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An assessment of learning

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Beginning a Big Project: Listening

There are a lot of things that influence beginning a new project in a school that doesn't have it's curriculum written out beforehand. I'm thinking now about schools that try to have an image of children as capable of designing their own learning experiences, that embrace flexibility, giving time to go deep into an idea, and that try to hold a role for teachers as researchers and learners in their own right. People often ask how projects develop, because I think it's hard to imagine unless you have let go and tried it. There are lots of examples on this blog and others of projects from beginning to end. Projects tend to begin with provocations and discussions. Below you will find some interesting bits of conversation about listening that could lead to something... 4th grade
Xander "The future is unknown, so we can't say that we'll never be able to hear sounds as small as a cat or a snail can hear them. So in the future, if we can make something that can pick up sound waves as small as that, maybe we can figure out if atoms DO make sounds or if dead people DO make sounds."

Max "But we're not in the future, we're here now."

2nd grade

Eve "You know, trees can feel vibrations, like snakes. Snakes can feel vibrations under the ground, and so can trees."

Annabel "Waves are sound, and they crash."

Cal "Hearing is not knowing what they're saying, just random sounds. But listening is knowing what you're hearing. So if I hear the sound of the waves and I'm at the beach, and I know it's the sound of waves, then I'm listening. But you're just hearing if you don't know what sound it is. Or if you're not trying to figure it out."

Shayna "If I'm listening to the symphony I might not be able to hear every sound. Like there might be a harp in the orchestra, but I can't hear the harp. But if I was really listening, I might be able to pick it out. I might be able to see it, but I might not be able to hear it because everything is happening at the same time."
Preschool
Anna I was remembering Josie and Connor were calling out "tree, what is your name?" in very loud voices, but I did not hear the tree tell us his name."

Connor "Maybe that's because were talking to the tree's toes."

Boyan "That's why it's not giving it's name to us. Because trees don't talk."

Anna Do trees have names? "No" "No"

Well then why were you asking the tree it's name?

Boyan "I know. Maybe in the forest they have names."

Josie "But this tree is the Waiting Tree."

Anna This tree seems all by himself

Lorraine "No, he's not all by himself."

Well who are it's friends?

Connor or Josie "Us. We are."

Boyan "Also other trees."

Connor (pointing out the window) "That's our Waiting tree!"

Boyan "Maybe we could draw a tree (for it)?"

Connor "Put the present inside it's bark. Wrap them up and the tree will open them."

Boyan "Wrapping paper is only for wrapping up. We need to have a envelope."

Lorraine "We could say, you will not die."

Anna Do you think it's an old man tree or a young child tree?

Boyan "Trees doesn't talk."

Josie "We could talk to it's toes!"

Boyan "Maybe we could make a tree (for it). It would make him so happy."

There is a huge crop of acorns on the preschool playground. After Ender pointed to the big tree and said "that's an acorn machine", I asked children in the Rainbow room how acorns are made. Here are some of their answers. I'd love to hear how you might pursue this idea..

two year olds put their houses on a map During a meeting a few weeks ago a teacher asked the preschool staff what the difference was between 'centers' and 'provocations'. It seems to me that there are a lot of similarities between the 2 things. Provocations are materials or experiences that Teachers set out to provoke children's thinking. From what I've seen, centers are classroom areas that are set out to give children experience with certain developmentally appropriate learning activities. So in a traditional classroom you might see a literacy center where children can practice certain writing activities, and in a Sabot classroom you will find writing materials, a variety of papers, things that make marks, envelopes, books and other tools and materials that can be used for writing. One mistake people sometimes make is to assume that the fact that the environment is set up differently and may look looser and less formal in a more progressive school means t

Some years ago, when the 2021 eighth graders where in fourth grade, we made a project called Sabot Species Snap!. This was a card game where creatures that lived around the school were put on cards and use The card above was made with drawings from the game. Sara Jo and Vanessa's class has been collecting bug sightings and finding all kinds of leaves, creatures and trees. I showed them the card game called Sabot Species Snap. This game was made when the eighth graders who graduated in 2021 were in 4th grade. The game has cards, each with a picture of a species the fourth graders found living at Sabot. They assessed the defensive and dangerous attributes of each species and then ranked them. The first grade children looked at the game cards and noticed some species they founds, but also some they've been finding that weren't on any cards. So they drew some more species they'd seen on campus. The children had to use reason to decide who would be victorious. Sometim

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Beginning a Big Project: Listening There are a lot of things that influence beginning a new project in a school that doesn't have it's curriculum written out beforehand.

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Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education makes a substantial emphasis on collaborative projects. Project work is something most students encounter at school or later at the university. However, nothing prevents you for taking on projects with your child much earlier. It could be a valuable way for kids to learn new things and present what they have already learned to their parents, teachers, and to each other. Children who are early engaged in project work show better command of creative tools and instruments used later in their studies. They easily proceed from exploration to representation, which has a positive impact on their development in late preschool years. Projects also effectively expand children's vocabulary.

Project work, or 'progettazione' in Italian, is an integral part of the curriculum at Reggio Emilia schools for multi-age groups, starting as early as around two years. For preschoolers, it is an innovative and yet a well explored pedagogical method to learn about the world and the way how to express themselves. Let's see what are the main features of the project framework.

Elements of Project Approach

The project framework at Reggio Emilia has a number of distinguishing features and elements based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy.

1. Holistic approach. Learning and creativity come together, and most activities are play-based.

2. Symbolic representations. Teachers encourage cognitive learning through drawing, modelling, building blocks and more.

3. Guided exploration. Children explore themes and events relevant to them under teacher's guidance.

4. Long-term perspective. Some projects at Reggio Emilia preschools may last up to several months.

5. Multi-modal learning. The Reggio Emilia method encourages multi-dimensional and multichannel interactions with the environment.

What are the most necessary elements of Reggio Emilia projects?

* Cherishing children's interests

At any school, teachers lead their pupils on the road of knowledge and exploration. Anyway, it's a bilateral process, and teachers learn from kids, too. All Reggio Emilia projects start from careful exploration of children's interests, carried out by teachers. For example, younger kids may be interested in such topic as sensory exploration, colors or differences between them and other children.

* Organized documentation

In the Reggio Emilia approach, activities are systematically documented, both for memories and to track progress.

Teachers should pay attention to children's ideas and reactions and take notes of them at all phases of project work. Returning to these notes, comparing them with earlier records reveals kid's progress at learning and development.

* Asking questions

Inquiry is the most important element of self-learning, and Reggio preschool teachers believe that children have the right to ask their own questions to the world. At classes, children are free to raise a question that grabs them and work it through with means available to them. Teachers are still responsible for creating a specific aim for each class and following it together.

* Collaboration and reflection

Socializing is one of the key mission at Reggio Emilia preschools. It is achieved by working on projects together in a study group and collaborative discussions. Children learn to articulate similarities and differences between their approaches, and respect each other and their teachers.

Every project ends with a shared representation of what has been learned. The ability to produce a clear representation of another object or idea comes after 3 years, and, before it happened, smaller kids are taught to depict and compare their experiences in a way that is natural for them.

Project Phases

What are common steps of successful project work? Let's look at them and highlight their specific features.

* Selecting the topic

At Reggio Emilia schools, projects begin with careful observation of the children and their interests. Then comes brainstorming, and after that, teachers create individualized project plans and instructions tailored to actual children's needs.

* Preparation and exploration

When working with younger kids, teachers arrange materials themselves and create a friendly environment to provoke kid's curiosity. Children explore opportunities through demonstration of unusual and unexpected approaches to the environment. Older kids are able to carry forward the project theme by themselves.

* Organization

At this stage, Reggio preschool teachers help children find answers to their questions. The study process continues with modelling unique learning experiences that help kids find answers to their questions. It is very important to keep track of initial ideas and consequently develop the project over the period of several days or even weeks.

* Discussion and representation

At this stage, children share and discuss their ideas with the teacher. For example, after coming from field trips or excursions, the group may share observational drawings and notes. Young learners enjoy sharing products of their activities: it validates children's self-esteem. Children represent their findings in a form of drawings, clay models, role playing etc. Younger kids use play dough and building blocks. Children who are already familiar with scissors and glue can use magazines, photographs and pictures to make collages and express their ideas.

* Summarizing

The last stage of the project is summary. Teachers evaluate the results of kids' explorations and their accomplishments, as well as themselves, from a non-competitive perspective. At Reggio Emilia, project work is seen as a spiraling process. It means that the cycle may be repeated, and its results will be compared to the previous cycle. It is also a bilateral process, so teachers are willing to learn something new from kids.

Reggio Emilia approach is oriented at raising children as creative thinkers and self-motivated explorers. Early introduced, project work helps them develop connections between primary activities, like playing, exploring and expressing oneselves. It encourages curiosity and active approach to learning. Children ponder meaningful questions about the big world and generate new ideas to answer them.

Teachers at Reggio Emilia see learning as an inspiring journey that lasts for a life. Children experience many important encounters at the beginning of this journey: they meet new people, both kids and adults, get acquainted with them and involve in natural and enriching communication. With smart guidance from their teachers, they grow respectful of their teachers and the environment.

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reggio emilia approach to early childhood education

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Project Work In Reggio Emilia - Kids Collective

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Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education makes a substantial emphasis on collaborative projects. Project work is something most students encounter at school or later at the university. However, nothing prevents you for taking on projects with your child much earlier.

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Central Ideas: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Central Ideas: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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The Primary Years Program is a challenging curriculum. As you work in this framework, it forces you to put all of your educational values under the microscope and really analyze what you truly believe about how children learn best. Often the ideas sound good on paper but can really be a struggle in practice, especially depending upon the constraints their school puts upon them with math and literacy programs. As a coordinator who works with new-to-IB staff, getting them to "drink the Kool-Aid" isn't always an easy sell, especially at first because all the jargon overwhelms them. But I think that the first step to convincing new PYP teachers that this is the best approach to learning out there is the central idea. Well written central capture students interest and make for powerful inquiries.

So how do you know if your central ideas are "bad"? Here's the main clue: Your teachers say "huh, what does this mean?" when they look at it. I'll share an example to clarify:

Natural materials are used to inspire and express ideas. (How We Express Ourselves)

This is bad for all sorts of reasons-it's ambiguous yet narrow focus on "natural materials" and the words "inspire" and "express" seem to be subjective in this context. These are two things that jump out at you. But what did you say after reading this? Let me guess: "huh, what does this mean?" Yep, that's the hallmark of a failed attempt at a central idea.

What about messy? Well, I love this handy-dandy guide to developing a central idea that I'm pretty sure ever PYP school references at some point in their review of their Programme of Inquiry (POI). It's well-intentioned and tries to be thorough, but when you put pen to paper, you can really get some gobbly-gook. This part, below, is what causes some major mumbo-jumbo in our fabrication of central ideas:

How do I know if I have written a good Central Idea?

 Did you include two or more concepts in your statement?

 Have you used an active, present-tense verb?

 Did you avoid using proper and personal nouns?

 Did you avoid the use of to be (is, are) and have verbs?

 Did you write a complete sentence

You couple this with the advice in the Developing a Transdisciplanary Programme of Inquiry, and you can really have some creative wordsmithing. I say this all respectfully, especially since the PYP is undergoing a big review at the moment, but put yourself in the shoes of a new IB educator.

It takes a sharp eye to see the delineation between the 2 versions and you got to remember that this is a central idea for a 1st grader/Primary 1 student-words like organization, endeavor, and enterprise take a week (at least) to unpack before you get to those 4 lines of inquiry. You can totally appreciate why new IB teachers are absolutely overwhelmed with the notion of writing or revising a central idea. Furthermore, you can understand why a candidate school would just copy a sample POI that is either posted on the Online Curriculum Centre or on another IB school's website. Just the other day I was having a coffee with a candidate's school appointed PYP coordinator. At first, I didn't quite understand her intention- her school's POI looked fine, decent central ideas- but after an hour I came to understand that what she actually wanted me to help her with writing lesson plans for her teachers. Her teachers needed help with lesson planning because they personally hadn't gone through the process, they had no skin in the game and definitely no understanding of what it means to do an "inquiry into....."

But this goes back to the point I was making-a good central idea should generate more possibilities. If a teacher can't look at a central idea and come up with a place to start, then the inquiry is going to get messy. Just look at that central idea above: People create organizations that solve problems and support human endeavor. They will probably just fumble around for at least a week instead of hitting the ground running doing a bonafide inquiry because they can't get past those words. The words-the ones that the summative task is supposed to be built around-is a major stumbling block, especially for a 1st-grade teacher. Let's be honest, right?If the central idea is messy than it typically demands that we put a stake in the ground at some point and say, "ok kids, this is where you need to go with your inquiry-it's nearly summative time!" I know IB understands these challenges, which is why it is painfully taking a knife to the PYP and rethinking how we can approach central ideas.

Let me give you another example from a 2nd-grade unit at our school:
The population of a community can determine the structure of its organizations within it.
When we wrote that central idea under How We Organize Ourselves theme, we followed the handy-dandy aforementioned guide. I've highlighted the concepts that we pulled out the IB Social Studies Scope and Sequence. The purpose of this unit was to help students start gaining an understanding of government and economics that was lacking in some of the future P4 and P5 units. The summative task is to have the students form a "city council" and create a community with a given population, using a budget to provide for its goods and services. So that was the intention of this wordy central idea. This year, when a new 2nd-grade teacher came in and looked and looked at this unit, her response to the central idea indicated that it was messy. In our last meeting, we discussed how well the kids, who LOVED this unit, understood the central idea. She said that she spent more time focusing on the lines of inquiry because of the wording of the central idea, but that ultimately yes they understood the relationship between population and community design. The fact that she circumvented the Central Idea is definitely a symptom of a messy central idea. So we thought about ditching all those big words and simplifying the central idea to reflect a more kid-accessible central idea:

People design communities to fit the needs of its population.

(I think we have transformed it into a "good" central idea-or at least a better iteration.)

So, a perfect central idea isn't so wordy and nebulous that you can't find a place to start, nor creates an exhausting level of teacher content delivery or misguided student research. What do I mean about this? Look at this:
Signs and Symbols can be used to communicate messages through different media.
Screams transdisciplinary right?-Instantly specialists want to jump in and connect with the ideas of signs and symbols, and it's an easy link with literacy, social studies, technology, and math. Not to mention that it's got friendlier language so we can dive right into the inquiry. And assessment organically emerges, with the kids being able to contribute to what a summative task might look like. It's interesting, it's engaging and student action is prominent.

So let me summarize my definition of a "good" central idea:

Transdisciplinarity ( I don't know if that's a word, but it is now!) can happen organically.

It is easily understood by the teacher so they know how to start the inquiry.

The students can access its language.

A clear summative task naturally arises and students can provide input into how it can be assessed.

It connects students to concepts that will be needed in future units of inquiry.

Now, perhaps you share my opinion about central ideas or you may want to lambaste me. This is a hotly contested area between educators. Fair enough. But as a coordinator, I make a good stab at being knowledgeable and reflective, however, the only thing that I am certain of is my experience as an educator with this framework. Perhaps your experience matches mine or maybe you think I'm speaking blasphemy-fantastic! Let's debate! I'd love to hear your definitions-what are the attributes of a "good" central idea?

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Central Ideas: The Good, The Bad and The Messy. How the Primary Years Program Can Rethink and Define Them

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The Primary Years Program is a challenging curriculum. As you work in this framework, it forces you to put all of your educational values under the microscope and really analyze what you truly believe about how children learn best.

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Pre-k: the love of teaching with the wonder of learning

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Exploring different relationships, the children explored cooperation by working in tinkering teams to create unique and creative designs.

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"It's not a slide!" While continuing to explore their abilities, the children engaged with the idea of being a risk-taker. They developed a story about a hungry crocodile that followed them to school each day. Today, the children escaped the crocodile by running up a mountain.

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"Play builds that kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs."
James L. Hymes, Jr.

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After freely exploring Cubetto and using different strategies to make him move, the children succeeded.
"He's dancing!" "He's dancing like a ballerina!"

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This copy features moveable boxes

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A Ghost Walk- inspired after reading a text about a  confident child who thinks he can do anything, the children used chalk to create a ghost obstacle course through which they could explore their abilities.

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I gain something each and every time I experience this poem. More so when the children give life to its words.

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Inspiration! An exhibition from former colleague, Sarah Casson at St. Peter's Girls' School, Australia.

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A PDF copy of the digital portfolio.

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An invitation to learning more.

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Welcome to our padlet!  I'm Ali Flinchum, the Director of Early Learning and Lower School at Saint Paul's, a school all the way in Florida! There is no need to read everything before our workshop, but please take some time to look over the Pre-Workshop and IB Belief Statements regarding Symbolic Play sections.  Thanks and see you soon!

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Learning and understanding happens through social contexts; the process of learning language is embedded in the socio-cultural practices that children are involved in. (Pugh 2000). Early Development of Language and Mathematics skills is embedded in children’s oral communication, active inquiry and explorations of the world and its symbols. In the Early Years.

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Play based learning facilitates the best learning for young children. Allowing them opportunities to ask questions, investigate, build and test theories, make meaning, develop skills, reflect and express themselves in exponential ways. Planning for this experience requires a balance of time for adult supported freely chosen play and adult-led ‘intentional’ teaching in small groups such as daily routines, games, stories, songs, modeling, problem posing and modeled problem solving.

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Playing with listening, speaking and representing is a creative process that achieves learning goals and gives birth to later language learning, formal literacy and mathematical skills through the exploration of the representational and the symbolic.

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The role of the adult/educator is to shape the educational process in significant ways by observing, questioning, posing problems, collaborating, modeling, challenging, recording, reflecting and interpreting the learning. One way that this can happen is when an adult mediates the transfer of everyday experiences into scientific concepts.

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Adults carefully plan and resource the environment (both indoors and outdoors) to provide ample opportunities for children to collaborate, seek differing perspectives and use their language skills, engaging in creative, mathematical or scientific problem solving and problem posing. As children become more experienced learners planning the environment becomes a partnership between adults and children.

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Effective Literacy and Mathematical practices are embedded intrinsically into the daily play experiences of the play based Early Years Classroom.

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The PYP considers Language learning to be an inquiry driven ‘systemic resource for meaning’ (Halliday, 1985). Using the Halliday model as a provocation, we begin to see how children learn language and mathematics, enabling learners to make connections, interpret information and represent their knowledge, ideas and theories. IB Schools understand that this viewpoint informs the planning, teaching and assessing of all aspects of the programme.

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The process of constructing language and mathematical learning requires a supportive environment that is resourced with appropriate materials. The environment provides many and varied opportunities for children to take risks, develop new understandings, test theories, justify their thinking and analyse how their ideas work.

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Assessment Informs Planning for Learning

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Assessment Informs Planning for Learning

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Authentic Formative Assessment includes a variety of strategies for gathering information about children’s learning and forms the basis for planning Language and Mathematical learning. A collaborative approach by the teaching team for planning, observation and planning builds a comprehensive picture of the learning achieved by each child and enables informed reflection of the next step .

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Educators have a responsibility to collaboratively reflect on their pedagogical approach, share practice and resources, plan potential actions for improvement to renew their understandings and skills in order to create positive transformation in their educational contexts.

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Curious about something?  Already have a question?  Contact me at...
ali.flinchum@spsclearwater.org
Twitter: aliflinchum

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Our aims of this workshop will be to:

1. Exploration of the world around us through symbolic play facilitates the acquisitions of knowledge and the development of skills.

2. The facilitation of authentic child initiated learning is fundamental to independent and collaborative inquiry in the Early Years.

3. Play is a creative process that engenders learning through exploration of representational and symbolic language.

4. A scaffold is offered by the educator through questioning, observing, collaborating, modelling, challenging, recording, reflecting and interpreting the learning.

5. Utilising indoor and outdoor environments to provide flexible, resource-rich learning.

6. Effective Literacy and Mathematical practices are integrated into the daily experiences of the play based Early Years learning environments.

7. Play is a child’s primary tool for making meaning and expressing themselves

8. Effective assessment and reflective practices inform teaching and learning.

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Samples of a programme of inquiry (POI) and unit planners

Regional or national curriculum documents (if applicable)

Sample of children's work

Sample documentation of children’s learning (e.g. learning story, photos of a documentation panel, portfolio, photographs of children learning)

USB (or some other system to share and save resources)

Laptop

Ali's tip for a cleaner environment: a water bottle

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Just so you have a rough idea of how your days will go...
08.00-09.30  Session
09.30-09.45  Morning Break
09.45-11.15  Session
11.15-12.00  Lunch
12.00-13.30   Session
13.30-13.45  Afternoon Break
13.45-15.15  Session
15.15-15.30 Afternoon Break
15.30-17.00 Session
Please see the attached agenda for more details

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Developing a transdisciplinary programme of inquiry 

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Developing a transdisciplinary programme of inquiry 

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To be updated when we have passwords and hashtags

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Early Years in the PYP: An educator's perspective

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Early Years in the PYP: An educator's perspective

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An online resource

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This publication has been withdrawn in HTML, a PDF version is still available from the programme resource centre. You'll be redirected there shortly. Esta publicación ya no está disponible en formato HTML, pero puede consultar la versión en PDF en el Centro de recursos para los programas. Se le redirigirá en breve.

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Vol. 72

No. 4

Abstract

From Wind Tubes to Circuits

A Growing Movement

From Fabrication to Invention

How to Bring Tinkering to School

Making Future Scientists

The maker movement shows that creativity, playfulness and ingenuity can fuel STEM learning.

Abstract

From Wind Tubes to Circuits

A Growing Movement

From Fabrication to Invention

How to Bring Tinkering to School

Making Future Scientists

Gas-powered Roman chariots, singing greeting cards, play dough circuit boards, and homemade voltage detectors are just a few of the science projects you might see when you apply a maker approach to STEM education.

The maker movement celebrates creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship through the design and construction of physical objects. Maker activities may come across as playful, even slightly wacky, explosions of inventiveness. But in education contexts like schools, museums, libraries, and after-school programs, research shows that if the invitation to creativity is accompanied by intentional structure and guidance, maker activities can be channeled to support deep student learning (Blikstein, 2013; Vossoughi, Escudé, Kong, &amp; Hooper, 2013).

At the Tinkering Studio in the Exploratorium, a museum of science, art, and human perception in San Francisco, we've been developing maker activities for almost two decades. During this time, we've observed how tinkering can support children's development of productive science learning identities. By this we mean that young people become interested in science, feel capable of doing science, and want to do science (Krishnamurthi, Bevan, Rinehart, &amp; Coulon, 2013).

Productive science learning identities are crucial for students choosing to pursue science academically, professionally, and through lifelong engagement. STEM-rich maker activities are powerful places for this identity work because they can accommodate a wide variety of interests and experiences, they blend intellectual and socioemotional engagement, and they provide opportunities for young people to develop, pursue, persist with, and accomplish original ideas and solutions in which they can take pride and ownership.

From Wind Tubes to Circuits

Wind tubes are an example of a maker activity that can serve as a motivating, engrossing introduction to scientific understandings. 1 The wind tubes activity consists of two to three fans facing upward, each set to a different speed (low, medium, or high). A clear acrylic tube is placed over each fan, with an 8-inch gap at the bottom so that objects can be inserted into the tube and lifted up by the breeze. Children work with an array of low-cost materials-berry baskets, cardboard toilet paper rolls, pipe cleaners, straws, masking tape, pieces of cardboard, feathers, tissue paper, string, Wiffle balls, and so on-to construct objects that will float or fly.

The first object children make typically shoots up and out of the wind tube too quickly, or perhaps sinks down and doesn't fly, or bobbles erratically in the tube. They return to the worktable to refine the design, perhaps to add more stability, to streamline, to add weight or remove weight. They test and retest their designs.

Through this process, learners engage in making predictions, designing, testing, revising, and retesting. They grapple with the scientific phenomena of symmetry, balance, weight, and turbulence. When teachers use wind tubes in the classroom, they might provide a period of initial experimentation and then ask students to record their predictions, data, and evidence-based assessments of the relationship of design to flight. As students share their data, they are likely to observe that more than one design element produces similar results. Can they further explore these similarities to elucidate key scientific principles from their firsthand experiences? With students now personally invested in the phenomena, the activity opens the door for further studies of motion and stability, forces and interactions.

Making might look like fun and play, but as Edith Ackermann from MIT says, play is a child's most serious work (Duffalo, 2010). Indeed, both Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget have argued that play is a central developmental process for learning.

An example of channeling playfulness into curricular learning comes from the Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, California, where high school students have access to a making space, located inside their science classroom, to build and test their developing scientific ideas and understandings. As a part of the 9th grade physics class, led by Ed Crandall, students are asked to develop investigations that may often require designing and engineering various apparatus that they can use to test their hypotheses or assumptions. One student, a swimmer, explored whether it was possible to build a gill that swimmers could use to extract oxygen from water. Another student, a passionate graffiti artist, designed and experimented with different spray paint can nozzles.

A third group of students wondered why raindrops, falling from such dizzying heights, don't kill people when they fall on their heads. They decided to build an apparatus that would enable them to simulate and measure rainfall. Their goal was to use a counteracting flow of air to suspend a drop of water; when the water drop stopped falling, they could measure the air velocity to determine the rate at which the "rain" was falling. The process of developing the questions; identifying the parameters and variables; and designing, constructing, and fine-tuning a wind tunnel to accomplish their goal ultimately deepened the students' commitment to the process of understanding how friction, gravity, and velocity interact to save us from the force of falling raindrops.

As these examples show, maker activities not only help students develop deep, firsthand learning about scientific concepts, but also engage them in the practices of science and engineering (National Research Council, 2012)-developing questions, defining problems, testing solutions, responding to feedback, and generating explanations or solutions.

A Growing Movement

Making as an instructional practice has deep roots. John Dewey, Jean Piaget, John Friedrich Froebel, and Maria Montessori all promoted making as central to the process of learning. Seymour Papert (1993) argued that the process of physically constructing an object is an effective way for students to both develop and demonstrate understanding. The current maker movement extends and updates this history by integrating digital tools and technologies (such as small, low-cost microprocessors or 3-D design software) into activities that support young people's design and construction goals.

Across the United States, schools, science museums, children's museums, and libraries are designing and building maker programs. School districts in Abemarle County, Virginia; Scarsdale, New York; Lakewood City, Ohio; and Monticello, New Jersey, have created dedicated makerspaces. Brightworks, a school in San Francisco, has organized its entire curriculum around making and invention. Poughkeepsie Day School in New York's Hudson Valley has two different dedicated makerspaces for its preK-12 student body, including a media-rich makerspace attached to the library and a blended physical-digital makerspace that can accommodate paint, sawdust, glue, and other more messy processes and materials.

Although the research on making as an educational practice is relatively new, it has begun to document the ways in which maker activities support the development of students' productive science learning identities, collaboration, and innovation (Blikstein, 2013; Kafai, Peppler, &amp; Chapman, 2009). Some scholars argue that making-if it's implemented with an equity lens that pays attention to the intellectual, emotional, and cultural resources children bring to the activity-has an especially powerful potential for engaging young people who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields (Vossoughi, Escudé, Kong, &amp; Hooper, 2013).

At the Exploratorium, we've developed a framework (see " What Learning in Tinkering Looks Like ,") to evaluate the effectiveness of our maker activities; this framework can apply to the classroom as well (Bevan, Gutwill, Petrich, &amp; Wilkinson, in press). Its dimensions of learning, which include student engagement, initiative and intentionality, social scaffolding, and developing understanding, are features of student activity and behaviors that we can look for, observe, and support to sustain student engagement in the scientific practices inherent in the tinkering processes (Petrich, Wilkinson, &amp; Bevan, 2013).

From Fabrication to Invention

Some researchers caution that there's a risk of presenting maker lessons as step-by-step, recipe-like fabrication activities (Resnick &amp; Rosenbaum, 2013). For example, Blikstein (2013) recounts how his students' introduction to using laser cutters and vector drawing software, which he envisioned as a starting point for creative invention, was such a hit that students became obsessed with repeating the same laser cutting activity each week. They had learned how to produce professional-looking acrylic key chains, and they were content to stop at that point and move into mass production. This phenomenon threatened to shift the classroom from a locus of invention to a facility for fabrication.

To counter such "temptations of trivialization" (Blikstein, 2013, p. 8), it may be important to keep in mind that a powerful aspect of maker activities is what some call "tinkering" (Resnick &amp; Rosenbaum, 2013; Wilkinson &amp; Petrich, 2014). Tinkering, we believe, differs from mere fabrication because it centers on creative, improvisational problem-solving. In tinkering, the purpose of the project may shift as the learner gains new insights and improvises new solutions. Because the end point is unknown and emergent, tinkering closely parallels the exploratory and creative practices of science and engineering.

Classrooms may need to alternate between fabrication and tinkering; fabrication activities can be useful to familiarize learners with tools or properties of materials and help them develop skills that can later serve more complex and creative tinkering endeavors. Fabrication can provide quick and early moments of success that can be important foundations for deeper learning. It's important to move beyond this phase, but the road from fabrication to invention is not a one-way street: As activities become more complex and students encounter new tools and tasks, they may need to return to more fabrication-oriented projects to become fluent with new techniques. An initial grounding in recipe-based activities can serve as the gateway to creative experimentation later.

For example in a tinkering class on circuitry, students begin exploring the basic concepts of circuits by connecting batteries, bulbs, motors, and buzzers using wires and clips. These "circuit blocks" become the foundations for finding out what works and what doesn't. Adding switches and other inputs or outputs both allows students to develop a general understanding about how to wire a circuit and helps them understand that there are relationships between the types of circuits they build and the brightness of bulbs, speed of motors, or volume of buzzer tones.

With these foundational experiences behind them, students are ready to move on to a series of circuit-related activities that each draw on the initial experience, but add new complexities and often aesthetic opportunities for play, exploration, and personal expression. 2 For example, students may build "scribbling machines"-small objects that use markers as legs to move, leaving colorful trails that map their movements. Students pursue their own ideas for designing and customizing their machines, relying on the basic circuitry skills they developed earlier to power the offset motor that makes the scribbling machine move. Because their basic understanding of circuits has been established, when students' first designs don't behave as they planned, they are able to explore other variables, such as the construction of the body, the length of the legs, or the type of offset weight attached to the motors.

How to Bring Tinkering to School

Research and experience suggest a number of guidelines for bringing maker activities to schools. In a literature review prepared for the National Research Council, we identified the following elements that research suggests are important to developing tinkering as a context for learning (Vossoughi &amp; Bevan, 2014):

Create environments for making. Dedicated makerspaces can promote a new level of commitment to making; projects can be left out overnight, and specialized tools can be sectioned off. But dedicated spaces aren't always possible: Many programs have instead transformed classrooms and other settings to support the development of a maker community. Ways to transform a classroom or lunchroom into a temporary makerspace can include placing examples of prior maker work around the room for inspiration, developing a maker language that stresses such ideas as iterations or drafts, designing and replicating experiments, and organizing work spaces so that students can organically begin to collaborate if and when it makes sense (Sheridan et al., in press).

Interleave fabrication and tinkering. Maker activities support student engagement in scientific and engineering practices through open-ended, creative making. When students are introduced to new ideas or processes, however, they may need simple and easily achievable opportunities to master key ideas, relationships, or tools (Blikstein, 2013). For example, in introducing the wind tubes activity, you might have students start with just one material, such as cardboard cut or folded into different shapes, to observe how key dimensions like size, weight, or shape affect flight.

Provide multiple pathways. Select maker activities that are open-ended and don't have one right answer. 3 Invite students to write about or discuss the most challenging parts of their process and how these challenges led to the students' creations. The breakthroughs associated with the bigger challenges-for example, when a student persists through repeated frustrations to finally figure out the right gear ratio to propel a small motorized solar vehicle-are usually the parts of the process that students are most proud of (Petrich, Wilkinson, &amp; Bevan, 2013).

What Learning in Tinkering Looks Like

Tinkering Is Serious Play-table

Learning Dimension

Learning Indicator During tinkering activities, learners ...

Engagement

"spend time in activities display motivation or investment in activities"

Initiative and Intentionality

"set their own goals seek and respond to feedback persist to achieve goals take intellectual risks or show intellectual courage"

Social Scaffolding

"request or offer help to solve problems inspire or are inspired by new ideas or approaches make physical connections to the work of others"

Development of Understanding

"express a realization through affect or utterance offer explanation(s) for a strategy, tool, or outcome apply knowledge strive to understand"

Show that making is a common practice. Draw explicit connections between maker activities or tools and students' lives and interests. You can do this through class discussions about students' experiences with similar products, tools, or processes. Ask questions like, What kinds of objects in your house depend on electricity? What kinds of building activities have you seen or done at home? Who do you know whose job involves building or designing things? This process of relating the new to the familiar positions students as knowledgeable and experienced makers and opens the process to students who may not already think of themselves as makers or scientists (Vossoughi et al., 2013)

Don't equate making with tools alone. Although high-powered tools can be seductive, remember that making is a creative, person-led process. Making can include students lying on pillows on the floor crocheting, or sitting at tables with cardboard and glue. A room filled with tools but missing makers and their work is like an empty computer lab. Ensure that students will have the guidance and inspiration of an attentive maker by assigning a staff person to lead activities. Provide opportunities for students to share their knowledge of tools or processes they are passionate about.

Making Future Scientists

As we mentioned, tinkering activities can help produce students who are interested in science, feel capable of doing science, and want to do science. Some young people will channel these positive science learning identities into future studies and professions. Others will channel them into lifelong engagement with different aspects of nature (environmental stewardship, kitchen chemistry, and so on). Still others will stay tuned in to scientific developments in the news or in their local communities, or perhaps encourage their own children to pursue science careers.

Makerspaces, maker activities, and makers themselves already exist in many communities across the United States. Schools can partner with local museums, libraries, and community makerspaces to develop maker programs. You might want to test out a maker program in an after-school or family night context first. Once you and your colleagues see the active, joyful engagement that young people express in such programs, we can almost guarantee that you will want to seek out ways to integrate making and tinkering into regular school practices and classrooms.

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Vol. 72 No. 4 Abstract From Wind Tubes to Circuits A Growing Movement From Fabrication to Invention How to Bring Tinkering to School Making Future Scientists The maker movement shows that creativity, playfulness and ingenuity can fuel STEM learning.