dig deeper with tinkering & making
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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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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.