Why Failure in Making?

We had a very young staff who were new to the informal learning community. Each of us were trying to establish our expectations for the making and tinkering area and had done some work to help build collective understanding of what our space meant and how we create environments that encouraged creativity, diverse outcomes, and meaningful use of real tools and real materials, to give visitors a new language to speak with their hands.

failure-based activity

For this professional development experience, we focused our filming on one of our exhibit gallery spaces — the Workshop, a tinkering space where themes change every few months. At the time, the Workshop featured a “Tool Time” theme designed to introduce visitors to safe tool usage. Guests could walk in at any time, receive instruction from educators on using tools such as drills, band saws, pry bars, and drivers, and then freely explore what they wanted to build. There was no set challenge or predetermined outcome — projects ranged from simply joining two pieces of wood together to creating airplanes, dragons, and other imaginative designs.

One Failure Moment or Challenge

Before we even began filming, we encountered resistance and anxiety from educators about being recorded. Many worried about how they would be perceived — asking whether mistakes caught on camera might have repercussions or make them question their own competence as educators. To address this, we held one-on-one conversations with each educator to listen to their concerns and build trust. These discussions led to clear parameters and boundaries, such as leaving the space after starting the recording so educators could work without feeling watched. As a result, six educators volunteered enthusiastically, and filming could proceed in a way that felt safe and respectful for everyone involved.

What did We learn?

Through this process, we recognized that our culture had largely been built around the idea that “failure is not an option” — everyone should succeed and achieve the goal. The professional development experience helped us shift that mindset. We began to see that constant success isn’t actually the most engaging experience. Failure, when framed as “hard fun,” creates challenge, curiosity, and excitement — much like why we play games. This perspective opened the door to richer interactions with visitors, where we could celebrate setbacks, ask “what’s next?” together, and turn mistakes into opportunities to level up and deepen learning.

one insight or practice We Continue

Perhaps the most critical insight would be that professional development through collegial reflection on our work remains rare and precious. It remains critical for young staff to see models of teaching and learning from more experienced and mid-career informal learning professionals to redefine their expectations of what “teaching” looks like.

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About us

MISSION: To inspire children, connect families, and build community through exploration, exhibits, programming, and play.

Discovery Lab is an educational resource for Tulsa providing outreach museum classes to area schools and organizations, and as a field trip destination. Exhibits and programming encourage the development of executive function and process skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Educational content focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM), and health and wellness, and complements and supplements current school curriculum. Studies show that hands-on, informal learning experiences, like those delivered by Discovery Lab, impact reading readiness and school success.