Our Making and Tinkering Resources
Considering getting more involved in making and tinkering? Here are some Big Brain recommended resources:
- The Tinkering Studio (website, YouTube, Google+, Twitter): We can’t express enough love for the ingenuity, style, and generosity of the folks at the Tinkering Studio in San Francisco’s Exploratorium. If you see something you like in The BBSC, these folks likely played some role in its design. No matter how much tinkering/making you do, reading their book and taking their online course are guaranteed to teach you something new and valuable! Their Facilitation Field Guide: also quite helpful.
- SparkFun (website): SparkFun goes above and beyond in making their products accessible to diverse groups and individuals. We particularly value their Great Big Guide to Paper Circuits.
- Learning-oriented websites: Specifically, Edutopia and MindShift frequently talk about the value of making/tinkering in educational arenas.
- MakerEd’s Makerspace Playbook may also be helpful to newcomers.
For our part, as we sometimes mention in our Origin Stories, The BBSC didn’t necessarily develop as a “tinkering/maker space” as much as it evolved as a community-driven exercise in recreational nerdiness. In other words, we just wanted more hands-on ways to work out our brains, and so, we have honed in on a mishmash of tinkering/making/other tools, activities, and techniques to help us do that. If anything, we may often start with something that community members enjoy or find value in and “nerd it up” by any means necessary. This is where we find the most fun.