WRL Lesson Plans / KS4 - How Businesses Work - 4 lessons / How Businesses Work Lesson Plan 1 - Innovation

Connect the Learning

Recap on previous learning on enterprise or designing new products.

The Big Picture

This is the first lesson in a module of four exploring how businesses work. This lesson looks at innovative designs.

The Learning Outcomes

In this session students will learn more about great inventions and how innovation changes the world.

Introduction

Business isn’t all about the stock exchange and corporate take-overs. Most of the world’s biggest companies started with a single brilliant idea.

Ask the class to name some great inventions. Ask them when they thought they were invented, and by whom. Then ask them to think about how those inventions have affected the way we live. How many of the great inventions have created big businesses?

Activity

The list on their session sheet contains some brilliant inventions that have between them changed our lives and created billions of pounds’ worth of revenue; the names of the people who came up with the ideas, and some dates. Using the internet, students should carry out research to match the invention with the inventor and the appropriate date.