‘Tinkering’ Manchester children make robots, planes and catapults

Primary pupils in Manchester have been building robots, planes, vehicles and catapults, using their creativity and problem solving skills under a teaching approach dubbed “tinkering”.

The Royal Academy of Engineering and University of Manchester have been working in schools for the past three years and have devised a curriculum which they say capitalises on children’s natural engineering skills. 

The latest EngineeringUK data indicates that the UK is facing an annual shortfall of up to 59,000 engineering graduates and technicians at level 3 or above to fill core engineering roles.

However, through its tinkering for learning program, teaching engineering in the primary classes, the Royal Academy of Engineering and University of Manchester aim to use professional learning from a previous University of Manchester study Tinker Tailor Robot Pi (2014–2017) to focus on how ‘tinkering for learning’ can act as a signature pedagogy of engineering in primary schools.

In contributing to existing schemes in this area, and distilled from evidence gathered by teachers in their classrooms, the Royal Academy aimed to define and exemplify a model of teaching and learning approaches for engineering in primary and secondary education.

Its report offers insight into the ‘habits of classroom practice’, which are intended to provide practical guidance to teachers who aspire to encourage an ethos for engineering in the mainstream curriculum with young learners. By taking these principles and creating resources mapped to the mainstream curricula of computer science and science and design technology, they turn the concept of ‘tinkering for learning’ into a practical guide to grow a practice of engineering education.

Special thanks went to the Tinker Tailor Robot Pi and Tinkering for Learning teacher communities who worked alongside the research team to design ways to inspire their learners to make real tinkering in mainstream classrooms.