Gathered at the corner of a picnic table during the recess hour, Lower School students donned safety glasses and grabbed from an assortment of household electronics, ready to take it apart with curiosity, wonder and awe.

Led by Lower School Assistant Principal and St. Margaret’s STEM Fellow Heather Murray, “Tinker Tuesday” is off to a promising start. Each Tuesday, Mrs. Murray wheels out a tool chest filled with used electronics, safety glasses and several different sizes of straight-slot and Phillips-head screwdrivers. Students learn how to safely disassemble the electronics while keeping close track of all the pieces for reassembly when they are finished.

Mrs. Murray created Tinker Tuesday to allow students to explore the inner workings of items they use every day—this week, it was old keyboards, a mouse, a cordless phone and an electrical outlet. As the program progresses, Mrs. Murray envisions bringing out larger household electronics like personal computers, a portable speaker, monitors and more.

But grabbing a screwdriver and taking a cordless phone apart isn’t difficult, says Mrs. Murray, so she requires them to put it back together as well. “This helps students concentrate on each step in the process and better grasp how things are constructed.

“They learn the finesse and precision of putting electronics together,” Mrs. Murray said. “It’s easy to take it apart. But did you pay attention to how the pieces work together?”

The dissection of a keyboard gave students a better understanding of just what happens when you press a key; how the key hits a rubbery membrane underneath, how that membrane then makes contact with the circuit board underneath it, and how it then sends a signal to the computer that results in that key appearing on the screen.

Tinker Tuesday is an informal way to tap into the natural curiosity in technology of St. Margaret’s Lower School students in a fun and educational way.

“The end goal is getting to kids to wonder, ‘How does this work?’” Mrs. Murray said, “and not being afraid to figure it out.”