Dig Deeper with Tinkering & Making A presentation deck for training educators on the Project MASH approach to Tinkering & Making, from The Exploratory. Half 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

 Electric Comics R³

TIME10 Minutes GOALTo establish a baseline of knowledge on environmental issues and to develop a list of problems related to not recycling. BRAINSTORM What are some reasons to recycle, reuse and reduce? What happens to e-waste in 3rd world countries. Use Post-Its to put any and all ideas onto a large board. TINKER: Electric Comics R³

TIME30 Minutes GOALConstruct a fundamental understanding of simple circuits and parallel circuits PROVOCATION Use Squishy Circuits to add 2 LED lights to a sculpture of trash! MAKE: Circuits Blocks/Squishy Circuits

TIME30 Minutes GOAL Construct a fundamental understanding of simple and parallel circuits using paper, copper tape, LED lights and a paper switch. ACTIVITY Use the following templates to construct your understanding of simple circuits with 1 LED light and a parallel circuit for 2 or more lights. MAKE: Make a simple paper circuit

Diagrams - From Chibitronics Circuit Sticker Sketchbook.Circuit Sticker Sketchbook

TIME90 minutes GOALUtilize the comic strip narrative to encourage the public to reduce, recycle and reuse - particularly e-waste. In this phase, you will use the design thinking process to design a message that will draw attention to the benefits of recycling e-waste. INNOVATE: Electric Comics R³

TIME5 minutes Remind yourself of the environmental problems you brainstormed in the Tinker phase. Add any new situations that have come to you during the Make phase. TIME15 minutes Pick 2-3 people to work as a group. As a group, combine your post its of problems and sort them into clusters of ideas. Pick a problem, your group would like to focus on. TIME10 minutes Brainstorm possible solutions for the problem you and your group want to work on. Brainstorm

TIME10 minutes Do several quick sketches of your solution on paper. Pick your favorite 2 and your craziest 2. TIME 10 minutes Switch groups. Share your 4 ideas with new people. TIME 10 minutes Make design revisions and pick one design. Ideate/Design

TIME45 Minutes GOALCreate a comic book that uses LED lights, copper tape and a battery to will encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle e-waste. Things to consider: Notice that the 3 types of comic strip format. Which appeals to you the most? Which helps you to organize your ideas the best? Prototyping

Comic Strip Formats You can use either of these formats or make your own. These are intended to be inspiration.

TIME20 Minutes GOAL Share Ideas, Get Ideas, Get Support, Give Support Plussing Session During the plussing session, you will come together as the whole group to: Share your ideas and plan Receive ideas and suggestions

TIME20 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

TIME20 Minutes GOALShare your process and demonstrate what you learned Include in your presentation: - The problem - Your solution - Your prototyping process - How you used circuitry in your solution Showcase

Reflect on Project TIME20 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 TIME20 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 for student activities and projects from The Exploratory and others that rely on these and other unique teaching strategies.