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Modern World History

Defining Innovation

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Directions: Insert the cursor after the bullet for each question and then type your answer. Once you are finished, print this document and turn in the paper copy.

Specifics of the topic

  1. What was the innovation called?
  2. When was it adopted or developed?
  3. Who was involved, or, in other words, who were the innovators who created, designed, or implemented the innovation?
  4. What did the innovation look like, how did it work, and what previous ideas, objects, actions, or institutions did it replace?
  5. What benefits did it provide, and to whom?
  6. How was it received?

Historical Context/ Before the Innovation(the setting in which events take place)

  1. Why did this innovation come about when and where it did?
  2. What economic circumstances existed before the innovation and caused or contributed to it?
  3. What political circumstances existed before the innovation and caused or contributed to it?
  4. What technological circumstances existed before the innovation and caused or contributed to it?
  5. What cultural circumstances existed before the innovation and caused or contributed to it?
  6. What religious circumstances existed before the innovation and caused or contributed to it?

Effects of the Innovation

  1. How did people react initially to the new idea, arrangement, organization, or technology?
  2. How did people react in the short term (within a few years) to the new idea, arrangement, organization, or technology?
  3. How did people react over the longer term (in later years and decades), to the new idea, arrangement, organization, or technology?
  4. What were the personal ramifications for the innovator?
  5. How soon did people adopt or accept the innovation — or did they reject it?
  6. What happened to the ideas or items replaced by the innovation, and how quickly did those trends show up?
  7. How did it change people’s ideas, scientific knowledge, everyday behavior, political processes, etc.?
  8. Did the innovation just influence people locally, or did its influences extend nationally or to other countries?
  9. In what ways did the influences appear? (Be descriptive – this is key information to show innovativeness!)
  10. Has the innovation been supplanted by other innovations, and how fast did that replacement process occur?

Adapted from the National History Day Rulebook