her house, I must admit I was a little befuddled. Then it clicked. Phoebe likes to ask questions at bed time. One of her favourites is “What do trees do?” (so proud), so we go through a list of all the wonderful things trees do: offering homes for animals and birds, shade, making our backyard and much of the world beautiful, supplying wood for building, and paper… and providing oxygen for us to breathe. And there you have it: beautiful little Phoebe’s solution to Aunty Mel’s bad lungs – trees at her house to give her more oxygen. Divergent thinking in action. If only trees were the cure Mel needs.

Is my kid a genius? Well, it’s certainly an interesting study. If we do lose our ability to think creatively, why is that? School could be a culprit. As Robinson suggests, formal education is focused on right and wrong answers from an early age. Or perhaps we just grow up and logic takes over and we realise there are no 200-foot foam paper clips. Why bother hypothesising about them? Although, it’s clear that the people who do innovate in our society are the ones who can see the all of the applications of 200-foot foam paper clips.

For parents of preschoolers, the possibility that our child/ren may very well be creative geniuses is certainly eye-opening. I wonder if it’s possible to somehow retain the capacity for creativity of a five-year-old, even after they start school…?

How can we foster divergent thinking? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect, as in all good education, that it lies in requiring kids to think. To think in different ways, to think creatively and critically. Rather than trying to give children the ‘right’ answer when they ask ‘why’ or ‘how’, maybe we should direct it back to them first, and hear what they have to say. I find myself often providing detailed answers to their questions. How is thunder made? (Long and possibly inaccurate explanation of lightning and thunder). Why do bats come out at night? (Explanation of the habits of nocturnal animals). Why don’t some people have houses? (Long explanation of social inequalities and material differences). Maybe what we really need to do is just listen, and let them get creative, and explore, before telling them how it “really” is.

I end where my journey began: conceptual programming in secondary school. Despite our students’ apparent loss of creativity, for whatever the reason, teachers still need to provide opportunities for adolescents (like preschoolers) to think creatively, to philosphise, to ask why, and to connect to, and build upon, what is already known, to examine and explore, to create and construct, to analyse and apply, and to reflect and evaluate.

THAT will be the crux of my presentation for staff development day, when I get around to putting it together. Maybe tomorrow…

Study Shows We are Born Creative Geniuses but the “Education” System Dumbs Us Down

Most of us have watched Sir Ken Robinson’s 2007 TED Talk “Do schools kill creativity”. There’s a reason that it’s one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. This wasn’t the first time that Robinson had talked about the negative effect that education has on creativity, and he’s also not the only one to have noticed this trend.

When you are thinking of organizations that have been looking towards the future of work, NASA should have been near the top of your list in 1992. They were already looking for a way to “effectively measure the creative potential of their rocket scientists and engineers” and they had Dr. George Land and Dr. Beth Jarman develop a test designed to identify the capacity for divergent thinking and creativity.

“They wanted to explore and try to understand the true source of creativity better.”

– Study Shows We Are Born Creative Geniuses But The ‘Education’ System Dumbs Us Down

Land and Jarman were curious to see what test results would look like if they tested a more diverse group of people, and a younger group of people. So they went and found 1,600 children between 4-5 years old and tested them.

“98% of them scored at genius level”

– Study Shows We Are Born Creative Geniuses But The ‘Education’ System Dumbs Us Down

98% of pre-schoolers were considered creative geniuses. This was a surprisingly high number, so they started testing the same group of children as they grew up. By grade school, only 30% of the children were considered creative geniuses. By high school, it was only 12%. This was not a good sign.

They conducted the same test on a group of adults, and the results were STILL trending down. Less than 2% of the adults tested in studies were creative geniuses.

Less than 2%.

So Ken Robinson had a really good observation. By the time we finish school, we’re probably much less creative than we were going in. The really bad news is that creativity is one of the most in-demand 21st Century skills. We know that in order to keep up with the future of work, we all need to be able to come up with new solutions to new problems, and we can’t do that if we don’t have creative geniuses leading the charge.

Educating for the future of work means that we can’t do things the way that they have always been done.

NASA’s Study on children: How Traditional Schooling Reduces Creative Spark George Land’s eye-opening findings in a study commissioned by NASA highlight a concerning decline in creative genius from childhood to adulthood.

The traditional educational setup emerges as a potential culprit, sparking discussions on fostering divergent thinking to revive innate creativity

In the late 1960s, NASA was keen on hiring innovative minds. To achieve this, they sought to understand the nature of creative genius and commissioned a study led by George Land. The focus was on young children, aged 3 to 5, as they embarked on a journey to decipher creativity. A group of 1,600 kids enrolled in a Head Start program were subjected to a creativity test initially crafted for NASA recruits. The results were startling; 98% of these youngsters were labeled as creative geniuses. However, a follow-up revealed a concerning trend. The genius tag dropped to 30% at age 10 and further down to 12% at age 15. When compared to adults, only a dismal 2% maintained this level of creative genius. George Land didn’t stop there. He took to a TEDxTucson stage to share these findings. He identified two forms of thinking; divergent, linked to imagination and new ideas, and convergent, related to judgement and evaluation. Land noted a troubling scenario in the educational realm; both thinking forms were being forced to coexist, leading to a cognitive clash that suppressed creativity. He argued that this educational model, promoting simultaneous divergent and convergent thinking, was a major culprit in the decline of creative genius as children transitioned through school. Land’s study, dubbed as one of the longest experiments in history, portrayed a glaring issue. The traditional educational setup seemed to be stifling the natural creative prowess of children, morphing them into less creative adults. This longitudinal exploration by Land and his team revealed a pressing need; a call for an educational overhaul to nurture rather than suppress the inherent creativity within individuals. Land’s narrative hints at a potential goldmine of creativity, waiting to be tapped, if only the educational paradigms are shifted to favor divergent thinking. His work remains a seminal discourse, urging a rekindling of the creative genius within by revisiting the educational structures in place. Through his eyes, the journey of nurturing creative genius is akin to rediscovering the boundless imaginative vistas once traversed with ease during the tender ages of 5.

We are born creative geniuses and the education system dumbs us down, according to NASA scientists

Our natural creative genius is stifled from the time we are born.

At TEDxTucson, Dr. George Land dropped a bombshell when he told his audience about the shocking result of a creativity test developed for NASA but subsequently used to test school children (see the full video below).

NASA had contacted Dr George Land and Beth Jarman to develop a highly specialized test that would give them the means to effectively measure the creative potential of NASA’s rocket scientists and engineers. The test turned out to be very successful for NASA’s purposes, but the scientists were left with a few questions: where does creativity come from? Are some people born with it or is it learned? Or does it come from our experience?

The scientists then gave the test to 1,600 children between the ages of 4 and 5. What they found shocked them.
This is a test that looks at the ability to come up with new, different and innovative ideas to problems. What percentage of those children do you think fell in the genius category of imagination?

A full 98 percent!

It gets more interesting
But this is not the real story. The scientists were so astonished that they decided to make it a longitudinal study and tested the children again five years later when they were ten years old.

The result? Only 30 percent of the children now fell in the genius category of imagination.

When the kids were tested at 15 years the figure had dropped to 12 percent!

What about us adults? How many of us are still in contact with our creative genius after years of schooling?

Sadly, only 2 percent.

And for those who question the consistency of these results — or think they may be isolated incidences — these results have actually been replicated more than a million times, reports Gavin Nascimento whose article first alerted me to this amazing study and its shocking implication: that the school system, our education, robs us of our creative genius.

“The reasoning for this is not too difficult to apprehend; school, as we plainly call it, is an institution that has historically been put in place to ultimately serve the wants of the ruling class, not the common people.”

“In order for the so-called elite to maintain their lavish life styles of overt luxury — where they contribute the least but enjoy the most — they understand that children must be dumbed down and brainwashed to accept (and even serve) their rapacious system of artificial scarcity, unending exploitation, and incessant war,” writes Nascimento.

What now? Can we recuperate our creativity?
Land says we have the ability to be at 98 percent if we want to. From what they found from the studies with children and from how brains work, there are two kinds of thinking that take place in the brain. Both use different parts of the brain and it’s a totally different kind of paradigm in the sense of how it forms something in our minds.

One is called divergent — that’s imagination, used for generating new possibilities. The other is called convergent — that’s when you’re making a judgement, you’re making a decision, you’re testing something, you’re criticizing, you’re evaluating.

So divergent thinking works like an accelerator and convergent thinking puts a brake on our best efforts.

“We found that what happens to these children, as we educate them, we teach them to do both kinds of thinking at the same time”, says Land.

When someone asks you to come up with new ideas, as you come up with them what you mostly learn at school is to immediately look and see: “We tried that before”, “That’s dumb idea”, “It won’t work” and so forth.

This is the point and this is what we must stop doing:

“When we actually looking inside the brain we find that neurons are fighting each other and actually diminishing the power of the brain because we’re constantly judging, criticising and censoring,” says Land.

“If we operate under fear we use a smaller part of the brain, but when we use creative thinking the brain just lights up.”

What’s the solution?
We need to find that five-year old again. That capability that we as a five-year-old possessed, never goes away.

“That is something you exercise every day when you’re dreaming,” Land reminds us.

How do you go about finding that five-year-old?

Land challenges us all: Tomorrow, you take a table fork, turn your five-year-old on and come up with 25 or 30 ideas on how to improve on the table fork.

We are born creative thinkers

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98% OF 5 YEAR OLDS ARE CREATIVE GENIUSES AND YOU CAN BE TOO

There lies a common misconception that creativity is intrinsic. That creative geniuses are simply born with an astounding predisposition for a heightened creative output. However, modern research has failed to prove that creativity is genetic and many creative geniuses, across industries, attribute their creative achievements not to a natural born gift, but rather to hard-work and resilience.

Although creativity remains elusive and difficult to measure, Dr. George Land and Dr. Beth Jarman successfully developed a test meant to measure the test takers’ creative potential and capacity for divergent thinking, a free flowing, ‘non-linear’ thought process that promotes idea creation and problem solving. Originally developed in order to help NASA find the most innovative scientists and engineers, the test was later repurposed and given to children over a span of a decade.

The children of this study were first tested at the ages of 5, then again at 10, and 15 years old. Beginning at the age of 5, the results of Land and Jarman’s creativity test suggested that 98% of 5-year old children were creative geniuses capable of divergent thinking that is free of judgement. However, by the age of 10, only 30% retested at a creative genius level and by 15, only 12% qualified to be creative geniuses. A fourth test was then administered to random adults above the age of 25 which resulted in only 2% of them testing in a creative genius score range.

Land and Jarman’s study focused in on divergent thinking and convergent thinking, a thought process that uses critical thinking and logic to solve a problem. The study established that these two types of creative thinking are necessary for innovation, and further proved that children around the age of 5 consistently meet the requirements of a creative genius. The results of this test made it possible to understand that creativity is a skill that must be strengthened and honed over time, instead of inherited. Everyone is born with the capacity and potential of being a creative genius. The problem arises as we begin to age and lose access to this potential.

However, Land and Jarman’s creativity test failed to reveal any correlation as to why creativity is seemingly decreasing with age. While defaulting to an aging brain might be the simplest solution, Land instead wrote, “What we have concluded is that non-creative behavior is learned.”

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While the capacity for being a creative genius may be within us all, creativity has continually been devalued not just by the education system but by society as a whole. Within the school system, the creative curriculum budget is often the first cut when budget cuts must be made. Artistic pursuits, in terms of career, are often looked down upon because of a lack of opportunity and economic stability.

The education system has not adapted to the 21st century. The current functioning of the American education system fails to emphasize both styles of creative thinking needed for innovation. The modern education system, developed in the early 1900’s, and mostly unchanged in the last 100 years, was initially focused on training children to enter the workforce of the industrial age. In this way, the education system focused on convergent thinking in order to highlight direction-following, fact memorizations, and task completion. The education system discourages curiosity and wrong answers, instead promoting perfectionism and blind recitation of facts which severely discredits any creative itch or pursuit. The education system’s emphasis on convergent thinking, and the ability to produce the one and only correct answer, forces children to lose access to their ability to think divergently and judgement free.

Still, we do not simply lose our capacity to think creatively, rather we fall out of touch with these skills the less and less they are used. In order to regain access to your inner creative genius, the skills associated with divergent thinking must be built up and strengthened like a muscle. While a myriad of exercises exists to help one enter creative flow, a state of hyper-divergent thinking, cannabis, in smaller doses, can also help reconnect yourself with your inner-creative genius as it can help people escape from their typical thought process and gain access to new perspectives.

Although the education system continues to focus on nurturing convergent thinking, one’s capacity for divergent thinking is not lost or gone, just weakened. The ability to think divergently is within everyone, it is just a matter if whether you are ready to strengthen those skillsets and apply them to your everyday life.

Everyone has quite literally been taught to think in a more linear, non-creative manner, but reintegrating creativity into your life begins by connecting with yourself and re-wiring everyday thinking habits. By connecting with yourself, and developing a non-judgmental way of thought, the creative genius and divergent thinker within us can be reawakened and strengthened.

References :

George Land`s Ted Talk – The Failure of Success. source

The Waste of Creative Talents – source

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Genius May Be an Abnormality:

Educating Students with Asperger’s Syndrome, or High Functioning Autism

By: Temple Grandin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

I am becoming increasingly concerned that intellectually gifted children are being denied opportunities because they are being labeled either Asperger’s or high functioning autism. Within the last year I have talked to several parents, and I was disturbed by what they said. One mother called me and was very upset that her six-year-old son had Asperger’s. She then went on to tell me that his IQ was 150. I replied that before people knew about Asperger’s Syndrome, their child would have received a very positive label of intellectually gifted.

In another case the parents of an Asperger teenager called and told me that they were so concerned about their son’s poor social skills that they would not allow him to take computer programming. I told her that depriving him of a challenging career in computers would make his life miserable. He will get social interaction by shared interests with other computer people. In a third case, a super smart child was not allowed in the talented and gifted program in his school because he had an autism label. Educators need to become aware that intellectually satisfying work makes life meaningful.

It is essential that talented children labeled either high functioning autism or Asperger’s be trained in fields such as computer programming, where they can do intellectually satisfying work. Click here (Choosing-the-Right-Job-for-People-with-Autism-or-Aspergers-Syndrome) to read my paper entitled ‘Choosing the Right Job for People with Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.’ For many people with Asperger’s, and for me, my life is my work. Life would not be worth living if I did not have intellectually satisfying work. I did not fully realize this until a flood destroyed our university library. I was attending the American Society of Animal Science meetings when the flood occurred. I first learned about it when I read about it on the front page of USA Today, a national newspaper. I grieved for the “dead” books, the same way most people grieve for a dead relative. The destruction of books upset me because “thoughts died.” Even though most of the books are still in other libraries, there are many people at the university who will never read them. To me, Shakespeare lives if we keep performing his plays. He dies, when we stop performing them. I am my work. If the livestock industry continues to use equipment I have designed, then my “thoughts live” and my life has meaning. If my efforts to improve the treatment of cattle and pigs make real improvements in the world, then life is meaningful.

I have been reading, with great satisfaction, the many articles in magazines about Linux free software. People in the business world are not able to comprehend why the computer people give their work away. I am unable to think about this without becoming emotional. It is no mystery to me why they download their intellectual ideas into the vast, evolving and continually improving computer operating system. It is because their thoughts will live forever as part of the “genetic code” of the computer program. They are putting themselves into the program and their “intellectual DNA” will live forever in cyber-space. As the program evolves and changes, the code they wrote will probably remain hidden deep within it. It is almost like a living thing that is continually evolving and improving. For both me and for the programmers that contribute to Linux, we do it because it makes our lives more meaningful.

Continuum of Traits

There is a continuum of personality and intellectual traits from normal to abnormal. At what point does a brilliant computer programmer or engineer get labeled with Asperger’s. There is no black and white dividing line. Simon Baron-Cohen, an autism researcher at the University of Cambridge, found that there were 2 ½ times as many engineers in the family history of people with autism. I certainly fit this pattern. My grandfather was an engineer who was co-inventor of the automatic pilot for an airplane. I have second and third cousins who are engineers and mathematicians.

At a recent lecture, Dr. Baron-Cohen described three brilliant cases of Asperger’s Syndrome. There was a brilliant physics student, a computer scientist, and a mathematics professor. It is also likely that Bill Gates has many Asperger’s traits. An article in Time Magazine compared me to Mr. Gates. For example, we both rock. I have seen video tapes of Bill Gates rocking on television. Articles in business magazines describe his incredible memory as a young child.

There is evidence that high functioning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome have a strong genetic basis. G. R. DeLong and J. T. Dyer found that two thirds of families with a high functioning autistic had either a first or second degree relative with Asperger’s Syndrome. Sukhelev Naragan and his co-workers wrote, in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, that educational achievement of the parents of an autistic child with good language skills were often greater than those of similar parents with normal children. Dr. Robert Plomin at Pennsylvania State University states that autism is highly heritable.

In my book, Thinking in Pictures, I devote an entire chapter to the link between intellectual giftedness and creativity to abnormality. Einstein himself had many autistic traits. He did not learn to speak until he was three, and he had a lack of concern about his appearance. His uncut hair did not match the men’s hairstyles of his time.

Genius is an Abnormality?

It is likely that genius in any field is an abnormality. Children and adults who excel in one area, such as math, are often very poor in other areas. The abilities are very uneven. Einstein was a poor speller and did poorly in foreign language. The brilliant physicist, Richard Feynman, did poorly in some subjects.

A review of the literature indicates that being truly outstanding in any field may be associated with some type of abnormality. Kay Redfield Jamison, from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has reviewed many studies that show the link with manic depressive illness and creativity. N.C. Andreason at the University of Iowa found that 80 percent of creative writers had mood disorders sometime during their life. A study of mathematical giftedness, conducted at Iowa State University by Camilla Persson, found that mathematical giftedness was correlated with being near-sighted and having an increased incidence of allergies. I recently attended a lecture by Robert Fisher at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He stated that many great people had epilepsy, people such as Julius Ceasar, Napoleon, Socrates, Pythagoras, Handel, Tchaikovsky, and Alfred Nobel. An article in the December 2001 issue of Wired magazine discussed the link between autism and Asperger’s, and engineer and computer programming. The incidence of autism and Asperger’s has increased in the children of technology company employees. A little bit of autism genes may provide an intellectual advantage and too much of the genetic may cause a severe case of autism.

Types of Thinking

There appear to be two basic types of thinking in intellectually gifted people who have Asperger’s or high functioning autism. The highly social, verbal thinkers who are in the educational system need to understand that their thought processes are different. The two types are totally visual thinkers like me; and the music, math and memory thinkers which are described in Thomas Sowell’s book, Late Talking Children. I have interviewed several of these people, and their thoughts work in patterns in which there are no pictures. Sowell reports that in the family histories of late talking, music math and memory children, 74 percent of the families will have an engineer or a relative in a highly technical field such as physics, accounting, or mathematics. Most of these children also had a relative that played a musical instrument.

Every thought I have is represented by a picture. When I think about a dog, I see a series of pictures of specific dogs, such as my student’s dog or the dog next door. There is no generalized verbal ‘dog’ concept in my mind. I form my dog concept by looking for common features that all dogs have, and no cats have. For example, all of the different breeds of dogs have the same kind of nose. My thought process goes from specific pictures to general concepts, where as most people think from general to specific. I have no vague, abstract, language-based concepts in my head, only specific pictures.

When I do design work, I can run three-dimensional, full motion “video” images of the cattle handling equipment in my head. I can “test run” the equipment on the “virtual reality” computer that is in my imagination. Visual thinkers who are expert computer programmers have told me that they can see the entire program “tree,” and then they write the code on each branch.

It is almost as if I have two consciences. Pictures are my real thoughts, and language acts as a narrator. I narrate from the “videos” and “slides” I see in my imagination. For example, my language narrator might say, “I can design that.” I then see a video of the equipment I am designing in my imagination. When the correct answer pops into my head, it is a video of the successful piece of equipment working. At this point, my language narrator says, “I figured out how to do it.” In my mind there is no subconscious. Images are constantly passing through the computer screen of my imagination. I can see thought processes that others have covered up with language. I do not require language for either consciousness or for thinking.

When I learned drafting for doing my design work, it took time to train my visual mind to make the connection between the symbolic lines on a layout drawing and an actual building. To learn this I had to take the set of blueprints and walk around in the building, looking at the square concrete support columns, seeing how the little squares on the drawing related to the actual columns. After I had “programmed” my brain to read drawings, the ability to draw blueprints appeared almost by magic. It took time to get information in, but after I was “programmed,” the skill appeared rather suddenly. Researchers who have studied chess players state that the really good chess players have to spend time inputting chess patterns into their brains. I can really relate to this. When I design equipment I take bits of pictures and pieces of equipment I have seen in the past and re-assemble them into new designs. It is like taking things out of the memory of a CAD computer drafting system, except I can re-assemble the pieces into three-dimensional, moving videos. Constance Mibrath and Bryan Siegal at the University of California found that talented, autistic artists assemble the whole from the parts. It is “bottom up thinking,” instead of “top down thinking.”

Teachers and Mentors

Children and teenagers with autism or Asperger’s need teachers who can help them develop their talents. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of developing a talent into an employable skill. The visual thinkers like me can become experts in fields such as computer graphics, drafting, computer programming, automotive repair, commercial art, industrial equipment design, or working with animals. The music, math, and memory type children can excel in mathematics, accounting, engineering, physics, music, translating engineering and legal documents, and other technical skills. Unless the student’s mathematical skills are truly brilliant, I would recommend taking courses in library science, accounting, engineering, or computers. Learning a technical skill will make the person highly employable. There are few jobs for mediocre mathematicians or physicists.

Since social skills are weak, the person can make up for them by making themselves so good at something that people will hire them. Teachers need to council individuals to go into fields where they can easily gain employment. Majoring in history is not a good choice because obtaining a job will be difficult. History could be the person’s hobby instead of the main area of study in school.

Many high functioning autistic and Asperger teenagers get bored with school and misbehave. They need mentors who can teach them a field that will be beneficial to their future. I had a wonderful high school science teacher who taught me to use the scientific research library. Computers are a great field because being weird or a “computer geek” is okay. A good programmer is recognized for his/her skills. I know several very successful autistic computer programmers. A bored high school student could enroll in programming or computer-aided drafting courses in a local community college.

To make up for social deficits, autistic individuals need to make themselves so good that they are recognized for brilliant work. People respect talent. They need mentors who are computer programmers, artists, draftsmen, etc., to teach them career skills. I often get asked, “How does one find mentors?” You never know where a mentor teacher may be found. He may be standing in the checkout line in a supermarket. I found one of my first meat industry mentors when I met the wife of his insurance agent at a party. She struck up a conversation with me because she saw my hand embroidered western shirt. I had spent hours embroidering a steer head on the shirt. Post a notice on the bulletin board at the local college in the computer science department. If you see a person with a computer company name badge, approach him and show him work that the person with autism has done.

Cited from Indiana Resource Center from Autism https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/articles/genius-may-be-an-abnormality-educating-students-with-aspergers-syndrome-or-high-functioning-autism.html

Geniuses With Autism

When you think about autism, you likely consider the challenges that people face. You might not realize that many people with autism are also geniuses. They excel in certain areas, from mathematics and technology to music.

Find out what an autistic savant is. Then, get the details on 15 geniuses with autism. Finally, find out how ABA therapy can help autistic geniuses reach their full potential.

What Is an Autistic Savant?

People with autism have some challenges that others don’t face. These challenges might include:

•   Social phobias
•   Excessive worrying
•   Avoidance behaviors
•   Obsessive-compulsive disorder

It’s also not unusual for people with autism to be rigid in their routines.

Even with these challenges, numerous autistic children and adults demonstrate nearly super-human abilities in specific areas. These people are identified as autistic savants.

If you’ve ever watched the movie “Rain Man” with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, you’ve seen an autistic savant in action. Dustin Hoffman’s character, Raymond, is autistic. He portrays characteristics such as strict adherence to routines and isn’t emotionally expressive.

However, he has a photographic memory. He can quickly rattle off phone book listings or baseball statistics as if he’s reading from a book.

His character was based on a real person named Kim Peek. Just like the character in the movie, Peek has an unbelievable memory.

15 Famous Geniuses With Autism

Now, let’s look at 15 geniuses with autism. These geniuses have either been diagnosed with or are thought to have autism.

1.     Elon Musk

If you watch Saturday Night Live, you might have seen Elon Musk announce he has Asperger’s during his monologue on May 8, 2021. As the co-founder of The Boring Company, Neuralink, SpaceX, and Tesla, Musk is a tech genius, with many more exciting things to come.

2.     Albert Einstein

While not formally diagnosed, many believe that Albert Einstein had Asperger’s. He showed many signs, including some difficulties with small talk.

Those challenges didn’t prevent him from winning the Nobel Prize for Physics. The world as a whole is still benefiting from his many discoveries.

3.     Isaac Newton

Experts also believe that Isaac Newton had autism. He immersed himself in his work, rarely speaking. He was so passionate about his work that he’d even forget to eat.

His passion paid off, as he is credited for leading the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century and is responsible for discovering the laws of gravity.

4.     Charles Darwin

“On the Origin of Species” is one of the most important works ever published and cemented Charles Darwin’s place as a groundbreaking biologist. He was passionate about his work but withdrawn socially. Many believe that’s because Charles Darwin had autism.

5.     Nikola Tesla

Many experts also believe that Nikola Tesla had autism. He had the ability to hyper-focus on projects and ideas, and that led to the development of the groundbreaking alternating-current electrical system.

His true power came from his ability to visualize concepts. This allowed him to turn concepts into reality.

While he was a successful inventor, he struggled with sensitivity to sounds and lights and had various phobias.

6.     Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson will always be remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence. A prolific writer and gifted inventor, his legacy lives on today.

Many people believe that Jefferson likely had autism. This is largely because of his adherence to routines. He couldn’t stand it if his established routines were interrupted for any reason.

He was also known as being emotionally distant, with poor communication skills. That didn’t hold him back from achieving success.

7.     Michelangelo

Michelangelo was an artistic genius with numerous world-renowned works of art, including the sculpture of David and the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.  Experts state that he exhibited many traits of autism, including adherence to a routine and emotional distance.

These traits might have helped him with his work. He was able to lock into a project and see it through to completion with little interruption.

8.     Steve Jobs

As the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs transformed personal computing and mobile devices. If you use an iPhone or a Mac, you can thank Jobs.

There’s also speculation that he had autism. He was known for perfectionism and managed to think outside of the box. Being on the spectrum might have helped him turn Apple into the tech giant it is today.

9.     Alfred Kinsey

A famous biologist and sexologist, Alfred Kinsey, redefined the way people think of sex and sexuality. Like many others on this list, he threw himself into his work with little time for social interaction. He didn’t have many relationships, leading many to believe that he was autistic.

10.  Bobby Fischer

A chess prodigy from a young age, Bobby Fischer went on to become an American grandmaster. His genius-level IQ helped him defeat opponents and turned him into a household name.

He was obsessed with chess and had issues with personal relationships. Experts have attempted to diagnose him, with many believing he was autistic. It’s possible that he had autism and another disorder, such as schizophrenia.

11.  Tim Burton

Tim Burton is a creative genius. He manages to manifest ideas that others couldn’t even begin to think of, which is why he’s had so much success.

He hasn’t been formally diagnosed with autism but identifies with the condition. After watching a documentary on the subject, he mentioned that he felt the same way as a child.

12.  Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol changed the art world for the better. He was a creative force during the Pop Art movements in the 1960s. He also likely had autism.

People point to the repetitive nature of his work as a sign of autism. He was also known for providing monosyllabic responses to interview questions, which might have been due to autism.

13.  Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire is a British architectural artist who became a household name due to his photographic memory. He can tap into his memory to draw complete city skylines. He now has a gallery and has contributed numerous pieces to the art world.

He received his autism diagnosis when he was only three years old. Language was difficult for him early on, but that didn’t slow him down. He created his first commissioned piece when he was eight and had been going strong ever since.

14.  Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein is often considered the greatest philosopher of the 1900s. His genius was clear in the early days, when he made a sewing machine at the age of 10, using his own design for the project. While his mind was agile, he had trouble making friends and was often teased.

His contributions to ethics, logic, and metaphysics are still important to this day. Along with his work, experts have been discussing the possibility that he was autistic.

15.  Amadeus Mozart

A child prodigy, Mozart started composing music at the age of 5. His musical memory was like nothing people had seen before. It was clear early on that he was a musical genius.

While autism wasn’t even a concept during his lifetime, experts now believe that he was on the spectrum.

Mozart was bothered by loud sounds and had trouble controlling his impulses. You can also find lots of repetition in his musical pieces. Instead of hindering him, the characteristics of autism likely helped him achieve greatness.

How ABA Therapy Can Help Autistic Geniuses

Autistic geniuses can feel like they are trapped in their own worlds. While this can help some achieve greatness, the characteristics of autism can hold others back. In other words, for every Mozart, there’s a musical genius who cannot move beyond the rigidity of routines to compose something great.

Many autistic geniuses find that applied behavior analysis (ABA) can help. Autistic geniuses can use this therapy to improve their communication and language skills. The therapy also boosts focus and memory while decreasing problematic behaviors. It can even help autistic geniuses become more social.

The therapist begins by determining the cause of behaviors. This includes the circumstances under which a patient engages in a behavior. Then, the therapist helps the patient replace problem behaviors with new, healthier options.

After successful treatment, people with autism will have new skills to use in various situations. They will also have finetuned existing skills and should notice a decrease in problem behaviors.

As an autistic genius, this can be quite valuable. It helps people maximize their potential by reducing roadblocks that get in the way of achievements. cited https://hiddentalentsaba.com/geniuses-with-autism/

Winner of the George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award

Robert Sansone’s research could pave the way for the sustainable manufacturing of electric vehicles that do not require rare-earth magnets

Robert Sansone is a natural born engineer. From animatronic hands to high-speed running boots and a go-kart that can reach speeds of more than 70 miles per hour, the Fort Pierce, Florida-based inventor estimates he’s completed at least 60 engineering projects in his spare time. And he’s only 17 years old.

A couple years ago, Sansone came across a video about the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars. The video explained that most electric car motors require magnets made from rare-earth elements, which can be costly, both financially and environmentally, to extract. The rare-earth materials needed can cost hundreds of dollars per kilogram. In comparison, copper is worth $7.83 per kilogram.

“I have a natural interest in electric motors,” says Sansone, who had used them in different robotics projects. “With that sustainability issue, I wanted to tackle it, and try and design a different motor.”

The highschooler had heard of a type of electric motor—the synchronous reluctance motor—that doesn’t use these rare-earth materials. This kind of motor is currently used for pumps and fans, but it isn’t powerful enough by itself to be used in an electric vehicle. So, Sansone started brainstorming ways he could improve its performance.

Over the course of a year, Sansone created a prototype of a novel synchronous reluctance motor that had greater rotational force—or torque—and efficiency than existing ones. The prototype was made from 3-D printed plastic, copper wires and a steel rotor and tested using a variety of meters to measure power and a laser tachometer to determine the motor’s rotational speed. His work earned him first prize, and $75,000 in winnings, at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest international high school STEM competition.

The less sustainable permanent magnet motors use materials such as neodymium, samarium and dysprosium, which are in high demand because they’re used in many different products, including headphones and earbuds, explains Heath Hofmann, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan. Hofmann has worked extensively on electric vehicles, including consulting with Tesla to develop the control algorithms for its propulsion drive.

“The number of applications that use magnets just seems to be getting larger and larger,” he says. “A lot of the materials are mined in China, and so the price can often depend upon our trade status with China.” Hofmann adds that Tesla recently started using permanent magnets in its motors.

Electric motors use rotating electromagnetic fields to spin a rotor. Coils of wire in the stationary outer portion of the motor, called the stator, produce these electromagnetic fields. In permanent magnet motors, magnets attached to the edge of a spinning rotor produce a magnetic field that is attracted to the opposite poles on the spinning field. This attraction spins the rotor.

Synchronous reluctance motors don’t use magnets. Instead, a steel rotor with air gaps cut into it aligns itself with the rotating magnetic field. Reluctance, or the magnetism of a material, is key to this process. As the rotor spins along with the rotating magnetic field, torque is produced. More torque is produced when the saliency ratio, or difference in magnetism between materials (in this case, the steel and the non-magnetic air gaps), is greater.

Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. His design has other components, but he can’t disclose any more details because he hopes to patent the technology in the future.

“Once I had this initial idea, then I had to do some prototyping to try and see if that design would actually work,” Sansone says. “I don’t have tons of resources for making very advanced motors, and so I had to make a smaller version—a scale model—using a 3-D printer.”

Margaret Osborne source

Report: 17 year old student invents innovative new electric motor that could transform the EV industry

source

Not all innovations in the field of electric vehicles come from major automakers or Silicon Valley tech companies. Sometimes, it’s the work of bright young minds that leads the way to a more sustainable future.

One of those young minds belongs to 17-year-old inventor Robert Sansone from Fort Pierce, Florida, who has created a new type of electric motor that could revolutionize the EV industry.

Sansone is no stranger to innovation. A passionate budding engineer from a young age, he estimates that he has completed over 60 engineering projects in his spare time.

From high-speed running boots to a go-kart capable of reaching speeds of over 70 miles per hour and animatronic hands, this promising young scientist has never been afraid to take on a challenge.

Now, Sansone has turned his attention to solving a problem that has long plagued electric vehicles: the unsustainable components used when manufacturing a vehicle designed to drive sustainability.

As Sansone says, “Seeing the day when EVs are fully sustainable due to the help of my novel motor design would be a dream come true.”

The inspiration behind the research

The seed for Sansone’s research was planted a couple of years ago when he came across a video outlining EVs’ pros and cons.

In the video, he saw that while electric vehicles don’t produce emissions and are much better for the environment than petrol or diesel cars, most electric car motors rely on magnets to function.

These magnets are usually made from rare-earth materials, and that’s where the issue lies.
These rare-earth elements are not only costly to extract and expensive to buy, with a price tag of hundreds of dollars per kilogram, but they’re also not renewable and environmentally harmful to process.

Rare-earth elements include metals like neodymium and dysprosium, typically dispersed in the environment in very low concentrations and not found in large, economically extractable deposits. This is what makes them difficult and expensive to mine and refine.  Most of the world’s supply of rare-earth elements is found in just a few countries, including China, which currently dominates the market.

With the high demand for these materials, not only for the EV industry but also in the manufacturing of consumer electronics, solar panels, and wind turbines, the industries that rely on them are at the mercy of China’s supply and pricing.

It’s not just a cost problem. The environmental impact of rare-earth mining and refining is also a major concern. The process often uses harmful chemicals and generates a great deal of toxic or even radioactive waste. This waste can end up in the groundwater and soil, contaminating both the land and water around the mines. [2]

After seeing the video, Sansone was determined to find a way to create an electric motor that didn’t rely on rare-earth materials.

Video of Robert Sansone, winning the award:

The synchronous reluctance motor

With his passion for electric motors and drive to create a more sustainable product, Sansone set out to build an electric motor that didn’t need magnets, as most EVs on the market do.

His starting point was the synchronous reluctance motor, which is already used in smaller appliances such as pumps or fans. These motors don’t use rare-earth materials, but they’re not very efficient.

Current designs for this motor didn’t have the power required to be used in an EV, and that’s the problem that Sansone set out to solve; how to improve the design to make it more powerful.

Traditional electric motors use rare-earth magnets to create a rotating magnetic field in the stator or stationary part of the motor.

This rotating field interacts with the rotor or moving part of the motor, which causes it to rotate. The rotor is what the wheels of the car are attached to, so it needs to be very strong in order to turn them at high speeds.

The magnets in the stator are what give the rotor the power it needs to rotate quickly and with a lot of force.
Synchronous reluctance motors, on the other hand, don’t use magnets. They work by using a steel rotor with air gaps cut into it that align with the windings in the stator.

When current is applied to the stator’s windings, it creates a rotating magnetic field. This field interacts with the steel rotor and causes it to rotate. Two critical measures that determine the motor’s power output are the materials’ reluctance and saliency ratio.

The reluctance of a material is the measure of how difficult it is for a magnetic field to pass through it, and the saliency ratio measures the difference in magnetism between the stator and rotor materials. A higher saliency ratio means a greater difference in the ability of the two materials to interact with a magnetic field, which results in more torque and a more powerful motor.

The question is, how can the reluctance and saliency ratio be increased to make a more powerful motor?

Sansone’s design

The premise for Sansone’s design was that if he incorporated another magnetic field into the motor instead of just relying on the air gaps, he could increase the saliency ratio and make a more powerful motor with more torque.

With this idea in mind, he set out to create a prototype for this design. Without the resources of a large corporation or research facility, he had to get creative with the materials he used.

Over the course of a year, Sansone created a scale model of his prototypes using a 3-D printer, together with a steel rotor and copper wires. And without the help of a mentor or advisor, he would spend countless hours researching to troubleshoot every problem he encountered.

After much trial and error, on the 15th motor, Sansone finally arrived at a working prototype of his design.

He tested the power of the prototype using a variety of meters and the rotational speed using a laser tachometer.

He found that his innovative design outperformed traditional synchronous reluctance motors both in terms of torque and efficiency, just as he had hoped.

These were the test results of his prototype when compared to a more traditional synchronous reluctance motor.

At 300 revolutions per minute (RPM), his design showed:

• 39% greater torque
  31% greater efficiency

The efficiency increased as the speed increased, and at 750 RPM, his design was 37% more efficient than the traditional synchronous reluctance motor.

Given the limited materials he had, Sansone’s design couldn’t be tested at the speeds that an electric car would need (for example, Tesla’s Model S motor can reach speeds of up to 18,000 RPM). He found out the hard way that the plastic pieces would overheat and melt at higher RPMs.

Sansone validated his results through a second experiment that eliminated all other variables and confirmed that it was the higher saliency ratio of his design that resulted in higher torque and motor efficiency.

Heath Hofmann, a University of Michigan electrical and computer engineering professor, said that Sansone is looking at things the right way. Although he cautioned that while this design is promising, and the materials used in building synchronous reluctance motors are cheap, the problem lies in the manufacturing costs.

These machines are complex and difficult to manufacture, which right now is a limiting factor to achieving more widespread use.

Sansone hopes that with new technologies such as 3-D printing, the manufacturing process will be easier and more accessible, making his design more viable in the future.

Competition-winning design

For now, Sansone’s work has earned him recognition and praise, landing him first prize at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Judges at this international high school STEM competition, the largest of its kind, awarded him the prize and $75,000 in winnings, which he plans to put towards his future education. He hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) upon graduating high school and continue his work in engineering.

Sansone hadn’t planned on entering any competitions, but with the amount of energy and passion he was putting into his research, when he learned that one of his classes allowed him to complete a year-long research project on a topic of his choice, he saw an opportunity to continue his work and see where it led him.

His work turned into a solid science fair project, doing well at district and state competitions before advancing to compete at ISEF.

What’s next for Sansone?

After winning the ISEF with his 15th prototype, Sansone is now working on calculations and 3-D modeling for his 16th prototype. He’s planning to use sturdier materials to test his design at higher speeds.

If his motor continues performing well and offering improved torque and efficiency, he hopes to patent his design. And once the technology is patented, he hopes it will become a viable design for electric car companies to consider using in the future.

Robert Sansone’s research has the potential to be a game-changer for the electric car industry by reducing the reliance on rare-earth metals, making a significant impact in the realm of renewable energy, and increasing the sustainability of these vehicles.