Maker education pioneer Gever Tulley, founder of Brightworks and Tinkering School, and his colleagues at Tinkering Labs have launched a very compelling new kind of open-ended kit, called a Catalyst, to make projects and explore possibilities around science, tech, engineering, and math. I can't wait to get one into my kids' hands!
Gever says:
For years I've been working on ways to make the kind of rich, transformational experience that kids get at our school and camps available to to a LOT more kids. A while ago my friend Matt Brocchini asked me, "can we somehow package the experience and transformative power of Tinkering into kits that can be sent anywhere?" After working on it for about a year we've concluded that the answer is yes, and we've started a new company to do just that: Tinkering Labs.
Tinkering Labs is developing a line of kits we call Catalysts. Each Catalyst contains a collection of parts and tools and a set of 20 Challenge Cards that provide just enough information to get kids' hands and minds moving without too much instruction or interference. We've carefully designed them to generate high-speed, high-creativity, highly engaged, open-ended Tinkering. Our first product is the Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst. We've tested it with the Exploratorium, Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scouts, Stanford d.school, and in homes and schools, and the results have been amazing. We've optimized it for kids aged 6 to 13, and have versions for use at home and in schools or other groups. Our goal is to provide these at a price almost anyone can afford, so a single Catalyst will be offered at $39 and a 10-pack at $299.
And here is the video for the Tinkering Labs crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo:
