Learning to evaluate information, find credible sources, and prepare for counterarguments is an important skill for people to learn, especially in the modern age of information. Here are 10 great critical thinking activities designed to develop your critical thinking skills.
- Worst Case Scenario
- Creative Construction
- Story Telling
- Pragmatic Problem Solving
- Egg Rescue
- Critical Analysis
- Controversy Conundrum
- Alien Vacation
- Prison Promises
- Competitor Compromises
With so much information on the internet, parsing through what’s true and what isn’t can be a difficult challenge that relies heavily on your ability to think critically. The rest of this article will discuss 10 fun activities to improve your critical thinking skills.
Worst Case Scenario
In this first scenario, you’ll want a group of friends to bounce ideas around. The premise works by assuming that you and a group of friends are in a worst-case scenario. This might be the classic stranded on a desert island trope, but you can also change it up with something like being trapped in a spaceship with hostile aliens aboard.
In this exercise, you’ll be required to think both creatively and critically to evaluate what your best course of action is, how to allocate resources, and who should take on what roles and responsibilities.
Creative Construction
Another great hands-on approach to critical thinking is to take all of the bits and pieces around your house—shredded paper, used containers, empty cans—and turn them into something creative. This exercise is a great one to do with friends, too. You can even turn it into a competition by giving everyone the same bits of junk and seeing who can make the best creation out of it.
This exercise works your critical thinking muscles by forcing you to evaluate the resources you have on hand, what you can build out of them, and how you’re going to go about constructing it with the tools you have.
Story Telling
A very popular game that’s still worth its salt for adults, this activity starts with a series of random images. You can pull these straight from pictures on a browser and put them into a slideshow. Get a group together for your favorite storytime.
The first person looks at the first image and starts a story from scratch. After a period of time you designate, the next person goes up and continues the story where it left off, incorporating the second image in your series of random pictures.
Not only does this create some hilarious stories, but it allows you to develop your critical thinking skills by evaluating how the image you’re given and the story might pair up.
Pragmatic Problem Solving
Another great exercise to work on your critical thinking skills either alone or with friends is to make your very own think tank. Consider and list some of the major issues facing your local area, county, or state. Think critically about these issues, the resources available to you, and how you would go about solving them.
Doing this in a group is a great idea because different people will generate different angles of approach that will help you put together a potential solution for these problems.
Where applicable, you can convert this idea into action by sharing your plan with public officials or starting a petition to inspire the change you want to see. Considering how different perspectives and resources play into this quandary is a powerful thought exercise that can help you develop your critical thinking skills.
Egg Rescue
Another hands-on critical thinking exercise, the egg rescue is a resurrected science class favorite in which your team has to develop a method of protecting an egg that’s falling from a certain height.
Considering the resources available, the time constraints, and the physical forces affecting the egg are all necessary to succeed in this challenge of critical thinking.
Critical Analysis
Another great and dead simple exercise to develop your critical thinking skills is analyzing a popular piece of literature. Read it carefully and evaluate the author’s opinion, the biases behind them, and how you would either agree or contradict their viewpoints.
You can even take this concept online to discuss with other literature enthusiasts about their opinions. Just stay civil, of course!
Controversy Conundrum
One of the most important aspects of critical thinking is assessing opposing viewpoints or alternative opinions, which is why a classic debate is one of the best exercises for flexing your critical thinking muscles.
Not only do you have to present and uphold your viewpoint, but you’ll be obligated to address and respond to opposing viewpoints. To make this a twist, consider which side you’d take in the question and force yourself (and all participants) to defend their opponents’ points of view.
Alien Vacation
An entertaining premise puts you in the role of a tour guide for an alien on vacation. Evaluate something you take for granted, like a baseball game, and try to explain every aspect about it in a way that an alien would be able to comprehend. To add some humor, take turns on this exercise and have a friend play the alien to ask those probing questions.
Prison Promises
Another premise that requires a lot of critical thinking skills is imagining you’re a city planner trying to put a maximum-security prison in an upscale neighborhood. How are you going to convince the locals to agree to your plan and what incentives can you offer them?
Competitor Compromises
Not only is this exercise good for developing critical thinking, but it’s a good way to think about your business. Consider your greatest business rival and assess how you could help them succeed further in their business without detrimentally affecting your own.
This complex critical thinking experience will help you evaluate your business growth in light of your competitor and identify the factors that help you and them succeed.
Final Thoughts on Fun Critical Thinking Activities
There are lots of great critical thinking exercises you can partake in, whether you want to get a group of friends together or just sit down with a pen and a pencil. Developing these skills is a dynamic and valuable way of improving your ability to solve problems.
