Training for implementing sustainability using tinkering activities for secondary school teachers in the Netherlands

On the 5th of March and the 11th of April 2024, NEMO organized a training for secondary school teachers on how to implement sustainability using the TINK@school activities in NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. The attending secondary school teachers acquainted themselves with the creative hands-on methodology of tinkering.

They experienced the methodology by tinkering kinetic signs, after which we discussed the details of the methodology in depth, such as the coaching, relation to sustainability and the tinkering disposition of students. We introduced all eleven activities in the context of the national school curriculum. As closing activity, the teachers made a stop-motion animation.

To construct the kinetic signs and stop motion animation, the teachers used recyclable and reusable materials that can easily be found at school or at home. The teachers chose a range of topics for both activities. Some chose a sustainability topic, such as urbanisation and local ecosystems, while others chose a topic related to their expertise, such as the Pythagoras theoreum or the anatomy of a cell.  

It was great to see them using this activity in their own ways and in their own contexts!