Tinkering School empowers children to use real tools and materials to build ambitious, large-scale projects, fostering confidence and celebrating learning through hands-on experience.
Tinkering School Summer Day Camp offers an immersive, hands-on maker experience where children aged 8 to 16 use real tools and materials to design and build large-scale engineering projects. Campers are trained in tool safety and use power drills, chop saws, hammers, and more to bring their ideas to life. Each week features a unique project theme, encouraging collaboration, problem-solving, and creative thinking. Past projects have included a 25ft tall dancing marionette, a NASA-style space mission, and human-sized foosball tables. The camp fosters an environment where learning from failure is celebrated, building confidence and competency in a project-based setting. Daily activities include dedicated build sessions, lunch, and unstructured play time at a nearby park. On the final Friday, families are invited to a project show and tell, followed by a collaborative deconstruction of the week's creation.
A typical day involves tool training and project design on Monday, followed by extensive building sessions Tuesday through Thursday, with lunch and park playtime daily. Fridays conclude with a project show-and-tell and deconstruction.
The ideal student is curious, enjoys hands-on problem-solving, and thrives in a collaborative environment where they can use real tools to build large-scale projects.
682 Schofield Road, San Francisco, CA 94129
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