This publication contains two miniunits to help students in grades 7-12 build skills for the future. The exercises can also be adapted for use in grades 4-6. Each of the miniunits contains several exercises to build specific skills. Miniunit One, "The Arithmetic of Growth," deals with two concepts--exponential growth and doubling time. These two concepts were singled out as appropriate skills for students to develop because they bring into focus the enormous numbers involved in the future of the growth of energy demand and technology. Students are first given a five-question pretest to determine their understanding of the arithmetic of exponential growth. A simple exercise helps them see the relationship between a million and a billion. Other exercises include having students draw a line graph of exponential growth and having them do some compound interest problems. Miniunit Two, "Lateral Thinking for Creative Problem-Solving," attempts to present concrete ways to enhance the creative-thinking process for attacking specific personal and societal problems. The exercises in this second miniunit provide an opportunity for the practical use of lateral thinking so that students may acquire the lateral thinking habit. Lateral or "zig-zag" thinking, as it is sometimes called, is a means of broadening the scope of alternatives in problem solving by allowing oneself to think about the problems more than the solutions. (Author/RM)