Think back to when you were in school – you might’ve taken classes such as home-economics, sewing, or even auto-mechanics. Or maybe your schedule featured music, painting or photography. Now look at the schedule of a child today—music is an extra-curricular, sewing is no longer offered, and auto-mechanics classes are found in trade schools. Students now complete handouts and sit through lectures, taking endless notes and reading through expensive textbooks. The hands-on experience that was once thought of as key to building a well-rounded student has now disappeared from the classroom.

Hands-on Learning isn’t just for sewing, cooking or painting; it can be a part of any subject. It’s the common name for Experiential Learning, which is the philosophical term behind the idea of immersing oneself in a subject in order to learn.

Being hands-on is especially important in the classroom because it allows students to engage in kinesthetic learning. Studies have shown that kinesthetic learning, where a student carries out physical activities rather than listening to a lecture, is the most popular type of learning with students – ‘doing’ helps them to gain a better understanding of the material. It allows students to experiment with trial and error, learn from their mistakes, and understand the potential gaps between theory and practice. And most important, it provides educators with a unique opportunity to enrich the minds of their students in new and engaging ways.