Our Story

Founded in 2005 by Gever Tulley, Tinkering School believes that kids are more capable than they know, and to prove it, we give them real tools to solve real problems. By learning through doing, we strive to make mistakes and learn from them, collaborate and make friends, try harder than usual, and build things bigger than ourselves.

With wood, metal, cardboard, and sometimes paint, Tinkerers work with one another as well as our unique staff to team-design and team-create amazing projects.

Tinkering School in the Media

NPR and All Things Considered

NPR visited Tinkering School® Session 1 in 2008 and described the goings-on as a segment on All Things Considered: Camp Offers Kids A Chance To Play With Fire

Tinkering School at TED

In 2009 Gever, our founder, was on the main stage to introduce all TEDsters to Tinkering School. Watch Life Lessons Through Tinkering, or read the comic version.

See the video that pre-empted Fifty Dangerous Things, the book : 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do

Ted Radio Hour in 2014

Make Magazine

The 2009 Tinkering School Seniors' hang gliding project was written up in Volume 22: Under a Blue Tarp

The inspiration for the 2010 Tinkering School projects was published in Volume 20: The Lost Art of Lashing!

In preparing his "5 Dangerous Things" talk for TED, Gever thought about some of the real dangers to kids these days. He created some labels that were published in volume 7 of MAKE Magazine: Kid Safety Labels We Want to See

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/opinion/learning-through-tinkering.html