Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich
Exploratorium
The Art of Tinkering: Loose Parts, Danger and Self-Directed Learning

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At the Exploratorium we see tinkering as a serious endeavor; at its most basic -- a process that marries play and inquiry. When you're tinkering, you're trying something that you don't quite know how to do -- guided by whim, imagination and curiosity. You're not following step-by-step directions and the outcome isn't predetermined. You're attempting to figure out how things work and often reworking them.

We see tinkering as a practice that evolves over time, resulting in a disposition that allows you to fully engage with the world around you -- an ability that we think will be essential for the next generation. In the Tinkering Studio we attempt to design specifically for tinkerability, offering visitors to the museum an opportunity to author their own ideas as they engage with art, science and technology. We'll share some of the insights we've had working this way in the physical world that we think might relate to the digital one as well. We'll also highlight some of our design principles and discuss dimensions of learning we see in an environment like this.

Mike Petrich: As Director of the Making Collaborative at the Exploratorium, Mike is curious about how people develop personal and unique understandings of the world for themselves. With a background in fine arts, filmmaking, and photography, he applies the act of careful observation to much of his work as an educator and facilitator. Mike has been working at this for 20 years, with audiences as diverse as museum visitors, primary school students, Tibetan monks, prison inmates, and graduate school researchers. Karen Wilkinson: As Director of the Tinkering Studio, Karen sees her role at the Exploratorium as an advocate for making as a way of knowing. She believes deeply in studio pedagogy, and the ability we all have to think with our hands. As an undergrad working in environmental design, she came to see museums as places that recognize this approach. Karen started her museum career as a volunteer at the Science Museum of Minnesota, soon met people from the Exploratorium and other institutions, and quickly realized how deeply a museum philosophy resonated with her own. Now, years later, after pursuing graduate studies in education and technology, she is even more committed to the idea that constructionism is an incredibly powerful way of learning, and that aesthetics matter a great deal. These two ideas are often overlooked in more formal education settings, outside of kindergarten or graduate school. Informal learning spaces for making and tinkering offer people a chance to connect to their own learning in a deeply personal way, which is why she is thrilled to be able to work with such a delightfully quirky group of people at the Exploratorium.