Tangibles That Teach aims to supplement traditional textbooks with ready-at-hand projects and other innovative, flexible teaching strategies to enable students to learn complex principles in an experiential manner and to provide instructors with an equitable option to evaluate students’ knowledge. 

Tangibles That Teach believes that humans learn best while playing and strives to provide tools that are cost-effective for students to be able to experiment on an individual level without the fear of breaking expensive equipment. The primary goal of these options is to demonstrate theorems from class by allowing students to test their knowledge in a way that provides immediate feedback. Secondary goals of projects include exposing students to small elements of other topics that may or may not be covered in other courses, such as circuits, manufacturing, coding, basic assembly, soldering and engineering skills such as problem solving and overcoming imperfections.

Preliminary data suggests that these tools are an equitable option to evaluate students’ understanding of class material.  Our tools have been used as extra credit, required weekly lab equipment, and test replacements both in traditional and remote settings. Classes that use these tools have an average GPA similar to other classes, but withdrawal rate tends towards zero.