1.11b Synthesis

Synthesis

For our Cold War image analysts looking at Cuba, they clearly have something that appears to be newly installed and human-engineered. As they look at the location and time of these new installations, it is clear they are in relatively remote and easily securable areas. They see a specific pattern or layout. Given knowledge of the US-Soviet-Cuban relations at the time, the analysts know that the USSR is hostile to the US and that the USSR and Cuba are allies. This leads to a hypothesis that these new installations may be Soviet installations. Comparing imagery of various Soviet military sites leads to the conclusion that these sites may house Soviet offensive surface-to-surface missiles.

A learner at this stage in their development can be observed demonstrating their ability to:

• use old ideas to create new ones
• generalize from given facts
• relate knowledge from several areas
• predict, draw conclusions

Verbs that demonstrate synthesis:

combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite