Education team building resources for innovation

Innovation will help to shape our collective future, and a team of faculty from the Schulich School of Education, is working to develop curriculum to inspire young Canadians to engage in the innovation process. The team, led by Dr. Maria Cantalini-Williams, worked with students to develop an education resource that aligns with the book Ingenious: How Canadian Innovators made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier and Happier co-authored by His Excellency, the Most Honourable Governor General David Johnston, and Tom Jenkins, Chair and former CEO of OpenText. The book celebrates the significant innovations throughout Canada’s history, including nearly 300 Canadian innovations that made a positive impact on the world. The intention is to further develop a culture of innovation in Canadian society. The faculty team, comprised of Dr. Glenda Black, Dr. Christine Cho, Dr. Julie Corkett, Jenny Guibert, Dr. Dan Jarvis and Dr. Greg Rickwood, was supported by a Rideau Hall Foundation Grant managed by Nipissing University. An Advisory Education Committee included representatives from various national organizations. The resource, titled Education for Innovation, includes innovation units from Kindergarten to Grade 12 with examples of innovation from theIngenious book to inspire young Canadians to engage in the innovation process. The innovation units in the resource each culminate in the development of an innovation project created by a group of students to be presented at an innovation celebration. The units are integrated and address a range of areas including the arts, business, Indigenous, literacy, mathematics, science, social studies and technology. Currently, the units are being field-tested by teachers in Ontario school boards to determine applicability and effectiveness. The resources will be also developed for French language programs and other Canadian provinces/territories in subsequent phases. All final education resource materials will be eventually posted on innovationculture.ca. To celebrate the development of Education for Innovation resources and the tremendous work done in field-testing with teacher candidates and school boards, there was an Innovation Celebration held at the Brantford campus on March 24, 2017. Mr. Tom Jenkins, co-author ofIngenious presented a keynote address. Patrons included teacher candidates, faculty members, post-secondary partners, political leaders, students, teachers and administrators from local school boards.