After-school and out-of-school programs—as well as home schooling—have been growing steadily for nearly a decade, but instructors are still searching for high-interest content that ties into science standards without the rigidity of current classroom canon. The author draws on more than 20 years of experience doing hands-on science to facilitate tinkering: learning science while fooling around with real things. Updated with new photographs and in full color, this second edition is even more accessible to young Makers, educators, parents, and Makers who are young at heart.

Projects Included

• Tinkering techniques in key science areas
• How to let kids learn science with hands-on tinkering
• Engaging techniques for science learning at home, in school, or at a makerspace or library
• Step-by-step instructions for activities that don't end with a single project, but that provide many paths for "tinkering forward."

Curt Gabrielson runs the Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop and works with science education in East Timor. He has been a science educator for more than 20 years, with positions in the California public schools, the National University of East Timor, and San Francisco’s Exploratorium Teacher Institute.