Monday 19 August 2019

tinkering school

To tinker:

to make small changes to something, especially in an attempt to repair or improve it:
He spends every weekend tinkering (around) with his car.
I wish the government would stop tinkering with the health service.


TINKER | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

To solve problems by trial and error:
Jay Doubleyou: questioning and problem-solving
Jay Doubleyou: task-based learning
Jay Doubleyou: play and learning
Jay Doubleyou: processes and procedures
Jay Doubleyou: thinking fast and slow
Jay Doubleyou: the trivium method of critical thinking and creative problem solving
Jay Doubleyou: appreciative inquiry is not problem-solving
Jay Doubleyou: critical thinking

There is a school where you can do and do this sort of stuff:
Tinkering School

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.
Tinkering School - Wikipedia

Here's a great TED Talk:

A software engineer, Gever Tulley is the co-founder of the Tinkering School, a week-long camp where lucky kids get to play with their very own power tools. He's interested in helping kids learn how to build, solve problems, use new materials and hack old ones for new purposes.


(1) TEDxKids@Brussels - Gever Tulley - Tinkering School - YouTube

And here's a slightly shorter one:
Gever Tulley: Life lessons through tinkering | TED Talk

Also on YouTube:



(1) Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering - YouTube

With a worksheet here:
Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering - English ESL Worksheets

Or perhaps you'd rather make up your own worksheet...

Because that's what it's all about:

The Tinkering School operates under three unusual and refreshing assumptions about kids:

(1) They are more capable than they know. By giving them big responsibility, you build competency and self-confidence, while creating lasting memories.

(2) The freedom to fail is essential. “A failure-positive atmosphere allows children to play in the face of adversity.”

(3) It can be done bigger and bolder. There’s no limit to the ambitiousness and awesomeness of the projects that Tulley’s young Tinkerers tackle.


It's connected to this:

Challenge-based learning builds on the foundation of experiential learning, leans heavily on the wisdom of a long history of progressive education, shares many of the goals of service learning, and the activism of critical pedagogy. The framework is informed by innovative ideas from education, media, technology, entertainment, recreation, the workplace, and society.

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