Creativity is definitely one competency that I tend to struggle with. I consider myself to be more of a STEM-brained than humanities-inclined person, simply because tests/problems sets are less intimidating than essays because they always have a correct answer to find and distinct methods to use. For papers, you have to be creative–you have to literally create something out of nothing.
Now that’s not to say I think creativity does not have a place in STEM; on the contrary, I think it is quite important. Sometimes (a lot of the time), in order to solve a problem, a clear path to the answer does not always present itself. You have to thus be creative and think outside the box in order to find a new method that works. This is the type of creativity that I am more comfortable with and find myself pretty strongly suited for: trying new ways based on what I know in order to get to that final answer.
One domain-specific area in which this comes into play is definitely my Astrophysics class. Often times, concepts I have already learned from other classes, like chemistry and physics (this is also an example of interdisciplinary creativity!), play a huge role in what we are learning, and I am able to thus creatively apply that knowledge to understand new concepts and even solve complex problems on tests.
Additionally, creativity has been very important in my Physics class. Often, in physics, there are many ways to solve a problem to get the right answer, since most topics in physics are quite interchangeable. Thus, whenever I can’t figure out a physics problem, or better yet, I can’t remember a necessary equation to solve a problem, I know if I just think about the problem from a different angle, I can always find a way to get to the right answer.
