Catherine Pearl, a professor with the Bissett School of Business, not only encourages her students to step away from the classroom to find real world application on everything they learn in her course, she makes it mandatory and incorporates it into their final grade.

Felt markers, stickers, colourful paper, and glue sticks could be found on tables in the Maker Studio as Introduction to Social Innovation (SINV 2201) students spent the day completing their final class project—designing a board game based on elements they learned in the accelerated block week course from May 3-10.

The students, who varied from first to third year, were divided into groups where they discussed their favourite traditional board games and how they could incorporate those same elements into specific subject areas they learned from course material throughout the week. A large portion of the afternoon was spent bringing their plan and design to life. The day ended with a presentation by each group that had them explain the concept of their game and how it relates back to the course content.

Pearl got the idea from a Telus Spark professional development course she took with educators from around the city of Calgary where they were tasked with a similar project. She noticed the level of engagement from participants and decided that a social innovation game would be a great way to challenge her students to think outside the box.