Time Machine

Purpose

• To identify the journey that led to a particular situation or problem

Facilitation Instructions

• Draw a horizontal line on the paper
• Write the situation at the farthest point on the right, e.g. what year and major are you in at your institution? For example: Senior in Biology at UW.
• Ask what happened right before that led to this situation. These are meant to be active. Write the answer to the left. For example: Took BIO 280 on fungi.
• Continue until you have an overview of all the events that led up to a journey of the original prompt.

Products Generated

• Each student will have their own timeline depicting their journey based on the specific prompt.

Time/Commitment Needed

• Primary Activity

Reference

75 Tools for Creative Thinking

Facilitation Notes

• These are meant to be active situations on the timeline. So apart from the situation at the farthest right, everything to the left should be an action that led to the final situation.
• May get stuck on minute details or events, but this is meant to be overarching and broad trajectories that led to a current state.
• Can do a gallery walk or each student shares out highlights. Sample Prompts:
• What stands out about your timeline?
• What did you learn about your journey?
• What similarities and differences do you notice?