Nine Ideas for the Bolstering Innovative Thinking

By Catameron Bobino 

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Videos, interactives and lessons included in this list can bolster skills that lead to innovative thinking: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.  Head back into the classroom with resources for invigorating learning in 2016. For full access to PBS LearningMedia, create a free PBS LearningMedia account. With PBS LearningMedia build interactive lessons and quizzes to create more media rich teaching and learning opportunities in your classroom.

Innovative Thinking: Steven Johnson | Video  | Grades 1-13+
Watch as Steven Johnson, the host of the PBS series How We Got to Now, shares his advice for fostering innovative thinking: have diverse interests, follow your hunches, and don’t be afraid to fail. The series tells the stories behind the ideas and inventions that made the modern world possible.

Innovation in Action  | Videos | 3-12
These resources explore the critical and creative skills that engineers, inventors, musicians, farmers, and scientists rely on to develop the innovative products and processes that underpin our everyday lives.

Inventing with the Wright Brothers | Video | Grades 5-8
In celebration of the anniversary of the Wilbur and Orville Wright’s historic first flight in 1903, this fast-paced webcast gives students in sixth to eighth grades an introduction to the Wright brothers and the process of innovation. The program uses the Wright Flyer as a starting point to explore the concepts of flight.

The Catapult Project | Video | Grades 5-8, 13+
Join 7th grade integrated science and math teacher Zara Acosta as she leads her students through a 6-week catapult design project. Students learn about the laws of motion and forces, probability, and engineering design, and then apply these principles to design their own catapult. Multiple firings of the catapult the project give students practice with data analysis, with the goal of improving the catapult’s accuracy.

Extreme By Design | Interactive | Grades 6-12
“Extreme By Design – Watch & Do” is an interactive experience designed for 4th through 12th grade students, to be completed after watching the Extreme By Design documentary. Learning Episode 1 (“Being an Innovator”) helps students think and act like innovators using the design thinking approach.

Code like a Girl | Video and Activity | Grades 6-12
See what coding camps are doing to help girls gain more ground in the gaming world with this video and educational resources from PBS NewsHour from September 15, 2015.

Process of Innovation | Lesson | Grades 6-13+
In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the processes of innovation favored by different types of innovators to demonstrate that innovation need not follow a single method.

What Does Innovation Really Mean?  |  Webinar Recording | Grades 6-13+
Watch PBS LearningMedia’s innovation expert, John Sessler, as he explores the topic of “innovation” and identifies the 21st century skills that lead to innovative thinking: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

Good Thinking! Collection | Professional Learning Resources
New resources from the Smithsonian Science Education Center, committed to improving K-12 teaching and learning of science for all students around the globe.