Taking part in the “So, you want to teach with materials?” workshop left me with a practical, replicable roadmap for building materials literacy through object-based learning. The trio—Billie Coxhead (UAL materials collections), Fiona “Fi” Dowling (UWE Technical Team Leader, Fabrication), and Morwenna Peters (UWE Senior Learning Development Librarian)—brought complementary strengths across collections, making, and pedagogy.
We opened with a quick icebreaker: pick a material you’re drawn to. Simple, tactile, and it immediately got everyone talking and noticing.That flowed into “Why do materials matter?”, grounded by a short reading that reframed everyday “fragments and blobs” as the stuff of our lives which was a great mood-setter for thinking beyond the sample in the audience members’ hands.
Fi, Billie and Morwenna introduce the workshop
The group then provided an overview of their ARLIS/UK Research Award that led to a Padlet of take-home digital resources, including facilitator activity cards & a materials wheel. I love a good actionable resource!
The heart of the workshop was doing and debriefing. In small groups at our tables we ran “Activity 1: Exploration,” practicing prompts that surfaced description, deduction, storytelling, and keyword generation; then we chose a second activity (Find Out More, Keywords, or Research Skills). My table chose the Object Analysis activity which was super fun and engaging! Providing structured feedback via Menti modeled how facilitation becomes reflective practice. It was a great example of how to build reflection into a session without killing the energy.
On the teaching side, the session leaned into what object-based learning does best: drawing out description, deduction, storytelling, and keyword-finding; creating a safe, level playing field and turning hands-on moments into questions students can actually research. I also appreciated their focus on the sustainability of the material selection.
Overall, it was a smart, lively workshop that blended touch, talk, and takeaways. Their workshop set the tone for the following days as we spent time together inside the conference room and out.
Review by Sara Mautino | Oklahoma State University
Conference delegates enjoying the workshop
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