Posts Tagged innovation learning
The 2017 Teacher Innovator Award winners. From Left to Right: Sean McCarroll, Joseph Boggs, Dawn Burton, Kathy Boisvert, Spencer Kiper, Wanda Small, Jon Paddock, Denise Scribner, Steven Lamb, Lisa Weis.
For three years now, The Henry Ford as had the privilege of honoring a select group of educators who demonstrated the ability to teach their subjects in innovative ways, inspiring their students to think creatively. These educators inspire their students to challenge the rules and take risks, who demonstrate how to be collaborative and empathetic, and teach the value of staying curious and learning from failure.
Now, The Henry Ford and Litton Entertainment are proud to sponsor a fourth year of Teacher Innovator Awards so that another crop of educators can be honored. Just as The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation television show seeks out the stories of forward-looking visionaries and innovators each week, we are looking for teachers who showcase an original and creative approach to teaching, inspire innovation in their students, exhibit resourcefulness, engage students, and are making a positive impact on not only their classroom but their community, colleagues, administrators, school, and/or district.
Twenty teachers in total will receive prizes, with the top 10 grand prize winners receiving a week-long “Innovation Immersion Experience” at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. Winners will be announced in June 2018.
Nominate yourself or a teacher you know by completing the online submission form (click on the “nominate” button). Tell us what innovation means to you and show us and let your students tell us what you have meant to them. Be sure to include supporting materials that show an innovative teaching methodology, curriculum, and/or model in action. All entries must be submitted by the February 28, 2018 deadline.
Please be sure to read our official rules carefully before nominating. For more details about the awards or the television show please go here.
We look forward to learning how teachers across the country are innovating in their classrooms.
Frederick Rubin is Learning and Engagement Team Coordinator at The Henry Ford
innovation learning, by Frederick Rubin, education, Teacher Innovator Awards, teachers and teaching
The 2016 Teacher Innovator Award Winners: Far Back: Scott Weiler. From Left to right: Fabian Reid, Catherine Turso, George Hademenos, Jill Badalamenti, Cindy Lewis, Leon Tynes, Tracie Adams, Maureen Foelkl. (Unable to attend: Jessica Klass)
Next year, 2017, will mark the third year for the Teacher Innovator Awards, a program sponsored by The Henry Ford and Litton Entertainment, the producers of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation. This contest recognizes teachers who are innovative in the classroom, who inspire their students to think creatively, who are resourceful, and who make a positive impact on those around them from their students to their community. Ten grand-prize winners will be given an all-expenses paid trip to The Henry Ford for a five-day “Innovation Immersion Experience.” So what does that entail exactly?
The 2015 Teacher Innovator Award winners. From Left to Right: Joe Morris, Donna Gradel, Linda Reimond, Lyle Crossley, Melissa Collins, Jamie Ewing, Saba Ghole, Mark Suter, Wrayna Fairchild, Laura Bradley. (Unable to attend: Bobby Moore.)
Well, for five days the winners will explore the grounds of The Henry Ford. They will be treated to curator-led tours of The Henry Ford where they will learn about innovation through the lens of manufacturing as they can build a Model T, exploration as they learn about the early days of airplanes, automobile, and trains, and social change where they can hear the story of Rosa Parks while sitting on the very bus where she helped start the Civil Rights movement. These and countless other artifacts from mammoth steam engines from the early Industrial Revolution to Henry Ford’s personal violin collection await our guests every day.
The 2016 winners building a Model-T within Henry Ford Museum.
They will traverse Greenfield Village where one can truly see how those in the past lived as the homes of innovative luminaries, such as the Wright Brothers, are open to the public. They can visit a working farm, watch as glass is blown in our own glass shop, ride a Model T or take a train ride around the village. They can experience firsthand the spirit of innovation which was needed for society to progress.
“…The Henry Ford helps teachers inspire their students to be the same kind of innovative, risk-taking, hands-on, problem-solving people that made America so great.” - Laura Bradley, 2015 Teacher Innovator Award winner.
The 2016 winners exploring the Wright Cycle Shop in Greenfield Village.
The winners will also get to experience the height of modern innovation as they tour The Ford Rouge Factory, witnessing the modern assembly line at work as Ford F-150s are built right in front of them. By studying the history of this factory our educators will see examples of innovation in manufacturing, industry, and society itself.
“A week at The Henry Ford opened my eyes to not only Ford’s legacy, but also to the power of teaching our students to be innovators themselves.” - Laura Bradley, 2015 Teacher Innovator Award winner.
Our winners will explore the archives of The Henry Ford, viewing artifacts and hearing stories not generally available to the public. They will explore Maker Faire Detroit, witnessing a yearly gathering of innovators from all over the area who come to show off their ideas, designs, and products. The winners can even take in a movie at our Giant Screen Experience if they wish!
Finally, to pull the week together for our winners, members of our Learning and Engagement team will instruct the educators in the use of our innovation curricula, giving them a new tool to use with their students.
“…I was truly inspired to bring it all back to my classroom and my students... The unit on innovative thinking truly transformed the way my students think and approach problems and projects.” - Jamie Ewing, 2015 Teacher Innovator Award winner.
When it’s all said and done, the teachers who win this contest will leave The Henry Ford with a number of gifts, a beautiful award handcrafted in our glass shop, and a new understanding of the concept and practices of Innovation. Most importantly though is they will leave The Henry Ford knowing that their efforts in education are appreciated and that they are not alone in the struggle to reform our classrooms as these experiences will be shared as a group, a group of equally innovative educators and future collaborators.
“I now have nine additional educators I feel connected to for future inspirational teaching lessons”. - Maureen Foelkl, 2016 Teacher Innovator Award winner.
If you know an educator, or are one yourself, who is innovative, creative, and resourceful, please take the time to apply for the Teacher Innovator Awards.
“The Henry Ford Innovative Educator award has been so much more than just being recognized. It is truly about helping to transform me as an educator, thinker, and problem solvers. It has inspired me!”- Jamie Ewing, 2015 Teacher Innovator Award winner
Frederick Rubin is the Coordinator for The Learning and Engagement Department at The Henry Ford. Blog posts by Laura Bradley and Maureen Foelkl regarding their experiences at The Henry Ford’s Teacher Innovator Awards can be found here and here.
innovation learning, education, by Frederick Rubin, Teacher Innovator Awards, teachers and teaching
For the past two years The Henry Ford has had the privilege of honoring a select group of educators who demonstrated the ability to teach their subjects in innovative ways, inspiring their students to think creatively. They accomplish in their classrooms what we at The Henry Ford strive to accomplish every day with our guests; conveying innovation concepts and practices.
Now, The Henry Ford and Litton Entertainment are proud to sponsor a third year of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation Teacher Innovator Awards so that another crop of educators can be honored. Just as The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation seeks out the stories of forward-looking visionaries and innovators each week, we are looking for teachers who showcase an original and creative approach to teaching, inspire innovation in their students, exhibit resourcefulness, engage students, and are making a positive impact on not only their classroom but their community, colleagues, administrators, school, and/or district.
Twenty teachers in total will receive prizes, with the top ten grand prize winners receiving a week-long “Innovation Immersion Experience” at The Henry Ford. Winners will be announced in June.
Nominate yourself or a teacher you know by completing the online submission form (click on the “apply now” button). Tell us what innovation means to you and show us how you teach it to your students. Be sure to include supporting materials that show an innovative teaching methodology, curriculum, and/or model in action. All entries must be submitted by the February 28, 2017 deadline.
Please be sure to read our official rules carefully before nominating. For more details about the awards or the television show please go here.
We look forward to learning how teachers across the country are innovating in their classrooms.
Frederick Rubin is Engagement and Learning Coordinator at The Henry Ford.
innovation learning, Teacher Innovator Awards, teachers and teaching, education, by Frederick Rubin
Agriculture is an important collecting focus for The Henry Ford, so we’re very honored to have the Michigan Farm Bureau join us as a partner. Catherine Tuczek, our curator of school and public learning, sat down with Education Specialist Amelia Miller to talk about the importance of agriculture in today’s classroom.Why does it make sense for The Henry Ford and the Michigan Foundation for Agriculture and Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom to partner together?
The Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom program strives to provide educators with standards-based lessons which teach about local agriculture through classroom subjects such as science, social studies, English language arts, math and more. To partner with The Henry Ford allows us a direct link to put these lessons in the hands of the teachers. With the historical agriculture exhibits and The Henry Ford’s focus on innovation, it makes sense to showcase modern agriculture, showing the progression in agricultural technologies throughout time.
Where do most people learn about agriculture these days?
Knowledge of food and agriculture is no different than any other topic. Consumers today turn to social media for information about their food and the way it’s raised. 63% of Michigan consumers say they prefer to purchase products grown and raised in Michigan. Today’s consumer expects transparency between farmers, food processors and consumers. About half of U.S. consumers want to learn about food safety and the impact of food on their health directly from food labels; while about 40% want to learn about animal well-being, environmental impact and business ethics from company websites. (source: Center for Food Integrity) 
What are common misconceptions children have about agriculture?
Many students (and parents!) draw conclusions from their immediate surroundings. Less than 2% of the U.S. population live on farms or ranches, with this disconnect comes misconceptions. Often, students guess their milk comes from a grocery store cooler rather than a dairy cow. Careers in agriculture don’t just mean working on a farm, from sales and marketing to plant science to animal health jobs are available in business, biology, mechanics, and more. Today’s agriculturalists are very technology-savvy people. Farmers utilize advancements in plant breeding and genetics to grow more food on less land while utilizing less water, fertilizer and pesticides than ever before. 98% of Michigan farms are family owned rooted in the tradition of raising plants and animals in our Great Lakes state. No matter the size of the farm, these farmers are working to take care of the land, animals, plants and the environment.
How can agriculture enrich traditional curriculum like science, social studies, math or English Language Arts?
Agriculture can be the tangible subject which brings any content area to life. With educational trends focusing on inquiry-based learning, agriculture provides a living platform to ask questions or present scenarios. Beginning in preschool, students explore basic plant science through growing seeds, labeling plant parts and drawing conclusions that some plants produce edible fruits or vegetables. Similarly animal science can be integrated into cell biology, nutrition or physiology. When we think about advanced science, we also think about math. 
These two foundational concepts go hand in hand as students progress in physics, chemistry and biology all of which are necessary in plant, animal and food science. Agriculture, food and natural resources is Michigan’s second largest economic sector, easily connecting to third and fourth grade social studies. The Mitten State’s unique geography creates many microclimates which allow our state to be the second most diverse food producing state in the nation, growing more than 300 different agricultural commodities. Not to be forgotten, English Language Arts (ELA) can tie all these subjects together. Particularly at elementary levels, reading and ELA is of a primary focus. Utilizing recommended Agriculture Literacy texts and their partnering lesson plans, teachers can pair ELA standards with connecting science standards within one lessons.
How can agricultural education enrich children’s personal lives?
There is great reward in seeing the fruits of our own labor. Learning to care for the land or animals is one of our most basic life skills. With trends focusing on unplugging from our electronic device toting society and theories about “Nature-Deficit Disorder” creating the “No Child Left Inside” movement, agriculture education encourages children to learn from the environment. Hands-on lessons focusing on growing plants, caring for animals or studying natural resources gets students out of the classroom. Agriculture education easily caters to all learning styles providing visual, kinesthetic and auditory teaching methods. From early on, society encourages children to consider “what they want to be when they grow up.” While many answers are simple, familiar responses such as firefighter, teacher or doctor, those are just three of the wide world of careers available, each requiring varying levels of post-high school training. Between 2015 and 2020 we expect to see 57,900 average annual openings for graduates with bachelor’s degrees or higher in agriculture. A farmer or veterinarian may be popular career choices amongst children, but reality is agriculture needs scientists, engineers, business managers, marketing professionals, graphic designers, agronomists, animal nutrition specialists, food processors, packaging engineers, mechanics, welders, electricians, educators, and government officials. (source: USDA, AFNR Employment Opportunities)
What are the most important components in agricultural education?
There are five basic groupings of agricultural literacy lessons: Agriculture and the Environment; Plants and Animals for Food, Fiber and Energy; Food, Health and Lifestyle; STEM; and Culture, Society, Economy and Geography. These National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes developed by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization focus agriculture learning and assist in aligning lessons with national education standards. If K-12 teachers utilize these groupings when incorporating agriculture into curriculum, students will effectively gain an understanding of agriculture in their daily life.
As with any topic of study, utilizing authentic resources, which are founded in research-based theory is also an important component of agricultural education. Product marketing can often lead consumers astray as to the potential health benefits or risks of food and fiber products. Focusing on teaching accurate agricultural lessons from credible resources will mitigate this confusion in the grocery store aisles. 
What are some easy first steps or activities for agricultural education, that a teacher or parent can try?
In Michigan, agriculture is all around us! Ready to go lesson plans paired with state and national standards can be found online from Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom or search more options from the National Agriculture in the Classroom organization. Play learning games on your tablet or computer from My American Farm or visit their educator center for free to download lessons and activities. Gain first-hand knowledge by visiting farm markets around the state, the Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden at MSU, Michigan Grown Michigan Great or any of these Breakfast on the Farm events. Other national organizations such as Nutrients for Life, Journey 2050, Discovery Education, Food Dialogues or Best Food Facts provide great resources for agriculture, food and natural resource learning!
innovation learning, food, philanthropy, educational resources, education, agriculture, by Amelia Miller, by Catherine Tuczek
Greenpower goes global
When high school drafting design instructor Mike Evans discovered Greenpower, the academic electric car competition, he had no idea how far it would take him and his students. In less than three years, the team from Alabama’s Huntsville Center of Technology’s (HCT) went from drafting Solid Edge models for the UK based competition, to becoming the first international high school team, and now starting the competition in America.
“It started with an introduction from Mike Brown who oversees Siemens’ mainstream engineering global academic programs,” said Evans. “We had a long relationship with Siemens so he asked us to reverse engineer the F-24 kit car in Siemens Solid Edge software for Greenpower’s UK CEO Jeremy Way. When Jeremy saw the students’ models he invited us to build a car and enter the race.”
Greenpower started back in 1999 with a dream of supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. Building and racing the electric cars inspires and engages students of all ages to pursue STEM subjects. Continue Reading
philanthropy, race cars, engineering, environmentalism, teachers and teaching, educational resources, childhood, alternative fuel vehicles, electricity, cars, racing, education, innovation learning
A few years ago, when The Henry Ford embarked on its "teaching innovation" initiative, we did not anticipate that it would rapidly evolve into so many different forms and lead us to so many new opportunities and unique partnerships. Innovation 101, our core curriculum for inspiring innovation, has proven to be a highly adaptive and dynamic teaching tool that continues to be applied in a wide variety of settings, engaging multiple audiences to think and act like innovators. In some instances, we are the direct drivers; in others, we are the catalysts nurturing innovative thinking among stakeholders. Here are some of the ways we are teaching innovation, learning in the process and innovating new applications. We consider our efforts a humble start and look forward to more exciting possibilities unfolding in the future. Continue Reading
educational resources, teachers and teaching, by Paula Gangopadhyay, education, innovation learning
I had the distinct honor of being named one of the top 10 winners of the PBS/The Henry Ford national Teacher Innovators award in 2011. I spent a week that summer attending the Innovation Immersion workshop, at The Henry Ford, which was the actual award.
As a master teacher of 26 years, with substantial experience in curriculum development (at both local and state levels) and educational technology integration, I have reached a point in my career where it can be very easy to coast or repeat what I have done in the past. I am lucky to have been involved in a new and substantial educational technology roll-out at my district, and act as one of the district Technology Integration Specialists. I end up leading a tremendous amount of professional development, and while this helps keep me motivated and “forces” me to be continually learning so I can train in a turnkey manner, sometimes its hard to find professional development that really gets me excited.
Burn out (or sheer laziness) is always a worry for me.
The Teacher Innovator award required me to really take a look at some of the ways I was teaching, and to do some serious reflection focused into a very specific direction. To be able to follow up that experience with a week of deep immersion at The Henry Ford was a truly outstanding and highly motivating professional development experience. The combination of meeting, talking and working with other highly motivated and innovative teachers (from all grade levels and subject areas), with added direction from Paula Gangopadhyay and the team at The Henry Ford, and with the amazing resources available at (and the wonderful setting of) The Henry Ford, was incredibly stimulating (and led directly to my being involved in some very worthwhile online professional learning communities).
It didn't take much reflection during the remaining days of my summer “vacation” to realize that The Henry Ford’s facilities, its resources and the philosophy of Henry Ford himself, embodied so well by The Henry Ford, were a perfect fit to, and a wonderful reinforcement, of many of the philosophies I have believed in for some time - philosophies that are quickly coming to prominence in many progressive areas of education. The ideas of project based learning, cross curriculum and multi-disciplinary approaches to education and the idea of a switch from STEM to STEAM education.
Not only does The Henry Ford embody these ideas, but they have the resources, both educational and physical, to put these ideas into real world practice quite smoothly and effectively. I left with pages of ideas, and have only added to these over the course of the last year and a half, and the network of friends, colleagues and mentors created by a week at The Henry Ford has helped to keep the initial burst of enthusiasm burning.
I am grateful to PBS and The Henry Ford for providing me this unique professional development and innovative leadership experience. I am extremely happy that PBS and The Henry Ford are continuing to encourage teachers each year to think out-of-the-box, use digital tools to reinvent education and provide rich contextual tools to further teaching and learning as part of the award. For anyone searching for real-life, exciting and effective 21st century professional development, Paula, The Henry Ford, Innovation 101 curriculum, the OnInnovation web resource and the Teacher Innovation Award are a combination well-suited to meet that need.
By Keith Rosko, Fine Arts Department Chairperson and Technology Integration Specialists
Chenango Forks School District, Binghamton, NY
innovation learning, Teacher Innovator Awards, by Keith Rosko, teachers and teaching, education
