A woman cultivates seaweed off the coast of Madagascar to counter overfishing. She's working with Blue Ventures,
a business that supports its conservation projects by giving ecotours. / Courtesy of Skoll Foundation
HNR 151-152 (10) - Design Thinking for Social Product Innovation, Lane/Lafferty: Stories of Social Innovation
Your mission: Identify and learn about a young social innovator
Steps to take:
- Explore -- find some people and projects that catch your interest
- Research -- find out more about an interesting person and their project
- Synthesize -- what do others have to say about this person and project? What do you think about it?
To get you fired up about the possibilities, here's a podcast transcript about "social entrepreneurship"
Yes, You Can Help The World And Make Money At The Same Time
Goats and Soda, Stories of Life in a Changing World
1. Explore
Here are some different paths you can explore to look for some leads on young social innovators and entrepreneurs:
Google (open web, no content or quality filters)
- Peace Corps - Stories"There are a lot of stories out there waiting for you to live them. Every Peace Corps Volunteer has a story to tell." Read some of them here.
- Forbes 30-under-30, 2019: Social EntrepreneursEvery year Forbes Magazine highlights young people making a mark in some venue -- sports, entertainment, etc.
Explore the 'Social entrepreneurs' category for different years by searching in Google for:
Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs [year] - Innovators Under 35Every year, MIT Technology Review selects a list of the most promising innovators around the world.
- TED: Talks by Brilliant Kids and TeensWhat it says! Something in one of these may give you a lead on a project and its innovator!
Try other searches in the TED site, using different combinations of keywords -- e.g. young, under 30, teen, innovation, innovator, entrepreneur - NPR: Social Entrepreneurs: Taking On World ProblemsPodcast transcripts highlight stories of innovation and entrepreneurship from around the world.
Library 'Find It!' search (vetted academic content, not free on the open web)
2. Research
Once you have some personal names (e.g. Alex Scott) or project names (e.g. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation), search those in Google and in Find it! Be open to a range of information sources and formats you could use:
- Books
- News articles
- News feature stories
- Blogs
- Interviews (print, video, podcast, audio transcript)
- Personal reference or contact
- Project reports or 'white papers'
- Project websites, e.g. Andrew Youn's One Acre Fund site
- Videos, e.g. TED Talks
Some of these will relate specifically to your research on the person and their project. Others will help to inform your synthesis in (3.)
Statistical Datasets
Your research and synthesis will eventually probably need some data to back up or highlight aspects of your topic.
Library databases with international statistics:
- Sage Data This link opens in a new windowSage Data is a collection of U.S. and international datasets sourced from governmental, commercial, and private organizations. Sage Data allows you to search and browse billions of datasets, compare and contrast variables of interest, and create customized exportable charts and tables. Each dataset also has a detailed description, including information about its source organization and update frequency.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista provides users with an innovative and intuitive tool for researching quantitative data, statistics and related information. It provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government institutions in English, French, German and Spanish. The platform consists over 1,500,000 statistics on over 80,000 topics from more than 18,000 sources.
Free sources for international datasets:
- WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO) DataThe GHO data repository contains an extensive list of indicators, which can be selected by theme or through a multi-dimension query functionality. It is the World Health Organization's main health statistics repository.
3. Synthesize
When you start preparing to share your interesting person and project with your classmates, you might be writing, or preparing slides to present, or both. Peer Writing and Speech Preparation Consultants are available to help you make your presentation great!
- Virtual Knowledge Market -- get in touch, book an appointment
Subjects: Course Guides, Honors College
- Last Updated: Mar 21, 2024 3:08 PM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/HNRinnovation
