Tinkering Week

The Sixth Grade engaged in a variety of activities that encouraged them to tear things apart, put things together, and make their own creations.  These activities included:

  • Visualizing and creating a 3-D world based on  A Midsummer Night's Dream using the object-oriented computer program called Alice
  • Pulling apart--and attempting to reassemble--old electronics and household appliances
  • Tinkering with cookie recipes (and making and eating the results!)

 

As with every STEM initiative at Laurel - collaboration is bulit-in to Tinkering Week

  • Designing and building Adirondack chairs
  • Building mini camera obscuras out of card-board tubes, and building a room-sized camera obscura at the house
  • Designing and building with Legos and Connex
  • Watching a National Geograhic special on Terracycle, a company that re-purposes trash (e.g. using Oreo wrappers to build a kite, billboards and seatbelts to make messenger bags)

A group of 6th graders takes apart a movie camera

  • Forming hypotheses about the purpose(s) of unusual tools (e.g. sun-glasses clip, pet dental care tool)
  • Listening to guest speakers who are tinkering role models