What is Tinkertank?
What?
Tinkertank is a mobile and stationary creative makerspace.
Tinkertank is a catalyst in the context of technology, culture, science and digitalization.
Tinkertank is based on our conviction and experience that everyone is capable of creative and self-organized processes of finding solutions. This empowerment is our mission.
How?
Every innovation, every finding of a solution is preceded by free and unbridled creativity. Children experience this creativity in a playful way. With adults, targeted processes can reactivate it. These processes are part of our Tinkertank Principle.
We do not plan, we do. And we do it playfully and with a lot of fun. This is how we create team spirit, a productive culture of failure and confidence in one's own abilities.
Creativity and craftsmanship come before innovation. Whether analog or digital, we use many tools. For us, programming is a craft like soldering or sewing. We use it to turn our ideas into reality.
For whom?
Tinkertank is for children and adults, for engineers and game designers, for urban planners and puppet makers, for schools and companies, for communities and libraries. For all who want to develop their creativity, develop concrete prototypes, understand digitality or simply have fun.
To ensure that we can continue to tinker in the future, we teach the Tinkertank Principle to people who want to get to know our method and pass it on in our mentor eductation workshops. Even if you want to set up your own mobile or stationary makerspace, we will be happy to advise and support you.
Where?
Our base station is our Tinkertank maker space in Ludwigsburg. But since we are mobile with our entire maker space, we are able to be at work everywhere, in large and small places.
Since summer 2020 we also offer online workshops. We have invested several weeks of conceptual work to be able to apply the Tinkertank Principle in the digital space and also maintain spontaneity, attention, interaction and collaboration online.
Current events
We organize our own workshops and host workshops on behalf of partner organizations. In addition, we are active at networking and other events.
On our events page you can see what we are currently working on.
„I can solder now! And programming is also fun for me and so I can now make a robot work!“
Gian-Luca, 12 years
„Many thanks to all the Mentors of the Tinkertank summer camp. ... You have managed to inspire this horde of teens with enthusiasm for technology and to also awaken creativity. Brilliant!“
Josef Buschbacher, father
„Tinkertank aims to encourage creativity and practical action, to make science and technology exciting again and to strengthen the self-efficacy of young people.“
Björn Friedrich, from the laudation for the Dieter Baacke Award 2015
„Thanks for the great implementation of the first virtual tech camp at Vector - it really exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. Keep it up!“
Thomas Löffler, Vector Informatik GmbH
„This is the most awesome thing I have ever done in my life.“
Omar, Vector Online Summer Camp 2020