Innovation is critical to our success as a country. While Canadians are among the world’s most accomplished innovators, we seldom acknowledge our incredible contributions to society and humanity.

Course Description

This is an introduction for teachers across Canada to the Education for Innovation (E4I) interactive activities for Brightspace, which were developed from two books co-authored by The Right Honourable David Johnston, 28th Governor General of Canada and Tom Jenkins (Ingenious: How Canadian Innovators Made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier (2017); and Innovation Nation (2017).).

Each downloadable module contains interactive activities that are designed to foster innovation and to raise awareness about Canada’s long legacy as a home for innovation and innovators. The materials are designed for teachers to implement in their classrooms via Brightspace and are grouped into three downloadable modules aimed at different learner groups:

• Early Learning-Kindergarten (EL-K)
• Grades 1-8
• Grades 7-12

Teachers in the overlap grades (7 and 8) may want to consider which resource pack is best suited for their students. All materials are provided free of charge.

You will find that materials in the EL-K module, and some of the pages in the Grades 1-8 modules have been designed with early or lower levels of literacy in mind. Materials designed for the upper grades contain more demanding exercises and projects.

After completing this introduction, which contains sample pages of activities designed for each learner group, teachers will need to download the modules from the Canadian Innovations Space website. Teachers will then upload the desired modules into their school’s instance of Brightspace and begin to use the activities in classroom or lab contexts, or as student-led independent activities.