turkle

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Sherry Turkle - Professor (Social Studies of Science & Technology) and students from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Turkle’s students at MIT confirm how childhood experiences of toys and play later influenced their choices of careers in science and technology.
An extract from Turkles book: 'Falling for Science - objects in mind' (publ. 2008) illustrates an intriguing example of the inter-relationship of science and sensory play activities:
"Cords
From the age of six until I went away to college, two cords hung down next to my bed. They were not designed to be entertaining - they opened and closed the curtains on a nearby window - and yet I spent far more time playing with them than with all my other toys. The cords were thick and gold. Tied to the end of each was a cone shaped metal weight covered in gold plastic. As I lay in bed, the weights came down just above eye level.

I woke up next to them every day and never tired of playing with them on long lazy mornings when I was in no hurry to get out of bed. Sometimes I would just push them away toward my feet and let them hit the far curtain and swing back, but usually I played with them in a special way I will call 'twirling', although at the time I had no name for it, probably because I never had the occasion to discuss it with anyone.

Twirling involved grabbing one of the cords a foot or so above its metal weight, and swinging the weight around in a horizontal plane so that it began to wrap itself around its own cord above where I had grabbed it. The gold weight would keep spinning as the coils of the cord gradually climbed up the vertical centre cord until at last the length of cord between my fingers and the weight had been expended, and the weight met the centre cord and stopped. Next I would start the weight swinging in the other direction to unwrap the cord. The most difficult and beautiful part of twirling occurred when the cord became completely unwrapped from itself. At this point, my object was to guide the swinging cord with my index finger, so that it would begin to coil itself once again around its vertical part, but in a direction opposite to that of the last wrapping. It was important that this transition be accomplished as gracefully and as effortlessly as possible....

In my early years, it is possible that 'twirling' helped me develop an intuitive grasp of the laws of physics and geometry. By experimenting with different lengths of cord, I explored the concept of radius curvature. The tendency of the weight to keep moving was a fine example of Newton's laws in action."

Turkle explains the idea of her book:

"There are many paths into science. This collection (of stories) explores one of them, a path in which imagination is sparked by an object. It is about young people discovering objects that can 'make a mind': a puzzle, a toy pony, a broken radio, a set of gears, origami."

"Trained as a humanist and social scientist, I began to ask what is the role of objects in the creative life of the scientist? What makes certain objects good-to-think-with? What part do objects take in the development of a young scientific mind?"
resource link > Sherry Turkle: Falling for Science - objects in mind

what do we mean - thinking by making?

• there is special knowledge and understanding to be gained by making things

• childhood plays a vital part in this innovative process

a historical perspective

• evidence from the past

• art and decoration

• observation, trial and error

• origins of maths
• patterns and geometry

facing the future

• living in a digital age

• how can this be creative?

• new ways of thinking