Innovation, Invention & Adaptation
New ideas are not all the same. Designers can invent, adapt, improve, and help useful ideas spread.
Prototype ≠ automatically an innovation.
In this unit we practise adaptation, invention thinking, and innovation-minded improvement. A classroom prototype has not automatically demonstrated marketplace diffusion.
Distinguish invention, adaptation, and innovation examples.
Identify what changed, what stayed, and why the change may matter.
Transfer a useful principle from one product into a new context without simply copying it.
Copy
Reproduce another product’s shape and details with minor cosmetic changes.
Adapt
Notice a useful principle — such as modular parts, a locking tab, a clear window, or a refill system — and apply that principle to a different problem.
Classify examples, then adapt one useful principle.
Sort
Place cards under invention, adaptation, innovation, or “not enough evidence.”
Defend
Choose one card where the classification needs evidence.
Adapt
Choose one useful product principle and sketch a new school-life use for it.
Find a small problem or inefficient step.
Study how existing ideas solve related problems.
Change the principle for a new user/context.
Gather evidence and improve the result.
Finish one sentence.
Next lesson
Students model products and routines as systems with input, process, output, and feedback.