In the Making: Thinking with Things + Sarah Kuhn

Sarah Kuhn, author of Transforming Learning Through Tangible Instruction: The Case for Thinking With Things, presents a rationale for bringing active learning with physical materials into teaching practices of all kinds, to build a more vibrant learning ecosystem.

As we’re well aware of here at NBSS, evidence across disciplines makes clear that people learn with their bodies as well as their brains. Collecting findings from cognitive science, educational neuroscience, learning theories, and beyond, Sarah’s research and concepts have profound implications for higher education faculty and administrators. During this event, Sarah will explain how physical objects, hands-on making, active construction, and other elements of body and environment can enhance comprehension, memory, and individual and collaborative learning for students.

An educator, author, and thinker, Sarah is the Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Before beginning her thirty-year teaching career, she received a Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Social Psychology from Harvard University.