Dig Deeper with Tinkering & Making

Dig Deeper with

Tinkering & Making

A presentation deck for training educators on the Project MASH approach to Tinkering & Making, from The Exploratory.Full day version

Today’s explorations

Understand What Tinkering and Making Is.

Experience A Tinker.Make.Innovate. Activity

Discuss how you can incorporate Tinkering and Making into the classroom

What is tinkering?

Tinkering is to engage with materials, tools and ideas to construct knowledge of their possibilities.

Tinkering is open-ended and encourages self-motivated engagement in learning

What is making?

Making is learning by DOING. Making develops the capacity for innovative problem solving by engaging students in hands on and creative skill building projects that incorporate science, technology, engineering, art, and math subjects.

Making is social. Making provides opportunity to collaborate and develop effective communication skills.

Making develops a growth mindset that demonstrates how grit, flexible thinking, perspective-taking, perseverance and embracing failure leads to achievement and success.

Learning environments that are rich in tinkering and making require students to develop the dispositions of designers and innovators and build in them the confidence and competence to solve real world problems.

Tinker.Make.Innovate. is a three-step process developed by The Exploratory that combines tinkering, making and design thinking to provide students the opportunity to build the skills they need to propose and devise innovative solutions to complex challenges.

Tinker Phase: Developing Engagement

Make Phase: Building Skills and Knowledge

Innovate Phase: Demonstrate skills and knowledge by inventing a solution to a problem

TIME 20 Minutes

With Only: 20 pieces of spaghetti1 meter of masking tape1 meter of rope1 large marshmallow

Make the tallest tower you can that will hold up the marshmallow and stay up for 10 seconds.

Quick Challenge: Marshmallow Tower Challenge

Quick Challenge: PlussingTIME 10 Minutes

What did you notice about the process? Were you surprised at how you approached

the challenge?

Notice the feelings towards failure. Did you test along the way or keep building until the end of time and then put your marshmallow on?

What did you notice about how your students might feel in similar challenges?



Spy Gadget Project

TIME 15 MinutesGOAL Brainstorm Ideas for “What problems do you

have in your life that could use a spy gadget to solve?"

During this activity, you will play with some existing spy gadgets while brainstorming to get inspired.

TINKER: Spy Gadgets

MAKE: Circuits Blocks/Squishy Circuits

TIME 30 Minutes

GOAL Construct a fundamental understanding of simple circuits and parallel circuits

PROVOCATIONWhat kind of animal could you make that could be a fun spy character. Use Squishy Circuits to add 2 LED lights and maybe a buzzer.

MAKE: E-Textiles Laser Cuff

TIME 60 Minutes

GOAL Construct a fundamental understanding of simple circuits, the use of conductive thread, magnetic clasps, battery cases, sewing skills

PROVOCATIONDesign your cuff to share something about yourself that is important to you.

MAKE: Alarm with Sensor

TIME 90 Minutes

GOAL Add onto your fundamental understanding of simple circuits by adding a tilt sensor or a magnetic sensor

PROVOCATIONDesign a stuffy that when tilted or when a magnet is brought near the sensor, a light or buzzer goes off.

INNOVATE: Spy Gadgets

TIME 120 minutes

GOAL Invent a spy gadget that could solve a problem that you brainstormed in the Tinker phase.

In this phase, you will use the design thinking process to invent and create a prototype for that product.

BrainstormTIME 5 minutes

Remind yourself of the spying situations you brainstormed in the Tinker phase. Add any new situations that have come to you during the Make phase.

TIME 10 minutes With 2-4 other people at your table, combine your post-

its and then sort them into clusters. Choose as a group, the problem/situation that you would like to invent a solution for.

TIME 10 minutes As a group, brainstorm possible solutions for the

problem you determined you wanted to work on.

Ideate/Design/Make a Plan

TIME 5 minutes Pick a solution that you would like to work

on

TIME 10 minutes Do several quick sketches of your solution

on paper

TIME 5 minutes Decide on materials you need and make a

plan for creating a prototype of your invention.

TIME 10 Minutes

GOAL Share Ideas, Get Ideas, Get Support, Give Support

During the plussing session, you will come together as the whole group to:

Share your ideas and plan Receive ideas and suggestions

Plussing Session

TIME 45 Minutes

GOAL Make a prototype that can illustrate your invention idea

Things to consider: Use materials like card stock, cardboard, fabric

that you can easily manipulate within the time period.

Other useful materials - recycled products like plastic bottles, toilet paper rolls, bottle caps and more.

Useful connectors: brads, tape, glue gun, zip ties.

Prototyping

TIME 20 Minutes

GOAL Share Ideas, Get Ideas, Get Support, Give Support

During the plussing session, you will come together as the whole group to:

Share your ideas and plan Receive ideas and suggestions

Plussing Session

TIME 20 Minutes

GOAL To take the plusses received to make revisions to your design.

Notice: How did you feel about receiving plusses? How does this differ from constructive criticism.

Revise

TIME 20 Minutes

GOAL Share your process and demonstrate what you learned.

Include in your presentation: - The problem- Your solution- Your prototyping process- How you used circuitry and switches in

your solution

Showcase

Reflect on Project

TIME 20 Minutes

What other provocations/themes might you use the activities from this project?

What did you notice or wonder about while you were doing the project?

Common Core and NGSS

TIME 20 Minutes

What connections do you see between tinkering and making and the skills identified in the Common Core standards?

Which Next Generation Science Standard could you see fulfilled by the circuit blocks, squishy circuits and e-textiles?

Tinkering and making offer an approach to teaching and learning that is at the heart of Project MASH, a social network for educators, students, and the organizations that serve them. Visit www.projectmash.org for student activities and projects from The Exploratory and others that rely on these and other unique teaching strategies.