Foundations Newsletter

Sharjah Women’s College an “innovation hour” activity a few weeks ago. Our students had one hour to think of a problem and try to think of an innovation to fix this problem. It seems like a daunting task, but it surprisingly went well when you used this website:

Innovation Starter Kit

What does the website offer?

The website takes students through various steps to introduce the concept of innovation, and innovators in the UAE. It then provides them with six different fields or areas that might interest them. In each area, a few problems are presented. (The website is still a work in progress, and was actually launched just a few weeks ago. More problems will be added soon )

Each problem is presented in a way that gives students some context using English AND Arabic videos and directs them to additional links that can provide them with additional information. Finally, to get them thinking, a few questions about the problem are added, in both English and Arabic. Example: Energy consumption

How to use it?

The presentation of the website allows students to navigate the website on their own. Each problem is also presented in both English and Arabic to help weaker students.

I personally used it with my level 1 students and asked them to go through the steps one by one. After viewing the content for step 1, we discussed innovation and how it is important for the country and humanity in general. Then, students browsed problems in areas they felt are relevant or interesting. I asked them to view more than one problem before choosing one and before they start brainstorming ideas for innovations that can be used in the UAE.

Problems offered on the website can also help students in their writing classes. Content provided for different problems can serve as background information that students need before they can start writing about different issues.