Tinkering With Toys: Using Tinkertoys To Cultivate Team-Based Creativity and Problem-Solving

This session highlights the advantages of teaching with toys to engage business students in childlike exploration and discovery, by utilizing toys to illustrate topics including creativity, team-building, sensemaking, strategy, and innovative problem-solving. In this session, a classic building toy set (Tinkertoys) is used by teams to build a solution to an intentionally-vague and general prompt, “build something that moves.” The main objective of this session is to demonstrate how construction building toys, designed for younger children, can be successfully utilized with college-aged business students to engage them in discovery, exploration, fostering a deeper understanding of course content.