Course OVERVIEW & Outline
OVERVIEW
Innovations is a learner centered program empowering students to put their mark on the world. They are project-based and passion-driven courses intended to cultivate leadership skills, community partnerships, and an innovative growth mindset. Through self-guided explorations, research and reflection, Innovations students will gain a greater understanding of themselves as learners, problem-solvers, and contributing members of society.
Innovations is a learner centered program empowering students to put their mark on the world. They are project-based and passion-driven courses intended to cultivate leadership skills, community partnerships, and an innovative growth mindset. Through self-guided explorations, research and reflection, Innovations students will gain a greater understanding of themselves as learners, problem-solvers, and contributing members of society.
INNOVATIONS 1 (one semester or year-long within the MILE)
Through immersive experiences students gain an understanding of and put into practice the skills required to thrive in a dynamic future. During the semester students will be challenged with a series of projects and lessons each aimed to develop the following future ready learning skills.
Unit 1: Introduction to Innovation
To gain an understanding of innovations and the innovative mindset students will answer:
Unit 2: A Journey of Self Discovery
To gain a better understanding of who they are as problem solvers, member of society… students will answer
Unit 3: Idea Generation
To generate multiple ideas and to recognize productive idea generating methods students will answer
Unit 4: Developing a Growth (Creative, Innovative, Curious) Mindset
To gain an understanding of and to develop an innovative mindset students will answer:
Unit 5: Building Confidence
To build the necessary confidence to generate, pursue, develop, and implement breakthrough ideas students will answer:
Unit 6: Productive Collaboration
To develop the skills and attitude required to be a contributing group member students will answer:
Unit 7: Creativity & Solving Interesting Problems
To develop an understanding of creativity and problem-solving skills, students will answer:
Unit 8: Investigative Research - Questioning and Interviewing
To develop investigative skills students will answer:
Unit 9: Effective Communication
At the conclusion of this unit students will answer:
Unit 10: Critical Thinking, Failure, and Feedback
To develop critical thinking skills and view failure and feedback in a positive light students will answer:
INNOVATIONS 2 (one semester)
Students, with instructor support, will develop and execute an audience-centered passion project(s) of their choosing by infusing their newly acquired future-ready learning skills with their own personal interests and academic pursuits.
Unit 11: Making a positive contribution
To develop purposeful skills/attitudes students will answer:
Through immersive experiences students gain an understanding of and put into practice the skills required to thrive in a dynamic future. During the semester students will be challenged with a series of projects and lessons each aimed to develop the following future ready learning skills.
Unit 1: Introduction to Innovation
To gain an understanding of innovations and the innovative mindset students will answer:
- What does Innovations include?
- Why is Innovations valuable? Why is actively participating in this course beneficial?
- What does an innovative culture include? How can instructors and students develop an effective, productive, challenging and meaningful culture of innovation?
- What do you bring to the Innovations experience?
Unit 2: A Journey of Self Discovery
To gain a better understanding of who they are as problem solvers, member of society… students will answer
- How do you describe yourself? How do others describe you? What does the person you hope to become look like? How would you like to be described?
- What has shaped you into the person you are today? (events, people)
- What is important to you? (What do you value?) Why are these things important to you? How does/will your life (past or present) reflect or not reflect your values?
- What inspires you? What elements are in place when you do your best work? Can those conditions be recreated?
- What are you an expert at? What more would you like to discover about your area of expertise?
- What are you curious about? What do you want to know/learn more about?
Unit 3: Idea Generation
To generate multiple ideas and to recognize productive idea generating methods students will answer
- What are idea-generating techniques? What is the value producing multiple ideas? How do you effectively pare down a large list of ideas into a concise one?
- How do you determine which idea generating strategy best applies to a situation?
Unit 4: Developing a Growth (Creative, Innovative, Curious) Mindset
To gain an understanding of and to develop an innovative mindset students will answer:
- What are the characteristics of a growth / innovative mindset? What are the advantages of acquiring growth / innovative mindset traits?
- What type of mindset do you currently have? How can you develop a growth / innovative mindset?
- How does a person’s mindset affect how he/she views challenges? In what area(s) of your life would a growth / innovative mindset be helpful?
- How do people become more intelligent? What is involved in brain growth?
- What steps need to be taken in order to learn something new? What neurological changes take place when something new is learned? What role does neuroplasticity play in learning?
Unit 5: Building Confidence
To build the necessary confidence to generate, pursue, develop, and implement breakthrough ideas students will answer:
- What role does confidence play in innovative thinking?
- In what areas of your life are you confident? How do you develop confidence?
- Why is the value of risk taking? How willing are you to take risks? How does risk-taking lead to confidence?
Unit 6: Productive Collaboration
To develop the skills and attitude required to be a contributing group member students will answer:
- What are the benefits of collaboration? What does it take for a group to reach its potential? How do you/can you evaluate group member performances? How must individuals act in order to get the most from their groups?
- What role does leadership play in collaboration?
Unit 7: Creativity & Solving Interesting Problems
To develop an understanding of creativity and problem-solving skills, students will answer:
- What does it mean to be creative? Why is being creative valuable? Where in your life do you act creatively? How can you learn to be more creative? What does your creative process include?
- How can creativity be applied to multiple scenarios?
- How can you creatively solve a problem? What are the values of creative problem solving?
- How do you/can you adjust to dynamic situations?
Unit 8: Investigative Research - Questioning and Interviewing
To develop investigative skills students will answer:
- What role does research play in creative problem solving? How do you know if your research is leading toward a meaningful end? What is the relationship between knowledge and creativity? How do you know if your sources are reliable?
- What are the characteristics of meaningful questions? How do you craft meaningful questions? (How might we..?)
- How do you develop a positive rapport with your audience that can lead to sincere answers?
Unit 9: Effective Communication
At the conclusion of this unit students will answer:
- How can you effectively meet your audience’s needs?
- What characteristics do engaging presenters exhibit?
- What is active listening? Why is active listening important? How can you become an active listener?
Unit 10: Critical Thinking, Failure, and Feedback
To develop critical thinking skills and view failure and feedback in a positive light students will answer:
- What does it mean to think critically?
- What are the benefits of experiencing failure? How can failure lead to success? What failures have you experienced that have led to successes?
INNOVATIONS 2 (one semester)
Students, with instructor support, will develop and execute an audience-centered passion project(s) of their choosing by infusing their newly acquired future-ready learning skills with their own personal interests and academic pursuits.
Unit 11: Making a positive contribution
To develop purposeful skills/attitudes students will answer:
- How are you going to positively impact someone else’s world?
- How are going to leave your world better than you found it? What are the rewards of focusing on others? What kind of work is beneficial to you and your audience?
