So you're going to take
the Innovation Odyssey....

Preparing your students for the performance

What happens
After you and your students board the bus, a professional actor will introduce you to the people and places of Boston's innovation history by alternating between being in the character of an inventor and narrating information about people and sites while interacting with your students. You will make stops at the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital, the MIT Museum, and Harvard Yard.

Discussion Questions to Share with Students
Introduce the general themes of innovation and invention. Ask the students to define these terms.
What innovations and inventions can they name? Historically? Now? What influence on business, healthcare, and society did they have?

How do they think the invention of the telephone might have changed life? in business? in medicine? in finance? in homes? What about cell phones? You could also discuss radar, cloning,
smallpox vaccinations, computers, healthcare. All are discussed on the tour.

What does it "take" to be an innovator and/or an inventor? Who has the big ideas? Do they see themselves in that role?

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Writing or Discussion Assignments
Ask students to listen carefully while on the tour to identify an area where they think they could contribute in the future. When they return, ask them to research how they would obtain the background: education, experience, technical expertise to contribute to their chosen area.

Ask students to research a person, idea, or invention on the tour to present to the class.