Innovation Challenge

Purpose:

Through this exercise, students will think about and discuss a range of Arizona-related challenges and develop a feasible innovation to one such challenge. Students will:

• Identify and research an issue in Arizona related to their major/career

• Review current research conducted by an ASU faculty

• Develop an innovation to an issue that specifically affects Arizona

• Work as a collaborative member of a team

Assignment:

Each student will work as a collaborative memberof a team to identify and research a current issue specific to Arizona. Some examples might include caring for a large growing elderly population, a lack of public transportation options relative to the population, or the care and preservation of the Grand Canyon. After identifying and researching an issue, each group will find research on the topic conducted by an ASU faculty member. After reviewing the research and other scholarly sources, each group will develop a feasible innovation for the issue and will compose a reflective essay as a team describing their innovation.

Questions to be answered in the essay:

• Identify and describe the issue. Why is it important, and how does it specifically impact Arizona?

• Describe research conducted by ASU faculty on this topic. According to the researcher, what are the key challenges related to the issue?

• What solutions have been proposed by researchers/faculty in this area?

• Describe the innovation your group has developed. How is it different from previous solutions and innovations? How would the state of Arizona benefit from the innovation?

• How would you implement the innovation?

• What are the expected outcomes of the innovation? Be specific.

• What skills would the professionals implementing this innovation need to be successful?

Essays should be 750 words. Follow appropriate formatting such as double-spacing and 12 point font. All papers are expected to be integrative essays done in paragraph format.