15 Problem solving activities for students

Problem solving entails identifying, analysing, and addressing challenges or obstacles using critical thinking, creativity, analytical skills, and reasoning. The World Economic Forum consistently ranks critical thinking and problem solving as top skills for the future in their list of essential abilities. 

Why is problem solving an important skill for students?

In a 2020 report, the World Economic Forum emphasised the growing significance of critical thinking and problem-solving skills in the upcoming years (Whiting, 2020). These skills are vital not only for academic success but also for navigating challenges beyond the classroom. Let’s explore four key benefits of problem-solving skills for students.

1) Student centred learning: Problem solving encourages student engagement by encouraging hands-on exploration and discovery. Students fully engage with a topic, they are not expected to simply absorb and memorise information. It recognises students’ individual learning pace, as well as their unique strengths, interests, and motivations. 

2) Enhanced critical thinking: By tackling problems from diverse perspectives and evaluating information from various sources and viewing the problem from various angles, students are able to develop improved critical thinking skills.  Problem solving also cultivates systems thinking, enabling students to grasp the interconnectedness of systems, complex issues, and devise holistic solutions. 

3) Confidence building: Through regular practice, students gain confidence in their problem solving skills, equipping them to address challenges across a wide variety of subject areas and real-life scenarios. “The goal in teaching problem-solving is for it to become second nature, and for students to routinely express their curiosity, explore innovative solutions, and analyse the world around them to draw their own conclusions.” (Marshall, 2022)

4) Teamwork and communication: Engaging in problem solving activities nurtures essential teamwork skills such as communication and collaboration. Students learn to actively listen, respect diverse perspectives, and resolve conflicts in a constructive manner. Moreover, they develop goal setting abilities, organisation, and build a sense of personal accountability within a team environment. 

Problem solving activities for lower and middle primary

Problem solving activities can range from simple to complex and from short to long.

1) The detective game

• Gather 5-10 clues about a person, place, historical event, pop culture phenomenon, animal, etc. these can be physical clues or images of clues. 
• Place the clues into a bag and have students draw one clue at a time. 
• Encourage students to work in small groups to solve the mystery. 
• Require a minimum number of clues to be drawn (2-3) before attempting their first guess. 

2) Help ‘em out

• Engage students in brainstorming sessions while reading about historical events or fictional characters.
• Encourage small group discussion and decision making. 
• Students can work at desks or on whiteboards. 
• Challenge the students to identify the problems faced and devise creative solutions to alter the outcomes. 

3) What if…

• Create a list of moral dilemmas for students to ponder, ChatGPT would be perfect for this.
•  Cut them up and put them in a bag for students to pull out of or use an online randomising tool like WheelPicker to make the selection. 
• Students then have to share how they would handle the situation using ethical reasoning and decision making skills.

Here are the prompts I used on ChatGPT:

I am looking for a list of 15 moral dilemmas for primary school students to try and solve.

And a follow-up prompt:

Could you give 10 more that are based around honesty, fairness, respect, and peer pressure?

And here are 10 dilemmas ChatGPT came up with in seconds:

1. Truth dilemma: Your friend breaks something and asks you not to tell anyone. Should you keep their secret or tell an adult what happened?

2. Fairness dilemma: You’re playing a game and your friend keeps losing. Do you let them win to make them feel better or play your best?

3. Respecting property dilemma: You find money on the ground. Do you keep it, try to find the owner, or turn it into a teacher?

4. Honesty dilemma: You accidentally take something that belongs to someone else. Do you return it, keep it, or ignore what happened?

5. Respect dilemma: Your friend likes a certain game, but you don’t. They invite you to play. Do you decline and risk hurting their feelings, or play to make them happy?

6. Cheating dilemma: You notice someone cheating during a class assignment. Should you tell the teacher or keep quiet?

7. Environment dilemma: You see someone littering in the park. Do you pick up the rubbish, ignore it, or say something to the person?

8. Privacy dilemma: You find a diary belonging to your sibling or friend. Should you read it or respect their privacy?

9. Homework dilemma: You finish your homework but notice that your friend forgot to complete theirs. They ask to copy your work. What do you do?

10. Peer pressure dilemma: Your friends want to gossip about another classmate. Do you join in, stay silent, or change the subject?

4) Move IT!

In this activity students are required to move an object across the classroom while navigating various constraints. 

• Introduce limitations such as restrictions on carrying the object, it can’t touch the floor, limited steps, use of specific body parts, or communication limitations with team members. 
• Encourage collaborative problem solving and creative thinking to overcome the obstacles.

5) The build

Provide students with materials like straws, marshmallows, paper cups, etc. and challenge them to build. Challenges can be the tallest freestanding tower, a bridge that can hold a certain weight, or other structures following specific rules. Students must learn to think creatively, collaborate, and iterate. 

Problem solving activities for upper primary

Upper primary problem solving can also utilise those activities mentioned for lower and middle primary with some slight tweaks. But, here are some activities more suited to upper primary learners.

6) Just survive

Use survival scenarios to encourage small groups to employ critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problem solving skills. These scenarios immerse students in real-world situations and foster resilience and adaptability. 

Many scenarios can be found online. Here are a few:

1. Survival Island (complete with Google Slides)
2. Plane Crash (survival game with a Hatchet by Gary Paulsen feel)
3. Moon Landing (space survival game)

7) Good old scavenger hunt maybe with a twist

Scavenger hunts require problem solving skills to solve clues, think critically, and collaborate to complete the hunt. A fun and innovative way to do this was created by a friend named Kathi Kersznowski, co-author of Sail the 7Cs with Microsoft Education, called FlipHunt. 

A Fliphunt is a video-based scavenger hunt that is completely organised and run in the AMAZING Flip (formerly Flipgrid) environment. It is a wonderfully fun way to get students up and moving while exploring new learning or documenting understanding using the most beloved edtech site for amplifying student voice and student engagement in ways never known before!

https://kerszi.com

8) Escape

Escape rooms are an amazing way to promote problem solving and critical thinking with middle school students. Students are presented with a scenario or challenge within a controlled environment, such as a themed classroom or designated area, where they must work together to decipher puzzles, uncover clues, and solve challenges within a set time limit. Escape rooms provide immersive and engaging problem-solving experiences.

There are a number of places teachers can go to find escape rooms, some paid, some free or freemium, and some physical with locked boxes or digital using Google Sites or Google Forms.

1. BreakoutEDU 
2. Digital Escape Rooms from Ditch That Textbook
3. How to make your own digital escape room with Google Forms.

9) Tower of terror

This is a “Red Cup” cup stacking game. 

• Students are given 3 cups and 2 large index cards. 
• Cups are stacked with a card in between each cup. 
• Student teams have 3-10 minutes (be fluid with your time depending on the class) to pull the cards and get the cups to nest on top of each other, earning a point for each successful attempt. Check out this X (Twitter post) by Jonathan Alsheimer, Tower Of Terror. This quick, simple game encourages teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration in a fun fast paced way.

10) Community problem solving

Empower students to address real-world problems from the local community or your school community. Maybe it’s a dangerous intersection, food waste from lunchboxes, or single-use plastics at the school canteen. Students can research, analyse data, and propose solutions, fostering civic engagement and social responsibility. This is an activity that can also be used for high school students. 

Problem solving activities for high school

High school problem-solving activities build on foundational skills while providing opportunities for deeper exploration and application. Here are some elevated ideas tailored to high school students:

11) Community problem solving documentary

Challenge students to create short documentaries using their phones as cameras about solving problems they see in the community, in school, or in the world. Students can edit directly on their phones, on sites like Canva, WeVideo, or Capcut. 

12) Digital storytelling

Encourage students to harness the power of digital storytelling to promote problem solving. Whether through videos, graphics, podcasts, or interactive presentations, data visualisation, or digital books (BookCreator), students can craft compelling narratives that inspire action and promote a problem-solving mindset.

Check out Michael Hernandez’s book Storytelling with Purpose Digital Projects to Ignite Student Curiosity and you can listen to Michael on the TeacherNerdz Podcast.

13) Minefield/Lead the blind

This is an outstanding activity created by Dr. Krista Welz & Melissa Welz which involves communication, collaboration, and planning. The “Minefield” activity is  where one student navigates through a “Minefield” guided only by verbal commands from their peers. This hands-on exercise promotes teamwork, planning, and effective communication skills. Here is a detailed Google Slides explanation by the creators.

14) Design sprints

Introduce students to the concept of design sprints, a structured process for solving complex problems through rapid prototyping and user feedback.  Small teams collaborate intensely over a short period, usually five days (can be shorter a class period or a few days), to ideate, prototype, and validate solutions.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Redesigning the school canteen menu: Students work collaboratively to identify issues with the current canteen menu, brainstorm innovative solutions, create prototypes of redesigned menus, and gather feedback through testing sessions to ultimately present improved menu designs to school administrators.
2. Redesigning classroom layouts for enhanced learning: This sprint focuses on reimagining classroom setups to optimise student learning experiences. Students research, ideate, prototype, test, and present innovative classroom layouts designed to foster a more engaging and effective learning environment.
3. Creating solutions for reducing school waste: Students address sustainability concerns by identifying sources of waste within the school, brainstorming eco-friendly solutions, prototyping waste reduction strategies, testing their effectiveness, and pitching refined solutions aimed at minimising waste and promoting environmental management.
4. 11 Activities from IDEO’s d.school for educators: Link

15) Debates

Facilitate lively debates on contemporary issues to stimulate critical thinking and persuasive communication skills.  Topics could include:

1. Establishing a universal basic income to address poverty.
2. Social media regulation to address misinformation and hate speech on platforms. 
3. Banning TikTok or any social media platform
4. Animal testing for cosmetics and scientific purposes.
5. Space exploration funding: Should governments invest more resources in space exploration and colonisation efforts, or should these funds be allocated to other pressing issues on Earth? 

Conclusion

As we navigate an era of unprecedented change and uncertainty, the need for problem-solving skills has never been more pressing. Gone are the days of lifelong careers; instead, today’s students face a landscape where adaptability and innovation are key. By integrating problem-solving activities tailored to lower primary, upper primary, and high school students, educators play a pivotal role in equipping the next generation with the tools they need to thrive.

As educators, parents, and stakeholders, we must acknowledge the role of problem-solving skills in shaping resilient, creative, and adaptable individuals. Educators should prioritise the cultivation of these essential skills in our schools and communities, empowering students to confront challenges with confidence, innovation, and creativity. When we do,  we not only prepare them for the future but also foster a generation capable of shaping a brighter tomorrow.

*Many, if not all, of the activities above can be adapted up or down the year groups.*

References

1. Daneshgari, F. (2023, March 29). High School Problem-Solving: 6 Activities That Work. Safes Parental Control App. Retrieved April 7, 2024, from https://www.safes.so/blogs/problem-solving-activities-for-high-school-students/
2. Educator Guides: Activities from d.school Books — Stanford d.school. (n.d.). Stanford d.school. Retrieved April 7, 2024, from https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/educators-guides-books
3. 5 Problem-Solving Activities for the Classroom. (2013, February 14). Resilient Educator. Retrieved April 7, 2024, from https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/5-problem-solving-activities-for-the-classroom/
4. Foshay, W. R., & Kirkley, J. (1998). Principles for Teaching Problem Solving. PLATO Learning Inc. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262798359_Principles_for_Teaching_Problem_Solving
5. Khanna, B. (2023, September 29). World Economic Forum Warns of Skills Gap in the Future of Work. LinkedIn. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/world-economic-forum-warns-skills-gap-future-work-bhupendra-khanna
6. Marshall, M. (2022, October 5). Benefits of Problem-Solving in the K-12 Classroom – Institute of Competition Sciences. Institute of Competition Sciences. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.competitionsciences.org/2022/10/05/benefits-of-problem-solving-in-the-k-12-classroom/
7. Weil, Z. (2016). The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries. Lantern Publishing & Media.
8. Whiting, K. (2020, October 21). What are the top 10 job skills for the future? The World Economic Forum. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/top-10-work-skills-of-tomorrow-how-long-it-takes-to-learn-them/