Teaching the History of Innovation: A History Institute for Teachers
A History Institute for Teachers
Saturday and Sunday, October 18-19, 2008
Hosted by 
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Kansas City, Missouri
Sponsored by
The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Wachman Center
The teaching of U.S. and world history is incomplete if it does not address the history of innovation from economic, scientific/technological, and sociological perspectives. We feel it important for students to be encouraged both to explore the role of innovation in U.S. and world history and to develop their own sense of innovation and creativity.
Conference Report
Topics and Speakers:
- Welcoming Remarks
- Walter McDougall
- Keynote: Ideas: A History of Thought from Fire to Freud
- Peter Watson, Oxford University
- From Stone to Silicon: A Brief Survey of Technology and Inventions
- Lawrence Husick, Senior Fellow, FPRI
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- The Relationship Between Social and Technological Change in American and Western History
- Alex Wright, author of Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages
- Teaching Innovation –A Panel Discussion
- Lawrence Husick, Senior Fellow, FPRI,
- Paul Dickler, Senior Fellow, FPRI’s Wachman Center
- Joy Hakim, author of The Story of Science and A History of US
- Dennis Shasha, Professor of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
- Innovation and Invention: The Computer as a Case History
- Rocco Martino, Chairman & CEO, CyberFone Technologies, Inc., and Senior Fellow, FPRI
- Dennis Shasha, Professor of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
- War and Technology
- Alex Roland, Professor of History, Duke University
- Innovation and the Growth of the American Economy: Lessons for Today
- David Hounshell, Henry Luce Professor of Technology and Social Change, Carnegie Mellon University
Classroom Lessons
- 20th Century Innovation Tournament, Brian Burback, Lincoln North Star High School (47K Microsoft Word document)
- Ten Greatest 20th C. Innovations, Diane Elliott, Sarcoxie High School, Sarcoxie, Missouri (32K Microsoft Word document)
- Top U.S. 20th Century Innovation, Joseph Schmidt, Umonhon Nation High School, Macy, Nebraska (47K Microsoft Word document)
Core funding for these programs has been contributed by The Annenberg Foundation. For specific weekends, additional funding has been contributed by FPRI Trustees W. W. Keen Butcher, Bruce H. Hooper, and John M. Templeton, Jr., and by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Support for our programming on Teaching the History of Innovation is provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.