What is innovation? Where does it come from? What are its values? How are innovative careers made? Using collaborative student-directed inquiry, STS 6614: Origins of Innovation graduate seminar investigates how innovation has become the organizing frame for work across the arts, design, engineering, and sciences. With students from programs across campus we explore the boundaries, methods, hype, and deeper meanings of “innovation.” At the heart of our inquiry was a semester-long collaborative project to: “Research, critically analyze, and create a public account of innovative activity at Virginia Tech that is valuable to multiple audiences.” The class is an opportunity for students to be creative and proactive about their learning in ways that traditional courses often unintentionally discourage. Our findings are presented for a broad public audience via the website http://vtinnovation.weebly.com.