Tinkering School

Tinkering School is an educational program created by Gever Tulley in California and is a registered trademark^[1] of Tinkering Unlimited. Tinkering School uses an engineering context as a metaphor for life: providing children real tools to solve real problems in the real world. Tinkering School says that it is about recovering some of the intellectual and physical freedom of childhood in previous generations, but it isn’t an exercise in nostalgia; it is very much about empowering children with interpersonal, problem-solving and technical skills that will help them succeed in the 21st century. Tulley feels that children benefit from playing with things that some parents consider dangerous. He believes it makes children more adept and safer to have real experiences.^[2]

Format

One aspect of Tinkering School is a sleepover summer camp where children come and participate in projects. The projects are based on exploration and experimentation. Making use of various materials, students are encouraged to develop projects through which they develop skills such as creativity, communication and working in groups. The children spend an entire week inventing solutions, working on projects, testing their creations, and also having fun.^[3][4][5]

A core aspect of the Tinkering School pedagogy is the idea of a "projectory."^[6] A simple mashup of the notions of “project” and “trajectory," a projectory is a project that leaves the child on a trajectory that extends the experience beyond the end of the project. This is combined with the notion of “escape velocity”. The escape velocity of a project is a measure of the participant's engagement and the resistance that the project offers to further exploration after it is built. A perfect project is one that has very high engagement (which you can measure by how easily distracted they are during the project) and very low resistance to further exploration.

Several affiliate programs have focused their activities on day camps and weekend workshops, rather than sleepover summer camp. While the projects themselves may be smaller, the projectories are no less impactful.

History

Computer scientist Gever Tulley founded Tinkering School in 2005, hoping to learn how children become competent, and explore the notion that children can build anything, and by building, learn anything. A core principle is to put tools in the hands of 8 year olds,^[4] and, using real tools and real materials, building big things. Since 2005, the kids have built all manner of projects, from a roller coaster with 100 feet of track, to a bridge made of plastic shopping bags, to a sail-powered railroad car.

Collaborators

Collaborators are the adult participants in the projects.^[7] They provide support, guide the project, and collaborate with the children in the discovery of a solution.

Curriculum

At Tinkering School there is no set curriculum. There are no tests or evaluations, and collaborators do not teach any particular subject. All learning is student-directed and project-based.

Goals

Tinkering School aims to ensure that students develop a more refined sense of how to build things, not only in the sense of building physical structures, but also how to make real what you think. As in life nothing goes as planned, the students discover that the more elaborate projects are, the greater the possible failure. Failure is celebrated, knowing that each step in a project is a step closer to success.^[3]

Emergent behavior

An interesting behavior that arises during the creation of the projects is the decoration. When students face difficulties in the project that prevent them from continuing, they usually spend time decorating their projects. As Gever Tulley has said, "decoration is a form of conceptual incubation". Thus, as the child focuses his energy on the projects, they develop a better understanding of what they are building and what the materials can do or become. During these interludes intuitions arise, which direct them to try new approaches to problems that previously had them frustrated.^[3]

Affiliates

Below is a list of Tinkering School affiliate programs:

Brightworks

Brightworks is a K-12 school located in San Francisco and is dedicated to the principles of a child-centered, project-based engagement. Inspired by the success of Tinkering School, Gever Tulley started this alternative K-12 school.^[8]

Tinkering School San Francisco

Afterschool, weekend, holiday, and summer programming in San Francisco combines the resources and facility of Brightworks with the pedagogy of Tinkering School.^[9]

Tinkering School Chicago

Fully embracing the sleepover camp approach of the original Tinkering School, Dustin Thacker runs Tinkering School Chicago.^[10]

Austin Tinkering School

After a visit from Gever Tulley to Austin, Texas in March 2010, filled with a weekend of workshops, talks and discussions, Kami Wilt decided to establish a similar program in Austin. After participating in required training, Austin Tinkering School was formed.^[11]

Tinkering School Buffalo

Now in its third year, Melissa Leopard waged a social media campaign to get a Tinkering School program in Buffalo, NY. She recruited Gever Tulley to come to Buffalo to make a presentation and participate in workshops with both kids and adults. After participating in required training, Tinkering School Buffalo became a reality.^[12]

Tinkering School ReDiscover

The ReDiscover Center is an in-school and after-school program based in Los Angeles, CA which promotes the collection and reuse of recyclable materials for educational purposes. After participating in required training, Mary Beth Trautwein started a summer workshop program, Tinkering School ReDiscover.^[13]

See also

• Challenge-Based Learning

References

External links

• Official site
• Gever Tulley Talk on TED