Tinker Manual:
Wrapping Up

Staff Reflections/Feedback

In addition to participant feedback, it is important to gather instructor and staff feedback/reflections on the program. This can be done after the conclusion of the program but should not be done more than a month after the program end. After the program is when all of your thoughts are the most fresh regarding how the academy went. If you are able, making daily notes as moments for improvement or success come up can be very helpful in remembering and organizing your thoughts on this also. 

While reflecting with the TA staff, consider how the implementation went from the eyes of the participants as well as from your own eyes. What activities did you see most engagement in from the participants? Which activities seemed boring? Were there any behavior issues that could have been prevented from proactive lessons or discussions? How was the transition time between activities? When were the participants bored? When were they more disruptive? What was the most challenging part about the program? What went well? What did not go well? What activities required a lot of preparation but did not have much participant impact? Was there anything you wanted to try this time and didn’t? Why not? 

Similar to participant feedback, having the chance to reflect on the program as a staff can be enlightling to future implementations of the programs. 

Report

Gathering participant and staff feedback can also be helpful when writing the Program Evaluation for the CTE. You will be expected to write a report/evaluation on the program. CTE will usually inform you before the program when they want this report due. CTE will sometimes provide a template for what they are looking for in such an evaluation. If possible, you can try to get such a template before the program so you can know what kinds of things to keep an eye on and take notes on during the program so that your report can be detailed and informative. 

Making Changes

After gathering feedback and identifying what should be changed for future TA, it is important to record this information in an organized way so that you can come back to it in several months when the next TA preparations begin. It was through participant feedback that we learned in the first TA program (Summer 2018) that participants need more “free time” to work on their own creative projects (For the summer 2018 session we had practically every minute planned out!). From this feedback we created “Tinker time” in future programs which gave participants 1-2 hours a day to work on practicing using the equipment that they wanted and creating their own projects. Other changes we made were to create incentive badges. Recognizing as a staff that we did not have any incentives to help participants get cleaned up or be helpful team players, we wanted to build in an incentive for this. Using what we have seen in other summer programs and Scout programs, we created pins with various “badges” to encourage participants. We noticed during our first use of these pins how successful they were! 

Possible Ways of Staying in Touch

After an intense two-weeks together, it can be sad for the participants to leave one another and for the special time during the academy to be gone. To help the culture and community that was built during the TA live on with the participants, consider ways in which to open lasting communication and networks between participants and between participants and mentors. To create such a lasting network it is important to use technology that the participants are already using and familiar with. Since online social networks change year-to-year this might look different from one year to the other. If participants are using Facebook, consider creating a Facebook group and having a group of the participants manage it. 

To help participants reunite directly, a great idea is to have a Tinker Reunion! During the winter of 2019, we hosted a reunion for the participants of Summer 2018 in the SSU makerspace. We had pizza and created Valentine’s Day Cards. For the reunion, it is important to have food (so participants have reason to come, stay fueled, and it makes for a more fun environment) and a making activity (so that the making community can be present and so participants have something to do and be creative). 

Once the TA program gets going for more years, other ideas are to have a TA reunion day during the academy where all participants from TA programs past are invited to attend. This way, current participants can learn from TA alumni about academics and careers. They will be bonded over all having the same TA experience! This can then continue to regular winter reunions where all TA alumni are invited to return which can help open up the TA mentor network and incorporate more people.