Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Is There Water On Mars? A De Bono Skills Mystery For Twice-Exceptional Gifted Students, Christopher Cox, Megan Sova-Tower, Nathan Wear

Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions

Is there water on Mars? Gifted adult graduate students, some of whom represented the learner exceptionalities of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Slow Information Processing Speed, were asked to explore this mystery by applying Edward de Bono’s CoRT thinking skills of “Aims, Goals, and Objectives,” “Select,” and “Planning” to photographs of Mars landforms. Once they had determined the likelihood that the pictures depicted water on Mars, students were asked to develop three-dimensional models with recycled materials. Analysis of the findings revealed that in utilizing the de Bono CoRT thinking skills, students were able to identify sixteen different categories. Student responses had …