Director of the Tinkering Studio

Karen Wilkinson

Director of the Tinkering Studio

Exploratorium

Piers 15/17

San Francisco CA 94111

(a)Professional Preparation

Harvard University Graduate School of EducationM.Ed., 1998

Minneapolis College of Art & Design Environmental DesignB.F.A., 1992

(b)Appointments

2012–current Director of the Tinkering Studio

2009-12Curator, Studio Gallery, Exploratorium

2005-currentProject Co-director, Playful and Inventive Exploration Institute, Exploratorium

1999-current Science Educator, Institute for Inquiry, Exploratorium

2001-04Project Co-director, Playful and Inventive Exploration Network, Exploratorium

1997-2001Consultant, MIT Media Laboratory, Epistemology and Learning Research Group

1998-99Exhibit Developer/Educator, Science Center of Eastern Connecticut

1989-98Science Educator/WWW Content Developer, Science Museum of MN.

1997Consultant, Annenberg CPB, Web content development

(c)Publications

Wilkinson, K. (in press ) The Big Idea is Their Idea, in K. Peppler, E. Halverson and Y. Kafai’s (Eds). Makeology: Maker’s as Learners /Volume 2 (262pp.).,Routledge

Wilkinson, K. (in press) Tinkering with MOOCs and Social Media, in K. Peppler, E. Halverson and Y. Kafai’s (Eds). Makeology: Makerspaces as Learning Environments /Volume 1, (295 pp.). Routledge

Wilkinson, K. (2015) Tinkering is Serious Play: The Maker Movement Shows that Creativity, Playfulness and Ingenuity can fuel STEM Learning, Educational Leadership

Wilkinson, K. (2014) Learning through STEM-Rich Tinkering: Findings from a Jointly Negotiated Research Project Taken Up in Practice, Science Education

Wilkinson, K. (2014) The Art of Tinkering, Weldon Owen.

Wilkinson, K. (2013). It Looks like Fun but What Are They Learning? In M. Honey & D. Kantor (Eds). Design, Make, Play: Growing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators (256 pp.). Routledge Press.

Wilkinson, K. (2012). Tinkering by Design: Thoughtful Design Leads to Breakthroughs in Thinking. Hand to Hand, Vol 13.

(c)Presentations

Making, Tinkering & Designkeynote presentation, (2014)K12 Online Conference

Making Space for Innovationconference presentation, (2014)Association of Science-Technology Centers, Raleigh, NC.

Making and Tinkering in Your Museum workshop, (2014)Association of Science-Technology Centers,
Raleigh, NC.

Where is the Science in a Maker Space?conference presentation, (2014)Association of Science-Technology Centers, Raleigh, NC.

Make It Work: Tinkering and Design Thinking at Your Museum, conference presentation(2013) Association of Science-Technology Centers, Albuquerque, NM

Making, fabbing, tinkering: New approaches to learning by doing, conference presentation(2013)
Ecsite Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Innovative Learning Opportunities through Making and Tinkering, conference presentation(2013)
Ecsite Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Design Thinking & Creativity: Envisioning the next Generation of Learning Environments invited
presentation, (2013), AIA Conference / Committee on Architecture for Education

Learning Through Making: Opportunities and Challenges for a Maker Culture conference presentation
(2012) DML Conference, San Francisco, CA

What's the Point of a Museum Maker Space? conference presentation (2012), MCN Conference,
Seattle, WA

Learning and the Visitor: Two Perspectives,conference presentation (2011), Ecsite Conference,
Warsaw, Poland

Innovation, Education, and the Maker Faire Movement keynote address(2010) New York Hall of Science, Flushing, NY.

Creativity and Colaboration Conference keynote address and workshop (2009) AAM Conference, Monterey, CA.

Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production conference presentation, (2008)Stanford University and MacArthur Foundation.

Professional Development for Your Playful Side. (2005) Association of Science-Technology Centers, Richmond, VA.

The Learning Studio Model. (2005) Bay Area Institute, Center for Informal Learning and Schools, San Francisco, CA.

Re-Thinking the Use of Digital Technologies in the Classroom. (2005). The ARK, Dublin, Ireland.

(c)Affiliations

Learning Creative Learning (2016), MIT Media Lab, Boston MA

Tinkering in a Science Center 2015). Singapore Science Centre, Singapore.

EU Tinkering Network, (2015) Milan, Italy
Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructionist Approach to STEM LearningMOOC (2014/2015)Coursera

Learning Creative Learning: Tinkering MOOC session and presentation(2013), MIT Media Lab, Boston MA
Tinkering and Inquiry-based Science Science for Monks (2009)Central Institute for Higher Tibetan
Studies at Sarnath, India

(d)Synergistic Activities

Advisor, Math in the Making, A. Rubin and S. Patterson co-PI’s

Program Committee Member, NSF – ASEE 2015 Maker Summit

Advisor, Creating a STEM Pipeline for Low Income and Immigrant Youth, L. and T. Herrenkohl co-PI’s

Founder, ASTC’s Community of Practice on Making & Tinkering in museums

Advisor, Family Learning in Museums, Lisa Brahms and David Kantor, co-PI’s

Advisor, Should Makers Be The Engineers Of The Future?Micah Lande and Shawn Jordan co-PI’s

Advisor, Youth-based ProjectLearning through Engineering Design Practice, Arizona State University

Co-founder, Playful Invention and Exploration (PIE) Institute
Co-founder, Playful Invention and Exploration (PIE) Network of Museums
Advisor, NSF ITEST DesignIT after school initiative, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
Advisor, Singapore Science Centre "Tinkering Centre" development

(e)Collaborators in the past 48 months

Lisa Brahms, Children’s Museum Pittsburgh

Dale Dougherty, Maker Media

Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Lab

Bo.Stjerne.Thomsen, LEGO Foundation

Maria Xanthoudaki, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Technologia

Maya Halevy, Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem

SashaKopernik, The Polytechnic Museum, Moscow

Ariel Zych, NPR’s Science Friday

Amr Al Madani, Mishkat Interactive Center
Jie Qi, MIT Media Lab
Carla Rinaldi, Reggio Children

Leslie Herrenkohl, University of Washington

Jean-michel Molenaar, Fablab CCSTI La Casemate
Dan Schwartz, Stanford

Gautham Dayal, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Andee Rubin, TERC

Sudhir Giri, Google

Juana Torino, Fundación TyPA - Teoría y Práctica de las Artes

Gever Tulley, BrightWorks and Tinkering School

Exploratorium TinkeringBiographical Sketch