The What If...? Box

The What If? Box fires up your learners’ imaginations and gets them thinking creatively, minimal planning required.

There are 168 creative questions to get you and your learners thinking differently. All starting with the words ‘What if …’

It’s Suitable for primary and secondary.

You can pick out questions you like, or select at random using the specially designed contents page.

Use it to stimulate creative thinking in your classroom and train your learners in how to think outside the box.

Develop inventive, imaginative discussions that take you and your learners down paths you were never expecting.

The What If? Box is one of my favourite resources.

I loved creating it, and I loved using it with my learners.

Everything flows from that question stem: What if …?

It encourages speculation, hypothesising, and imaginative thinking.

All things we want our learners to be able to do.

Some of my favourite experiences have been when learners took a question in a direction I would never have anticipated.

And that’s the beauty of using ‘What if …?’ questions.

The structure invites learners to step outside the box and see where it takes them.

I designed The What If? Box so it’s as easy as possible to use.

No planning.

No effort.

Maximum engagement.

You’ll find 168 ‘What if …?’ questions inside. Each is on a different slide/page.

The contents page contains 168 buttons, each linked to a different question.

All you have to do is display the contents page, then either you or one of your learners picks a button and … voila! You have a ‘What if …?’ question to discuss.

(And if that question doesn’t quite cut it for you, simply jump back to the contents page and go again.)

Example Questions

• What if humans could fly?
• What if you could turn invisible for a day?
• What if there was someone exactly the same as you?
• What if school didn’t exist?
• What if society was less equal?
• What if money was banned?
• What if humans had not invented writing?
• What if colours had no names?
• What if everything was black and white?
• What if aliens exist?
• What if other people could read your mind?
• What if there were no mountains?
• What if robots demanded rights?
• What if farming was banned?
• What if Paris was the capital of England?