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
TINKER: Electric Comics R³
TIME 10 Minutes
GOAL To 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.
MAKE: Circuits Blocks/Squishy Circuits
TIME 30 Minutes
GOAL Construct a fundamental understanding of
simple circuits and parallel circuits
PROVOCATION
Use Squishy Circuits to add 2 LED lights to a
sculpture of trash!
MAKE: Make a simple paper circuit
TIME 30 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.
Diagrams - From Chibitronics Circuit Sticker Sketchbook.
INNOVATE: Electric Comics R³
TIME 90 minutes
GOAL Utilize 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.
Brainstorm
TIME
5 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.
TIME
15 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.
TIME
10 minutes
Brainstorm possible solutions for the problem you and your
group want to work on.
Ideate/Design
TIME 10 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.
Prototyping
TIME 45 Minutes
GOAL Create 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?
Comic Strip Formats
You can use either of these formats or make your own.
These are intended to be inspiration.
Plussing Session
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
Revise
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.
Showcase
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 in your solution
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.