Tinkering workshops: Exploring children’s perceptions of problems and potential solutions

By Ina Opitz, Melanie Kryst, Pia von den Benken and Audrey Podann.

How can children’s everyday experiences and perceptions of problems and solutions be made accessible for potential inclusion in transdisciplinary research? How can these processes also be used to familiarise children with the fundamentals of transdisciplinarity?

We have developed a three-hour “tinkering workshop,” based on design science principles, to encourage children to think about their environment and identify problems and solutions in a playful and creative way.

Our tinkering workshop is suitable for children aged between 9 and 12 years. We have tried it out in four workshops with a total of 56 children, focusing on the problem of plastic waste. Two workshops were held with school classes and two were open workshops held in a modular space in a shopping mall. We suggest that an effective group size is around 20 or 24 children and that the process works most effectively in school classes.

The workshops have six phases, with a break in the middle.

Phase 1: Discovery (20 minutes)

The children get to know the trainers and the topic. If the children are not classmates or in school, they also get to know each other and the location. Trainers can be imaginative here in the processes they use. For example, our trainers used small games like “My name is … and a candy with the first letter of my name is …” (eg., Leon – lollipop). The children are also asked what they already know about the problem under investigation.

Phase 2: Defining the problem (30 minutes)

The children choose one of four predefined topics, which they then explore in more detail by interviewing each other, addressing three issues:

• what the problem is,
• what the world would look like without this problem, and
• how this could be achieved.

These address system, target and transformation knowledge, the central levels of knowledge in the transdisciplinary process (these are described in the i2Insights contribution, Three types of knowledge by Tobias Buser and Flurina Schneider). The children also become aware of their daily experiences.

Some of the insights, written—during the mutual interviews—in a small pre-structured guideline (called a canvas in design thinking) are then presented to all children, so that the children learn about the multidimensionality of topics.

If necessary, this phase can be shortened by having only one of the children in the small group interview another or by shortening the presentation of the results in the group.

Phase 3: Developing ideas (20 minutes)

In this phase, the children return to the whole group to discuss the individual problems and initial solutions. The trainers encourage the children to draw on their interviews and elicit ideas, for example by asking what exactly the problem is or what else can be done. The trainers document the problems and ideas for solutions in understandable language and for everyone to see. Developing ideas together enables collaborative learning. All children can benefit from the ideas of individuals and expand on them together.

Phase 4: Building prototypes (40 minutes)

The children then return to small self-selected groups to build a prototype based on an idea developed by the group, supported by the trainers. They sketch their idea on paper and make it out of the materials provided, particularly of washed, “beautiful” plastic waste.

Through spontaneous building, thinking, and the continuous refinement of the structure, more and more aspects of the problem and potential solutions are revealed, both implicitly and explicitly. The process is less structured around planning and implementation and more centred on the continuous integration of experiences, observations, and ideas.

By tinkering with the prototype, the children learn about the multidimensionality of problems and solutions. In this way, they deal with interdependencies collectively and sometimes through discussion. In small groups, the children practice constructive cooperation.

Phase 5: Recording stop-motion movies (35 minutes)

The children show how the prototype works using a stop-motion movie, where the relevant parts of the prototype are moved in small increments and photographed frame-by-frame, producing an animation of the prototype in action.

The children are given a brief introduction to the production of a stop-motion movie (with the free app “Stop Motion Studio”) and how to use the tablet and tablet stand. The children then continue working in the small groups in which they developed their prototype.

The different types of system, target and transformation knowledge are brought together and made visible in the stop-motion movie. Functionalities of the prototype can be shown, for example how parts move on the model. Interactions between the prototype and the environment can be shown. And through the use of audio elements in the stop-motion video (including tone of voice and varying volume), further layers of the problem-solving complex are implicitly revealed.

The stop-motion movie also has a time component, which ideally shows the before and after phases of the problem and its solution. By working on the stop-motion movie, the children learn how to differentiate their ideas and explain causal relationships.

Phase 6: Presentation (15 minutes)

The children present their stop-motion movies and answer questions about them. This provides experience in presenting their work and discussing it with others.

Conclusion

The children enjoyed the workshops and we have shown how the workshops introduced them to key concepts and processes involved in transdisciplinary research. We anticipate that modifications and further developments could allow the ideas generated by the children to directly input into transdisciplinary research.

What do you think? Do you have similar or other processes that you have used with children to share?

To find out more:

Opitz, I., Kryst, M. and von den Benken, P. (2026). Tinkering workshops. A format for co-exploration with design thinking as part of #Berlinforschtmit of the TD-Lab — Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research of the Berlin University Alliance. Berlin University Alliance: Berlin, Germany. (Online – open access) (DOI): https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-24418

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Artificial intelligence was not used in the development of this i2Insights contribution or the work on which the contribution is based. (For i2Insights policy on artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence.)

Biography: Ina Opitz PhD is program manager of the TD-Lab – Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research at the Berlin University Alliance in Berlin, Germany. In her work, she develops processes and formats to support transdisciplinary research. Her interest lies in developing and adapting methods that are enjoyable for participants while also yielding insights and verifiable data.

Biography: Melanie Kryst PhD developed the tinkering workshop format as a member of the TD-Lab – Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research at the Berlin University Alliance in Berlin, Germany, focusing on the co-exploration phase of transdisciplinary research. She is Co-Chief Executive Officer of con gressa GmbH, an agency supporting science communication and knowledge exchange.

Biography: Pia von den Benken BA is a masters student in sustainability sciences at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and a research assistant in “ASSEMBLE – Assembling novel spaces for food systems transformations” in Stockholm, Sweden. She is interested in multispecies entanglements and epistemic caring approaches in transdisciplinary sustainability sciences.

Biography: Audrey Podann PhD is head of the department Science and Society at Technische Universität Berlin in Berlin, Germany. She is interested in institutionalizing transdisciplinary research at academic institutions in order to structurally shape collaboration between science and society for transformational processes.