Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
It Looks like Fun, but Are They Learning?
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Petrich, Mike Wilkinson, Karen F. Bevan, Bronwyn |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | When Marcos first arrives in the Tinkering Studio he spends 10 minutes watching as others construct descending sets of ramps on the Marble Machine pegboard. After a while he walks over to a marble run left behind by a previous learner, picks up some ramps and dowels from the floor, and sets to work—spending about an hour changing lengths, angles, and many elements that allow the marble to hit a chime, spin in a funnel, or turn a corner. Each time he makes a change, he drops a marble into the run, and it all goes perfectly until it shoots off the track at one of the two or three tricky spots where alignments aren’t quite right. He tries different ways to slow down or redirect the marble so it will make its way past these treacherous turns. He tinkers with the angles of the ramps, creates “guard rails” out of dowels, and adds wooden “backsplashes” to the sharp turns. Finally he has successful test runs that work from top to bottom. He steps back to survey his work. He tells us that it was “a hard activity.” He takes out his mobile phone and uses its camera to document what he has accomplished before leaving to find his family. Marcos, Tinkering Studio, summer 2011 Scenes such as this are common in the Tinkering Studio, a dedicated “making” space in the San Francisco Exploratorium. The studio is thematically organized around sets of materials or phenomena that change regularly. Activities might focus, for example, on work with cardboard, electronic circuits, rotational motion, or squishy things. The space and activities are designed to appeal to people of all ages, and learners in the Tinkering Studio are as equally likely to be adults as they are children. Activity stations and display cabinets are distributed around the studio, so that people can |
| Starting Page | 68 |
| Ending Page | 88 |
| Page Count | 21 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.4324/9780203108352-10 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/PetrichWilkinsonBevan-2013-ItLooksLikeFun.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/PetrichWilkinsonBevan-ItLooksLikeFun.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203108352-10 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
