Singapore students have consistently demonstrated outstanding levels of performance in mathematics and problem solving captured in international assessments. However, these stellar results stand in contrast to Singapore's real-world problem-solving capacities, evidenced by her diffident innovation levels and a limited talent pool with…

The author explains how using creative assignments reinforces invention, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills in undergraduate health administration students. While several studies look at the use of creative assignments to help students develop these skills, few studies exist on their use in health administration. In addition, the use of…

When Daisy Han first encountered a Montessori classroom, she actually felt free. Free to move, free to create, free to explore, free to try, free to fail, free to be. This freedom is essential to becoming an innovator. Innovators possess an irreverence almost as big as their self-efficacy, both of which have been nurtured in an environment where…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest challenges faced for a very long time. However, it has also presented educators with novel opportunities for teaching, none more so than in science. There are the obvious links between COVID-19 and the body of scientific knowledge that curriculum designers think educators should help students to…

This article describes the design and implementation of a sensors-based entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) module in a large (>150 students) first-year General Chemistry II course. Students worked in groups create a novel sensor that solves an existing scientific problem or improves upon an existing sensor. Students proposed and explained…

University students crave immersive, collaborative, interdisciplinary, applied learning contextualized to real world sustainability challenges. Liberal arts and sciences institutions are particularly well positioned to respond. Here we report on our high impact, cross-disciplinary, biomimicry-themed firstyear experience (FYE) curricula. Biomimicry…

This article explores the concept of being an intrapreneur and a hybrid professional. An intrapreneur is a person who fills a need and starts programs, products, or services inside of a company or nonprofit as opposed to starting from nothing, which is what entrepreneurs do. A hybrid professional is someone who integrates multiple professional…

Besides "thinking outside the box," the creativity needed to solve problems often involves thinking differently about the box, finding a new approach or off-beat way to use the materials, conditions, and even constraints that one has. Spencer discusses creative constraint--what happens when a problem solver runs into barriers that make…

A small project of STEAM education called "Innovation for Love and Care" was implemented in a local secondary school in Hong Kong. Four seventh-grade students participated from November 2020 to February 2021. The project aims to integrate humanism into the traditional STEAM curriculum, to stimulate the students' innovation in a…

In this article, the authors outline an innovation curriculum that can be taught to elementary-aged students to expand their creative and innovative abilities and potential. The curriculum focuses on divergent and convergent thinking principles embedded in a hands-on learning pedagogy. The curriculum framework is based on an innovation model known…

"Developing Creativity in the Classroom" applies the most current theory and research on creativity to support the design of teaching and learning. Creative thinking and problem solving are at the heart of learning and application as students prepare for innovation-driven careers. This text debunks myths about creativity and teaching…

Creativity and innovation are frequently mentioned as key 21st-century skills for career and life success. Indeed, recent research provides evidence that the jobs of the future will increasingly require the ability to bring creative solutions to complex problems. And creativity is often the spice of life, that little extra something that makes the…

This article describes a lesson in which students will utilize ideation and engineering design to innovate a solution to a design problem using common household products.

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association's (ITEEA's) "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" ("STEL") describes design thinking as an approach that allows students and educators to integrate other content areas by considering relevant contextual information to guide design and making…

We present a preliminary theory of innovation in social work science. The focus of the piece is two case studies from our work that illustrate the social nature of innovations in the science of social work. This inductive theory focuses on a concept we refer to as transformative innovation, wherein two sets of individuals who possess different…