Understanding the concept of innovation1 is a key step in developing students’ innovation literacy. In this activity, students identify key aspects of what’s involved in innovation and illustrate these with examples from our innovation content.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- list key aspects of innovation (idea, process, outcome, creating value)
- discuss each of these aspects in relation to the development of a product
- retell the story of the development of a product, focusing on the key aspects of innovation.
The activity involves thinking, reasoning and explaining and can be adapted2 to fit class ability and interests. It can be modified to explore any innovative product.
Download the Word file (see below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- what you need
- what to do
- student handout.
Related content
Our site offers a number of innovation stories that explore product development and the innovative thinking and skills needed to launch them. Find out about of few of the products in the article Introducing innovation.
There are two more activites you can use to continue to encorage innovative thinking with your students:
- Innovation: The development of a new process or product that is then used by others.
- adaptation: A change in the structure or function of something. In biology, a change in a species, as a result of natural selection. Individuals with a particular feature (adaptation) are more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals without this feature.
