5 Ways to Use Crafts to Boost Deeper Learning

Key points:

Who doesn't love crafts? Since the earliest days of kindergarten, teachers have used crafts as a way to foster students' curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills. This type of hands-on learning is often more fun than sitting at a desk and taking notes. It can even boost student communication and collaboration when they work in groups.

Yet crafts in the classroom have the potential to be something much bigger. By following five simple strategies, educators can elevate the role of crafts in our classrooms, transforming them from simple, aesthetic activities into powerful learning experiences that drive deeper understanding and engagement.

Let’s dive into five key strategies that will help foster critical thinking, problem solving, and the application of knowledge in ways that truly resonate with our students:

1. Optimize: This first strategy involves taking a simple craft and measuring its performance. Rather than just making a model, encourage students to optimize their designs. For example, instead of having students create a flower from different materials, teachers could challenge them to design a craft pollinator that can transfer pollen from one flower to another as efficiently as possible. Provide the class with specific criteria for success, as well as constraints under which they must operate. This encourages creative thinking and helps students understand the value of efficiency.
2. Iterate: In engineering, iteration is everything. We want our students to embrace the process of designing, building, testing, and refining their projects. A common strategy is for students to build the tallest tower they can, one that will also survive a shaking table earthquake. Students design a tower, cost the materials, record its height, and then evaluate its performance. Once testing is complete, they go back and see if they can improve the tower even further. This shows students that learning is not about getting it right the first time, but about learning through the process.
3. Explain: It is critical that students are able to articulate their reasoning and understanding behind their creations. When they design something, they need to be able to explain why it works and how it relates to the concepts they are learning. This involves teaching students to think like scientists – making a claim, providing evidence, and explaining their reasoning. This process can be used in a variety of activities, from asking students to explain why their tower survived the shaking table to why their artificial pollinator is the most effective. What matters is that it supports the development of strong communication skills and a deeper understanding of the topic.
4. Assess: Critical thinking comes into play when students evaluate their work and the work of their peers. By evaluating their designs based on specific criteria, they learn to think critically about what makes a project successful and how it can be improved. Like iteration, evaluation and self-evaluation give students the opportunity to refine their work and explore new ideas. The best thing a student can do is to always ask themselves: “Because?“
5. Impact: Finally, we want our students to think beyond the classroom and consider the real-world impact of their work. There are numerous examples of young people around the world who have created amazing inventions to benefit their local community. By sharing these examples in class, students can learn that their knowledge is applicable to their own backyard. Whether it’s the design of a solar-powered water heater or a LEGO Mindstorms braille printer, students need to understand how their innovations can make a difference. This strategy also encourages socially and environmentally responsible thinking.

While there is nothing wrong with traditional crafts, educators can take advantage of these activities and develop the skills our students need to succeed in the 21st century. Now is the time to transform our classrooms with meaningful, hands-on activities that promote deeper learning through creative and thoughtful teaching practices. Let’s make every craft count!