Claude:  This introduction is to clarify the sources.   Sections #1-4 are "summaries" from 4 different pages & different times.  The most recent (#1) is now in the Mini-Page that is my new "read me first" page because it has (I think) the best summaries, when all things are considered.   Sections #5-7 also are from different pages & times, to describe other aspects of the concepts in 1-4.

# 1.

Recognition Learning:  During your Discovery Learning you also can do Recognition Learning by asking yourself “do The Actions of Design Process (in its diagram) describe My Actions (in everyday life)?”  You will recognize familiar Actions, and you will realize that Design Process is Your Process;  it's the process you use – naturally and intuitively – to Solve Problems by Making Things Better.   But this will require understanding the connections between...

     Experiments and Experiences:  If you see "Experiments" and think “I don't do experiments, so this is an unfamiliar Action,” you can use my broad definition:  in the context of Design Process, an Experiment is any situation that produces Experiences and provides an opportunity to make Predictions (by imagining in a Mental Experiment) or to make Observations (during the actualizing in a Physical Experiment ),  so any Prediction-Situation is a Mental Experiment , and any Observation-Situation is a Physical Experiment .   With this perspective — by thinking “Experiments produce Experiences” and “I have Experiences” — you will recognize that many (but not all) of your everyday Experiences happen due to “Experiments” that are done by yourself or by others.

# 2.

Experiments and Experiences

recognize that Design Process is Your Process.  When you study Design Process, you will see familiar Actions that form the intuitive Problem-Solving Process you already have been using to Solve Problems (to Make Things Better) in many areas of your life.  But for one term in Design Process you might need to...

overcome an obstacle:  Many people will see "Experiments" and think “I rarely do experiments, so this is an unfamiliar Action.”  If you're thinking this, just use my broad definition;  in the context of Design Process, an Experiment is any situation that produces Experiences and provides an opportunity to generate Experimental Information when you make Predictions (by imagining in a Mental Experiment that is a Mental Experience, is a Mental Simulation of Reality) or you make Observations (during the actualizing in a Physical Experiment ),  so any Prediction-Situation is a Mental Experiment , and any Observation-Situation is a Physical Experiment .   With this perspective – by thinking “Experiments produce Experiences” – you can recognize that many of your everyday Experiences are Mental Experiments (when you're imagining “what will happen”) or involve Physical Experiments (when your Experiencing-with-Observations occurs due to actions by yourself or others, or just because of a situation-in-life).    /   one example of creative experimenting:  An effective way to improve your musical improvising is to do musical experiments (try new musical ideas) that produce new musical experiences so you can do-listen-learn.

# 3.

Experiences and Experiments

Learning from Experience:  A worthy goal for education is trying to help students learn how to learn more from their experiences so they can improve their performing-and-learning.

Experiences and Experiments:  In my broad definition,* an Experiment is any situation that produces Experience, that provides an opportunity to get Experimental Information by making Predictions (in an imagined Mental Experiment) or making Observations (in an actualized Physical Experiment),  so an Experiment is any Prediction-Situation or Observation-Situation,  so Experiments include almost everything people do, and are involved in almost everything we experience.  Your total experiences include your first-hand experiences with events you personally Observe (that you remember in your Personal Memory), plus your second-hand experiences (that you find in our Collective Memory) Observed by someone else, then later (in a report or recording) you hear it and/or see it, or (in a web-page, tweet, book,...) you read about it.

# 4.

Experiments produce Experiences:  Choosing to broadly define Problem & Problem Solving, and Education is useful for building bridges that motivate students so they want to pursue their own personal education.  In another educationally-useful broad definition, an Experiment is any situation that produces Experience, that provides an opportunity to get Experimental Information when you make Predictions (by imagining in a Mental Experiment) or make Observations (during the actualizing in a Physical Experiment).  Every Prediction-Situation and Observation-Situation is an Experiment, so these include many things you do, and most things you experience.

Your total experiences include your first-hand experiences with events you personally Observe (that you remember in your Personal Memory, from your own experience in the distant past or recent past) plus the second-hand experiences (found in our Collective Memory) that were Observed by someone else, then later (in a report or recording) you hear it and/or see it, or (in a web-page, book,...) you read about it.

But broad doesn't mean sloppy;  disciplined creative-and-critical thinking is required to consistently Design Experiments that are scientifically useful, as described in the resources above. { I define Experiment broadly – it's any situation that produces Experience, that allows Predicting or Observing (more) – because this is educationally useful, and so are broad definitions for problem & education. }

This table shows the three combinations of timing (old or new) and maker (you or them):  you made old, you make new;  they made old ← they make new.

Combining the two options for timing (old and new) plus sources (you & others), here are the four combinations, four ways to get Information that is generated by making a Prediction ( PREDN ) or Observation ( OBSRVN ).

* In my PhD Dissertation the sections about Experimental Design included a famous example of “second hand” experimenting, by creatively finding-and-analyzing the Old Observations made by others:

So far, this discussion has not challenged an implicit assumption that the only way for a scientist to collect observations is to do an experiment.  But one scientist can interpret what another observes.  Sometimes an effective way to do research is to vicariously “design and do” experiments by reading (or hearing) about the work of others, for the purpose of gathering observations that then can be interpreted.  This strategy won a Nobel Prize for James Watson and Francis Crick.  They never did any productive DNA experimental work themselves,* but they did gather useful observations from other scientists:  x-ray diffraction photographs (from Rosalind Franklin), data about DNA's water content (also from Franklin), data about the ratios of base pairs (from Erwin Chargaff), and information about the chemistry and structure of DNA bases (from Jerry Donohue).  Then they interpreted this information by analyzing it with thought-experiments and by playing with physical models for the atoms and molecules that form DNA, and they retroductively invented a theory for DNA structure.  Even though they did no experimental design, a similar function was performed by their decisions about gathering, and paying close attention to, certain types of observations.    /   * Therefore many scholars (scientists, sociologists, historians,...) think Watson & Crick should have made sure that more credit was given to those (especially Franklin) who actually did the productive experimental work.

# 5.

INFORMATION can be old and new, made by yourself & others:  Your OBSERVATIONS can be "made when you observe what is happening in the present (new) or (old) remember what has happened in the past."  You also can use OBSERVATIONS-of-past or PREDICTIONS-for-future that are made by other people.  Thus, by combining "old and new" with "yourself & others," you can MAKE knowledge-information (OBSERVATIONS or PREDICTIONS) that is new,  and you can FIND knowledge-information that is old {is already existing} by REMEMBERING it in your personal memory or LOCATING it in our collective memory, in what is recorded {is culturally remembered} in books, web-pages, journals, audio & video recordings, etc.

# 6.

2A — you LEARN by Finding Old Information

Timings:  Usually you begin by finding information — by learning more about a problem-situation so you will understand more accurately & thoroughly — early in a process of design (while you're defining a problem), but you also can learn later while you are trying to solve the problem.

Two Kinds of Memory:  You can find knowledge-information that is old (already existing) by REMEMBERING it in your personal memory or LOCATING it in our collective memory, in what is recorded (culturally remembered) in books, journals, web-pages, audio & video recordings, etc.

A Wide Range of Knowledge:  You can find OLD knowledge-information about Problem-Situations, and Options (for a Problem-Solution), Option-Properties (predicted and observed), Experiments (mental or physical) plus associated Predictions or Observations, and explanatory Theories & Models.  Sometimes you'll want to learn more about skills that may help you during a process of design, or that (as with Strategies to improve Thinking Skills) are the objective of design.

A Wide Range of Usefulness:  This wide range of knowledge will be useful in all modes of action to help you improve the quality of everything you think and do.

Old plus New – both are GENERATION

All of this OLD information (searched for and found in Mode 2A above) is equivalent to, or analogous to, NEW information (produced in Modes 2B-2C-2D-2E) because GENERATION of Information (of Options, Experiments, Predictions, Observations) includes both finding OLD (aready existing) and inventing NEW.  The thinking-and-actions that someone did earlier to produce the OLD information you find in 2A, you can do now to get NEW Options (2B) for Solutions or Models, and NEW Experiments (2C) that allow NEW Predictions (2D) and NEW Observations (2E).

2B — you INVENT Options for a Solution

How do you Generate Options?  You can find old Options (in 2A), and improve old Options (in 2B), and invent new Options (in 2B).

You can creatively invent or improve by combining these four strategies:  Free Generation, with creative thinking liberated by "reducing restrictive assumptions";*  Guided Generation, when "critical Evaluation motivates-and-guides your creative Generation," which could occur by Revising an old Option, perhaps by Analyzing an old Option into its features and (for each feature) asking whether it might be useful to revise this feature, and how it might be revised.

* Interactions of Old and New:  You can invent (in 2B) by finding an old Option (2A) and revising it, or with innovative Free Generation of an Option that is less connected with the old so it's “more new”.  Ideally, you want to be creative in searching so you're thorough in finding old Options (to use as-is or with revision), and also "reduce restrictive assumptions" so you retain your freedom of thinking, so a knowledge of “the way things have been” does not become an assumed certainty about “the way things must be.”  You want to effectively combine creative thinking and critical thinking with knowledge, so the result is PRODUCTIVE THINKING. 

# 7.

using Old and New:

Diagram 3 says "GENERATE Options (Old or New) for a Solution" because you can Invent a New Option, or maybe – instead of “reinventing the wheel” – you will Find an Old Option and “use a wheel” (as-is or modified) if this will be an effective Problem-Solution.  Both of these Actions, by Inventing or Finding, are ways to Generate an Option.

More generally, Old Knowledge (that already exists) can include Options (for a Solution or Theory) and also Problem-Situations & associated Solution-Goals;  plus Experimental Systems (Mental or Physical) & associated Predictions or Observations.

You get Knowledge from Experiences, and your Total Experiences — in your First-Hand Experiences (happening to you) and Second-Hand Experiences (happening to others, but known by you) — include Knowledge that is Old (it's remembered in your personal memory or is found in our collective memory that is “culturally remembered” with books, web-pages, audio & video, etc;  or it's learned directly from another person) so it's Old, but also is New (is being experienced now in your sensory perceptions & your thinking-and-feeling, is both conscious and subconscious).     { finding-and-using Old Knowledge is Mode 2A in the 10 Modes of Action }

Your total experiences include your first-hand experiences with events you personally Observe (that you remember in your Personal Memory, from your own experience in the distant past or recent past) plus the second-hand experiences (found in our Collective Memory) that were Observed by someone else, then later (in a report or recording) you hear it and/or see it, or (in a web-page, tweet, book,...) you read about it.

combining Old and New:  You want the best of both, for productive thinking that effectively combines relevant knowledge with creative thinking and critical thinking.  You want a solid foundation of knowledge about what has been & now is (the Old & Present) plus flexible thinking that lets you freely imagine what could be (the New & Future).  During your Process of Problem Solving when you're trying to Design a Satisfactory Solution, this combination lets you consider the full range of Old Options AND expand this range by creatively inventing New Options.   /   How?  By using five Thinking Strategies Thinking Strategies for creatively using cognition-and-metacognition to Generate New Options. Thinking Strategies to Generate New Ideas.