2025 Year in Review

Welcome to the annual end of year review post for Wonderful Idea Co! The last twelve months have been full of amazing collaborations, experimental projects and lots of fun tinkering experiences. Here are some of the highlights.

EU and UK Book Tour For The Tinkering Workshop

The first few months of 2025 continued right about where the previous year left off with a series of events inviting people to play and tinker with the ideas and projects in my book, The Tinkering Workshop which was released on October 2024. After a successful CA book tour in the fall, I set up a mini EU and UK book tour with 11 events and collaborations across 5 different countries for the first few months of the new year.

Highlights included the Ludwigsburg city tour, an inflatable workshop and collaboration with Exeter Science Center at the local library, a school library takeover at the International School of Prague and martian windmills at Raumschiff astronomical makerspace in Zurich. Thanks to all the partners at museums, makerspaces, libraries and schools that helped organize these wonderful workshops.

Experiments with AI Tinkering

On one hand I find myself more and more drawn to the perspective of Austin Kleon and Ethan Hawke with regards to the current iterations of AI and large language model tools. But as a maker and tinkerer I’m also curious to push the boundaries of new technologies and use them in subversive or unexpected ways. I’m inspired by artists like Nettrice Gaskins, Radames Anja and Niklas Roy to explore the origins of thinking about AI and the limits of what current iterations can do. This year I had a couple opportunities to play and test ideas.

Some of the experiments that I tried in 2025 include using ChatGPT to help program a complicated Art Machine, using everyday materials with the Meta AI lab to create unexpected collaged characters, leading a workshop at a local high school in Freiburg combining Scratch lab AI experiments with cardboard construction. I also experimented using AI generated images to tell stories about a future city built out of cardboard at the digitaltag (digital day) at the Stadtbibliothek (city library).

Inspiring Conferences and Gatherings

I’ve had the chance to lead workshops at several unique gatherings this year that brought together many of my tinkering heroes and museum mentors. These in-person gatherings gave me amazing opportunities to share ideas, prototype new workshops and connect with a worldwide community of playful educators and artists.

In May, I participated in the AutomataFest, hosted for the first time in the UK by the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre at their Mechanical Makerspace in Hastings. It was not only a great chance to hear from the luminaries of contemporary automata like Tim Hunkin, Paul Spooner, Lisa Slater and Fi Henshall (and many many more) but also to share starting point activities for beginners. I led a workshop making giant cardboard linkages across from my ATGW collaborator Lou Cousins who led learners in making several simple automata using everyday materials. It was also so fun to connect with participants in our online course and see how several of them have continued to develop their skills and emerge as professional automata makers.

This fall, I participated in the Creative Learning Festival at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. It was a mini-reunion of current and former Tinkering Studio colleagues as well as a chance to connect with an amazing collection of presenters and workshop leaders. Over the course of the conference I led a session on early childhood tinkering and worked with attendees and museum visitors to make cardboard automata inspired by the work of Gianni Rodari. It was so great to meet Toshio Iwai (author of 100 stories books), see new experiments by Sasha Pas, Amos Blanton and co-facilitate an experience with Marcela Rapallo. With the conference in Italy it was also wonderful to learn more about how Gianni Rodari, Bruno Munari, Loris Malaguzzi and Maria Montessori left such a big impression on the field.

In 2025 I also had a great experience participating in a Bildungsconference at Technorama in Winterthur and the bi-annual Inter:aktion conference at Experimenta in Heilbronn. Although there’s something really special about meeting in person, I’m also continuing to develop new ways of tinkering online with the crew at the Clean Conferencing Institute as well as the ongoing Automata Global Tinkering Workshop with the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre.

Taking Tinkering Outdoors with Nature Werkstatt

One of my favorite projects this year was getting the chance to prototype tinkering projects in the forest with the local Naturwerkstatt in Breisach.

We tried nature skytrams and solar spinners with a group of young tinkerers in the woods. There were some really interesting discoveries about how the projects worked in the natural environment and I’m excited to continue to design these types of experiments for connecting playful explorations with the natural world.

Early Childhood Tinkering First Steps

Another focus that I’ve been interested in exploring is creating jumping off points for early childhood tinkering. I have a three year old son and I’m always trying projects with him and thinking about how to follow his interests and ideas for explorations. We tried a waving cat dissection and repair, building lanterns, roly poly rollers, low threshold robot petting zoo and lots of cars/ramps experiments.

It was also great to connect with WICO co-founder Nicole Catrett who has been trying out lots of early childhood experiments as well as brainstorming with colleagues at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and Science et Cite in Bern about new ideas and best practices.

Joining in on the Klang Kugel Bahn Giant Chain Reaction

One of the biggest highlights of the year was getting to participate in a giant sound chain reaction project curated by local organ builder and artist Achim Schneider at the Klang und Orgel Fest. I love the idea of having school kids, artists and the public contribute to an elaborate machine and then share all of the experience with festival goers.

It was so much fun to help get everything arranged in place, dust off my chain reaction MC skills in a new language and even crank the handle of a homemade organ. The pirate ship finale was really unbelievable and it makes me even more confident in the possibilities of finding tinkerers all over the world.

I’ve continued to build connections here in Freiburg and the surrounding regions and really enjoyed collaborating with Spielmobil, KinderKunstSchule and other projects. I also soft launched a series of Maker Educator Meetups that hopefully will grow and continue over the coming year.

In Memoriam 2025

This year we lost several inspirations in the field of making, tinkering, science centers and constructionist education. I wanted to highlight some of those who have inspired my approach to teaching and learning and who’s loss has hit me the hardest.

I always loved encountering the ever enthusiastic Susan Klimczak at gatherings like the Scratch Conference or Fab Learn. Her warm personality, boundless energy and deep dedication to the youth that she mentored was contagious and sent deep ripples across the maker and education landscape.

Goéry Delacôte was a giant in the science museum field and the inspirational leader of the Exploratorium for many years. Even though he left the post right before I arrived at the museum, his presence was felt deeply by the staff. I always appreciated moments to witness his booming voice, sharp humor and unique personality at ASTC and Ecsite conferences.

Carla Rinaldi, the irrepressible leader of the Reggio Children Foundation also passed away this year. In meetings with her, I always left inspired with many things to chew over. I’ve been thinking a lot about her quote “Observe and listen to children because when they ask “why?” they are not simply asking for the answer from you. They are requesting the courage to find a collection of possible answers.” when playing and talking with my young son this year.

After hearing news of his passing, I wrote a short tribute to exhibit builder and artist Norman Tuck. When I was an explainer at the exploratorium, I spent hours playing with the oscylinderscope, lariat chain and uroborus among others of his classic exhibits. Only after many years of developing exhibit ideas and projects for museums can I fully appreciate the delicacy, cleverness and playfulness that infused so many of his designs.

Wonderful Idea Company Impact in 2025

In the past year I’ve led workshops for approximately 950 kids/families/caregivers and educators both in person and online. The wonderful idea co website had about 20,000 hits and I’ve expanded our instagram to having over 2.5k followers with a few posts that went mini viral. I’m excited that I’m also closing in on my goal of having 52 blog posts over the course of the year (maybe with one or two still to come).

Next year I hope to build on many of the experiments and prototypes of 2025. I would like to continue developing prompts and strategies for early childhood tinkering, connect more deeply to the local maker educator community here in Freiburg, develop innovative activities and installations for museums and continue to be inspired by the global network of tinkering enthusiasts. Thanks to everyone who participated in a workshop, collaborated on a project or connected online in the past year. See you all in 2026!