Tinkering

Chapter 14. Final Notes

With the activities and pointers described here, we’ve scarcely scratched the surface. There’s tinkering to be done in nearly every area of life, and a world of tinkering education to be had outside the official curriculum. The road lies open before us.

By this point, the more academically inclined of my readers will have grown quite frustrated by my unwillingness to offer a simple definition to what tinkering is. I’ve been beating around the philosophical bush since page one. What, after all, is the difference between tinkering and inquiry? Between tinkering and “hands-on science?” Between tinkering and the scientific method, or gathering empirical data? Can you tinker with chess or number puzzles? How systematically can ...