Invention/Innovation/Creative Thinking/Opportunities/Ideas

By the end of this unit you the explorer, creator and connector will show the teacher that you can: 

• Differentiate between and provide examples of  invention and innovation
• Identify 5  Canadian inventions/innovations
• Identify 3 Canadian inventors/innovators
• Discuss and provide 3 to 5 examples of how ideas are born
• Identify 3 ways that you could think more creatively
• Identify problems and examine how they could become opportunities and suggest ideas that could solve these problems
• Apply creative thinking strategies to create a promotional piece
• List the rules of brainstorming – participate in a brainstorming session
• Define patent and discuss the purpose for patents 
  

Choose from the following menu of activities to develop and display your knowledge and thinking about this topic.  The marks for your chosen activities in each section must add up to the section total for a grand total of 140 marks.  You will have 5 days of class time (after a brief lesson) to work on these activities – strive to complete two activities each day. 

“Explorer” Activities – 60

• Great Canadian Information Hunt Internet Assignment    30 
  Creative Thinking Strategies – Note- Journal response    10
• “How Ideas are Born” – Examples from Small Business Newspaper Section

       Oral Summary        (5 marks each)

• Patent Note         10
• Bright Idea for the Christmas tree Article/Questions    10
• Innovation Hunt (Chart)        20

“Creator” Activities – 30

• Brainstorm Ideas for marketing Rainflo invention (Group Activity)  10
• Direct Mail Promotion for a home service (using AIDA)   20
• Print ad for a Jet-Pack based spinoff product or service (using AIDA)  15
• Ad (any medium) based on a product from Patently Absurd Inventions website 15
• Create an invention (existing or not) prototype out of playdough  15

      (include list of product needs/wants met; features and benefits)   

• Random Connections Game Choose three words from the random word list and find ways they could be connected  (oral or written/visual) (5 marks each)
• Invention Time Line – Create a timeline (with summary) of 10 inventions of your choosing          15
• Present a Drama about how an invention came to be    20
• Create Song Lyrics about how an invention came to be (or related topic) 15 

“Connector” Activities – 50 Marks

• Creative Thinking Assignment       30
• Problems-Needs/Wants-Opportunities-Idea Newspaper Assignment   (5 marks each) 
• Future Trends Assignment       20
• Take an idea and use the Creative Whack Pack cards to improve it  15
• Research a successful innovator/inventor and create a report, presentation, drama, collage, visual essay        25
• Patently Absurd Inventions – Evaluate using these headings (Problem-Opportunity-Needs/Wants Met-Idea- Feasibility)             (10 marks each)
• Research three to five different inventors/innovators (books in class, Internet) and prepare a chart or oral summary  (Problem-Opportunity-Needs/Wants Met-Idea)    15