Assigned the Science Fiction Science Fact PowerPoint as homework tonight and will discuss and quiz Wednesday.  I think it will be an "open website" quiz - they can access the PowerPoint and website, but cant travel from the Innovation page.
They should be able to find all the answers there (even if they don't actually look at it tonight, they will have to go through it at least once to take the quiz).
Tomorrow we will finish the Steampunk lecture.

Monday morning - period#3 (Painting).
Starting differently with this group.
They have seen the intro/warm up videos, but rather than go right into "what is innovation", I am asking them to start the worksheet (what they think innovation  is) and we started today with the sci-fi lecture.
For our purposes, we are using the terms innovation and creativity interchangeably. 
Today's discussion was Surrealism, fantasy, sci-fi and breaking that down into sub-genre.
Tomorrow we really dissect Steampunk and begin to look at aesthetics and philosophy.  From there I'll dive into the Design process as a tool for refining their vision (and use Dean Kamen as my feeder into that).

Monday morning - period #1 (Computer Art).
Students working diligently on the Design Process - step #2 (Analysis and Research).
Oddly enough they seem to be enjoying this step (which was always my favorite). 
Keying on the aesthetic of Steampunk - what it is and what its not, what others have done, what are its characteristics - and using that as inspiration to begin generating ideas and sketches for their finished illustration.

Connecting the dots (again)...

Mowing the lawn and pondering the Innovations lesson, hashing out last weeks lessons and resulting discussions in my mind and I should jot down a couple of thoughts before they slip my mind...
If nothing else, and if the students don't come away with any additional knowledge of the Design Process and innovation (although I suspect they will) they are starting to look for connections (or perhaps just see them without looking).
Discussing this in two HS classes, and touched on it in the evening class I teach at BCC (Broome Community College) - in our discussions of Dean Kamen and the work he does with DARPA on advanced prosthetics, we looked at DARPA and some of its other projects.

Was interesting to watch students make the connection between DARPA's work on advance prosthetics, and the exciting and interesting work they are doing related to the Future Soldier (or Future Force warrior) project and wonder if the two were connected, and if so was that good or bad (and could it be both)?
This connected back to the "Science Fiction Science Fact" powerpoint.

If it wouldn't get us off on to much of a tangent, Id love to follow through with a lesson on connecting the developments in the Future Soldier program to things going on in science fiction literature and movies.
Might make a nice lesson to be team taught in a Social Studies class.

Future Force warrior on wikipedia

DARPA

Steampunk reading...

Im have just reached the middle of "The Difference Engine" by Gibson - perhaps one of the most foundational and classic pieces of Steampunk literature (it help define the genre in the 80'S).
The students prompted such a great discussion Thursday and Friday, and brought such great connections to the table it was pretty exciting.

The interesting thing to me as an educator is that most of their connections were contemporary (to be expected I guess) and only a few had a grasp of the "classics".
My emphasis was on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and of course the work of Well's and Verne, that I had discounted some other sources - one of my colleagues piloting the program in another district used Huxley's "A Brave New World" - a brilliant leap (especially considering its look at a dystopian future where Ford is idolized and the assembly line a staple of life).

I'd love to add a literature component - but sadly don't have time for a novel.
Maybe one of Well's or Verne's short stories?
Perhaps Bernie Wrightson's illustrated Frankenstein?
At the very least I'll need to compile a reading list to go along with the lesson as a supplement.

The Difference Engine (on wikipedia)

Monday the roll out starts in earnest with the Painting class. A bit nervous about that one. Will either go really well or really poorly depending on how on my game I am. I'll be trying it backwards with them... Instead of innovators first, then concept (Steampunk), I'm doing concept first, then using that to lead into the design process, and using that to key in on Kamens philosophy on innovation and tie it up with Mullins. They are watching the Science Fiction Science Fact power point on their own this weekend. Hopefully I have managed to make it student led so it will work without my lecture to go along with it. Only one way to find out...

The sci-fi lecture...

Today concluded the two part lecture on the history of fantasy art, focusing on Surrealism, Fantasy, Science Fiction and it's assorted branches, finishing with Steampunk. The emphasis in today's follow up was making some connections between these branches, Dean Kamen and Aimee Mullins, Edison and Ford, the industrial revolution and just what the heck it all had to do with creativity. Great discussion, and the students had some very intelligent observations, bring some really unexpected connections of their own to the table. We finished today with an examination of the design process, and how the would use it to begin to dissect Steampunk, using a design analog worksheet, looking for characteristics as well as visual clues to use to create their own piece of art.

The big picture...

Connecting the Dots...
Students were intrigued by the Steve Jobs commencement speech, but a bit suspicious of the Sir Ken Robinson talk about divergent thinking and how schools kill creativity.
Led to an opportunity to talk about the way school were structured in the United States before/during and after the industrial revolution, and the idea that were still teaching students the way we taught students back then.

Education and the Industrial Revolution

What is Innovation?

Began to discuss just what innovation is, and compare notes about the two main warm up TED Talks - Aimee Mullins and Dean Kamen.  As we were filling out the first part of form 1 (what do you know about innovation) I had a student ask (before I could) "Is Aimee Mullins really an innovator since she didn't actually create her legs?".
Excellent question - and it was nice to have a student ask it before I could.
Even better to have another student answer "Yes - she created the idea of interchangeable legs and prosthesis that weren't just a replacement but an augmentation."
Clearly, based on Dean Kamen's definition of Innovation (and I love the way he separates innovation from invention) they got the idea!
Its a reaffirmation of one of my favorite quotes...
"New technology is common, new thinking is rare." ~Sir Peter Blake

The website is now up and running.
I have placed all the information students will need for this project on the page, as well as relevant supplimentary materials (and other odds and ends not quite related, but still cool).
About 3/4 of the lectures will be run out of this page - question is - how much of it will the students access on their own?
Generally they are pretty good about accessing the website and all its materials (generally)...CF innovation 101 website on Rosko's CF Art Dept page...

Innovation 101 - The warm up...

OK - all the prep work is done (almost) and the materials, website and worksheets are ready to go (almost).
Time to get started.
The question looming in my mind now is...
Have I bitten off more than I can chew?
I love this concept and I love the materials.  I am passionate about the idea of teaching creativity and connecting the dots, seeing the big picture of education (and the world), but in this lesson, am I grasping at to much?
Am I attempting to connect to many dots, to many seemingly unrelated bits and pieces?
Only one way to find out I guess.