Every quarter, Inventables, a creative design company in Chicago, sends its clients a package called a DesignAid that contains 20 items, each with

“unexpected properties,” as a way to stimulate innovation and ideas for new products or services. One Inventables’ recent DesignAid package included the following items:

● Translucent concrete—concrete that contains thin layers of fiber optics, which create semitransparent stripes in the concrete.

● Sound-recording paper—A piece of cardboardlike paper that records and plays sounds with the help of ultrathin electronics embedded in the page.

● Impact-absorbing silicon—Silicon that, despite being only one inch thick, absorbs impact, including microvibrations. If you drop an egg on it, the egg won’t break.

● Wireless battery-free speakers—Solar-powered speakers receive sound via infrared waves rather than radio frequencies and are capable of producing directional sound. In other words, only the person at whom the speakers are aimed can hear the sound coming from them.

Select one of these items and work with a small group of your classmates to brainstorm as many alternative uses for the item as you can in 15 minutes. Remember to abide by the rules of brainstorming! K-654