Last year, the first day of Studio H consisted of dirt, coffee grounds, cow dung, and fire (we made DIY water filters). This year, Matt and I busted out ropes and recalled our days as girl (and boy) scouts, and embarked on a 2-day project we dubbed “Knot a problem.” One of our core pedagogies of Studio H is that the hand and the mind are intrinsically tied, and that we learn best by doing (duh!). The hand carries out the mind’s ideas, the mind processes and mirrors back the hand’s actions. We develop muscle memory and skills through movement, activity, repetition, failure, thinking through problems physically.

The knot project was a simple task: each student would be given a knot, already tied. From that tied knot, they had to slowly take it apart, figure out how it was tied, retie it, learn to tie it with their eyes closed, and then visually (drawings + instructions) and verbally (to the class) teach others how to tie that knot.

Download the Knot a Problem lesson plan as a pdf here.

We also assigned some pretty hefty reading- the introduction from Juhani Pallasmaa’s The Thinking Hand, which speaks of existentialism, the mind-body connection, and education by doing (our 16- and 17-year old students did great as we read through it, and were happy to learn that the text is often assigned to graduate-level architecture students).

As a full-body warm-up, though, we first of course had to play the human knot game, which many of us will remember from our days at summer camp. Students stand in a circle, then reach across the circle and grab another student’s hand. With their other hand, they do the same, forming one large tangle. The task is to work together to untangle the human knot into a clean circle again. Video of our students working through this below.

On day one, students were presented with their knot and got to work trying to figure it out. We gave no instructions on how to tie or retie – all problem-solving had to be done by hand, eye, and mind. The Alpine Butterfly, Yosemite Bowline, Surgeon’s Bend, and 10 others were all on the menu. After untying their knots carefully, students then had to figure out a replicable process to retie it, as they would have to learn it by heart themselves and subsequently teach it to others.

One of the hardest parts of the assignment was not in the retying, but in the representation of that process. We asked students to produce a “tying guide,” including both drawings as well as simple written instructions for anyone, without prior experience, to tie their knot. The images below show some of their drawings, which use color, arrows, words, and depictions of hand motions to illustrate each knot.

The ultimate test came when these instructional graphics were posted on the wall, and students had to figure out how to tie other students’ knots based on the success and clarity of the graphics. We even had a few races – the Alpine Butterfly was a class favorite.

Ultimately, the simple form of a knot provided many layers of complexity: in its creation, in its undoing, and its ability to tie together the hand, eyes, and mind. To teach that process amplified students’ ability to work through the problem, and to use multiple communication media to convey the solution to others.

With this first exercise of activating the hands, we trudge onward…