At NID, we were being introduced to materials like-

Wood (Soft wood / Hard Wood), 

Wood Dust, 

Metal (Aluminium / Brass / Steel)

Leather, and

M-Seal

for exploring their properties and what all could be done to manipulate their properties.

Certain tasks like -  

Creating volume

Joinery

Creating sounds

Creating Texture 

Cutting

Hardening / Softening the material, 

Removal of material, etc 

were given so as to explore the properties of the material and get acquainted with it and the machineries .