Working on Ideas that Matter

Engaging Students Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship

It’s the first day of camp and fifteen high schoolers from across Greater Boston are gathered in a classroom with butcher block tables, whiteboards and post-its. Lots of post-its. These students are about to embark on a two-week journey into innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) that will combine hands-on workshops where teams develop their own startup ideas with field trips across the city to meet with local startups and established companies. They will interview strangers, prototype solutions, apply business concepts and present their work to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors. But above all, they will feel ownership, they will feel heard by others, and their entrepreneurial mindset, the belief that they are capable of creating solutions to problems big and small, will be sparked. Students will leave this camp equipped to be future innovators and entrepreneurs.

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What will come of the ideas teams develop during camp? Most likely, not much. In two weeks, students have less than ten
hours to develop their concept using basic, low-fidelity materials like cardboard, glue and recyclable objects from home. Teams designing digital solutions, the ever-popular apps or online platforms, will have sketches and maybe some basic backend coding. All teams will have tested their prototypes with their peers, the first of dozens, if not hundreds, of rounds of the build, measure, learn feedback loop. While students love building these physical prototypes, this is far from the end goal of I&E camp. Our true objectives are to spark students’ curiosity, to introduce them to key innovation skills, and to help them explore potential college and career pathways, all while having fun because, it is the summer, after all.

My favorite things about I&E and how they can be applied in any setting:

  1. Student Choice and Voice: Students identify and explore problems that matter to them. How can you find more opportunities to break free of the required content and give students a say in what they study? Or, where can you find more opportunities for students to explore unique facets of the required content?
  2. Authentic the Problem-Solving Process: There is no one right answer in I&E. Students work in teams gathering information to make decisions and adjust along the way, which is how problem solving happens in the real world. This is both terrifying for students that are used to giving teachers exactly what they are looking for, and liberating for students as they realise they are in control. Where are opportunities to bring in more real-world, authentic and messy problems in your classrooms? How can you explore the complexity of an issue and think critically about the various solution options?
  3. Active Learning: I&E work is experiential learning at its best. Where are more opportunities in your classroom for feedback, reflection and the physical construction of concepts?
  4. Fosters Empathy: Innovators and entrepreneurs develop valuable solutions for people. Human-centred design is core to this work and emphasises the crucial inclusion of those

affected by the problem in all aspects of idea development. How can you provide more opportunities for students to engage in inclusive and community-based design that fosters meaningful relationships with others?

5. Connections: Year after year, what my campers value
the most are the field trips. They love exploring their community, touring the insides of offices, talking with diverse employees and seeing their learning in practice. These connections help students create more accurate visions of who their future selves might be. How can you get your students out of the building more, or bring the outside world in? How can you help foster meaningful connections with people working in areas aligned with students’ interests?

I&E education prepares students to be problem solvers, something we need more and more of these days. Some of
your students may be really interested in starting businesses; however, the majority of ones I’ve worked with just want to work on an idea that matters. At Boston University, many want to host hackathons and conferences, create art challenging social injustices, recommend policies that foster a sustainable campus, and so much more. We support and encourage these ideas, (what we call projects), as much as we do the startups. Solutions can come in all shapes and sizes and as educators we do our best
to immerse students in a supportive learning process that they drive, regardless of the end product.

Whether working with high school campers or college students, developing innovation skills and an entrepreneurial mindset helps prepare them for long-term success, regardless of their future career pathway. In 2016, the World Economic Forum estimated that 65% of kids entering primary school today will work in new jobs that don’t even exist yet. How can we prepare students for this future? I believe that authentic I&E opportunities are part of the solution.

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Blake Sims St. Louis


Blake Sims St. Louis is a passionate educator and entrepreneur based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is the Founder of Epiic Solutions (www. epiicsolutions.org), an organisation that engages youth, educators and schools in research-based design thinking, entrepreneurship, and innovation content through hands-on programs and workshops. Blake is also the Programme Director of Social Innovation at Boston University and a former middle school teacher.