If you are a kinesthetic learner, you learn best by doing, acting, trying something, or moving around.
In our class, we learned about kinesthetic when we learned about "VARK." Understanding VARK means we know how we each learn best. We try to have learning activities that use all the different ways of learning:
- Visual (watching or seeing)
- Auditory (listening)
- Reading/writing (reading or writing)
- Kinesthetic (moving)
Here are some examples:
We did a map reading activity. We got clues as to where we were going on an imaginary trip. We had to use an atlas, a South Dakota highway map, a ruler, scrap paper, Google Maps, and the internet to figure out all the clues and get our team to the secret destination.
We "traveled" to a place near Rapid City, SD and visited the Hotrod Institute. This is a real place! http://www.hotrod.edu/ where you can get training in several specialty areas.
Once we figured out where we were going, we had to use the web to research some things about the Hot Rod Institute: costs, classes offered, and more. A few of us even added this link to our browser's "bookmarks" so we can visit it again.
Who knows? Maybe one of us might attend the actual Hotrod Institute after we graduate from high school! They accept a limited number of students each semester.
Here is another example.
We explored the insides of several laptop computers that no longer work. We discovered that working on a laptop was a little like fixing a small car's engine- you have to practically take the entire thing apart to get to one specific piece!
We identified the hard drive, heat sink, RAM, camera, audio, CPU, circuit boards, and other parts. We also had to deal with about a hundred tiny screws.
We also disassembled a keyboard to salvage the parts. We had to deal with scissors switches that seemed to have a life of their own as they flipped around the room!
We agreed- this is a type of activity we'd like to do again.
