What I love about the concept of Making — particularly for education — is that it highlights the overlap between arts & crafts, engineering, and science.
To explore this idea, a while back I made a little Venn diagram to illustrate the similarities and differences between engineering, art, and inventing.
In school, Making (using the capital because Make: magazine has kind of made that a thing) is most tied to engineering.
To me, it’s more about how engineering concepts can enrich the creation process. Think about Leonardo da Vinci — probably the poster boy for artists who are also scientists and inventors. He designed flying machines using his imagination, but based upon his knowledge of physics, anatomy, and materials.
That’s why in my classes and books, I like to frame the activities I share with kids as “inventing.” I think it's a great way to get at engineering through art skills many of us already have. To my mind, engineering, inventing and art all use the same process:
Come up with new ideas and solutions to problems.
Test your ideas to see if they work.
Take note of what went right and keep working on what didn't. (Iterate!)
Record your results so you or others can repeat them.
That last part is very important (although, like other dabblers, I sometimes get caught up in the excitement of inventing and forget to take photos or keep notes). Adam Savage of Mythbusters has a famous quote about it: "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."
What’s more, engineers ask questions that can apply equally well to inventing and art (particularly when it comes to using new materials and techniques):
What is it made of?
What makes it behave the way it does?
What are its limitations?
How can it be improved?
How can it be standardized to make it easier to reproduce?
Kids can be encouraged to do that too. These students are building Solar WobbleBots, simple solar-powered spinning robots. (The instructions for this project appears in my book BOTS!, and there's an advanced version in Making Simple Robots that works in low light conditions thanks to a capacitor.)
As they put them together, they’re exploring materials such as recycled CDs, Slurpee cup lids, and solar panels ripped out of garden lights. They’re experimenting with designs to give their robots unique ways of moving. They’re using familiar tools and techniques (screwdrivers, tape, hot glue) and adding new ones (wire stripping). And they're using crafts materials to give their creations personality.
The concept doesn’t end there. I truly believe the process of Making can be used to enhance any academic subject. I’ll write more about that soon.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what you think!
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