THE TINKERING STUDIO

 

Scratch Conference 2018
26

Nov / 18

26 Nov / 18

Posted by Deanna

At the end of the summer, Ryoko and I presented two computational tinkering activities at the Scratch conference at MIT. These activities were under active R&D and the conference was an opportunity to share our ideas with educators and hear their feedback about activity design. The Tinkering Studio is no stranger to the Scratch conference, check out Ryan's post from 2016.

Micro:bit

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We shared a micro:bit activity and asked participants to create or hack a toy and program its behavior in Scratch. We set up a toy store for workshop participants to shop for their toys and a materials station for creating custom toys. Participants designed their programmed toys at the workstation and shared their designs with the larger group.

Participants had a wide spectrum of experience programming microcontrollers and we saw some participants gravitate toward making the physical toy and others program the micro:bit’s behavior. 

Video sensing

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We explored video sensing as a way of storytelling with Scratch. Participants would draw and design sprites to import into their program, resulting in an animation that had a handmade feel. We presented video sensing as one way to share stories with Scratch. Using a webcam connected to a laptop, participants could interact with their handmade sprites using color and motion detection blocks. The result is an interactive animation controlled by your motion and touch.

We created a Scratch Studio to for participants and facilitators to share their projects. All of our projects connected to the theme “how did you get here” which participants interpreted in a variety of ways. We wrote about storytelling through video sensing and how to scaffold an introduction to Scratch through video sensing in previous blog posts.

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We love tinkering with new technologies and see a lot of great possibilities for activities using these tools. We noticed that it is challenging to share activities that span the physical and digital world. We want to document the physical project and the code on the screen. We’re looking forward to continuing to find ways of sharing computational tinkering activities through photos, video, tweets, and blog posts like this.

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This work was supported by a grant from Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation

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This project was made possible through the generous support from the LEGO Foundation

Tinkering & Perfectionism
26

Nov / 18

26 Nov / 18

Posted by Lianna

A recent interaction with a visitor to the Tinkering Studio got me thinking about perfectionism and its role in the tinkering process. On the one hand, to me tinkering is inherently imperfect. There are all sorts of discoveries to be made by the happy accidents that take place as you build, and quite often the road you initially start down will take you someplace completely unexpected. Those unexpected moments are part of the joy of tinkering. That being said, we also value initiative and intentionality as part of the approach, and see those qualities as indicators of learning through tinkering. Which brings me to my question - how can we make room for that intentionality without letting perfectionism block our path through building? 

In the Tinkering Studio, examples play an interesting role in this balancing act. The visitor I was facilitating saw a cranky contraption example of a jumping frog and wanted to recreate it. Where we hit a roadblock was that she felt like she couldn't continue working on it if it wasn't exactly like the example. Despite feeling frustrated, she still really wanted to complete her project. As a facilitator, I struggled with my own ideas and underlying philosophy about how to approach the project versus meeting her where she was at. I think it's important to convey that tinkering will always be unique to each individual, and that even if you copy an example it will still be your version of that idea. Yet, how do we share those pedagogical intentions without dismissing learners' personal goals and vision?

What have you learned about facilitating through perfectionism in your own practice? Take the conversation over to Twitter and message @tinkeringstudio to share ideas and insights!

Facilitation tips that make paper circuits accessible to young learners
08

Nov / 18

08 Nov / 18

Posted by Ahra

As an intern at the Tinkering Studio this fall, one of the tasks I am in charge of is to support weekends’ activities. 

When I facilitated Paper Circuits this month, I noticed that some young visitors struggled using copper tape because it’s sticky and hard to make a clean fold even after a couple of tries. Sometimes, because of these challenges, their parents or guardians step in to help their children and occasionally took over the projects. After looking at a few challenges with copper tape, I was curious how to help young learners to lead their projects from the beginning to the end. 

One day, I got the idea from a young visitor. A boy and his mother came into the Tinkering Studio, and they created their own paper circuits separately. After a while, the mother asked me to help her son who was making a nice car with two headlights. He had already completed one light with an independently closed circuit but was having a hard time connecting the second LED to the first one. To explain the concept of a parallel circuit, I brought a new coin cell battery and connected two LEDs onto the battery directly. At that moment, he got an idea and asked me “Could we do that for the second one? Without the tape?” I said “Yes, of course”, and he completed his project by himself. 

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He directly put the battery onto his car and two separate circuits perfectly worked well. 
The car case provided me an inspiration to help young children who might have trouble handling copper tape. 

On the last Sunday of October, I tried that way as a scaffolding for a young visitor. A young boy and his mother visited the Tinkering Studio and had an idea to make a pumpkin with shining eyes. They started to make the form of a pumpkin firstly and placed two LEDs onto the pumpkin. Then, they asked me how to connect the two LEDs with one battery. I asked them how about connecting LEDs to the battery without copper tape. 

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 They liked the idea and even added one more LED for a nose successfully. I asked the boy if he was interested in making a more complicated one. He was excited to create a new one and made his second parallel circuit using copper tape and even a push switch!  

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It was a great experience to see his progress by expanding his understanding of the circuit and materials. 

Through these cases, I have a personal interest in making tinkering activities accessible to younger learners. Thus, I will keep an eye out for future opportunities to make facilitation changes to accommodate for the young learners’ skills and abilities during the future collaboration with them. 

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