Teaching Innovation Through Undergraduate Research

A three-year investigation into the use of ongoing research programs to incubate innovative behavior among undergraduates is underway. Inspired by the 2005 report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, this investigation embraces the claim that more innovation in the US should help arrest the current slippage in US competitiveness. Believing that the development of approaches to teach innovation is timely, physicists at Lawrence University are employing a five-step strategy that spans ten summer weeks to boost innovative attitudes and behavior among physics majors. We are also attempting to inculcate fifteen character traits associated with successful innovators. Recent progress in this investigation will be discussed.