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1. Engaging Caregivers in Making: The Role of Physical and Social Settings in Museum-Based Making and Tinkering Activities

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2020.1863056  

   Letourneau, Susan M. ; McMillan Culp, Katherine ; Wells, David ( January 2021 , Visitor Studies)

   null (Ed.)

   Many studies have documented the impact of maker experiences on children's learning, but few have examined how caregivers participate in maker activities in museums, both as facilitators of their children's learning and as learners in their own right. This qualitative study involved observations and interviews with 88 caregivers participating in a range of making and tinkering activities at a science museum. Aspects of the physical setting (including the arrangement and familiarity of tools and materials) and social setting (including facilitators' interactions with children versus caregivers) influenced whether families participated and the roles that caregivers played (observing, facilitating, or making). Across these roles, caregivers described benefitting as learners -- by noticing their children's abilities and interests, learning new ways to support their children's learning, or fostering their own creativity. The results highlight strategies that museums can use to create inclusive maker activities that recognize caregivers' many roles and motivations during family visits. 

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2. Assembly-style making: How structured making serves as an on-ramp to creativity and engineering design

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1120186  

   Lukowski, Sarah ; Goeke, Megan ; Schmit, Bette ; Bequette, Marjorie ( June 2023 , Frontiers in Psychology)

   Makerspaces, workspaces where families can explore materials and tools collaboratively, can provide an opportunity for creative expression and early engineering learning in community spaces. The present study examined a cardboard-focused museum makerspace that included an assembly-style activity. Assembly-style making uses instructions to support makers. Such activities have been critiqued as limiting creativity and engineering thinking. However, makers who are less comfortable in makerspaces may benefit from assembly-style activities helping to scaffold their entry into the space. We explored these criticisms and potential benefits of assembly-style making through developing case studies of video data taken by families in a makerspace. Visitors made creative and personally meaningful creations when engaged in assembly style making. Moreover, assembly-style making mediated a family less comfortable with making to get started in the space alongside ample evidence of families following engineering design processes. Contrary to popular belief, assembly-style making offers an important support to novice makers, without eliminating creativity and engineering design processes, and should be considered in the mix of activities available in makerspaces to support makers of all levels of comfort in making. 

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3. Introduction to special issue “Understanding Cognition and Decision Making by Children.” Studying decision-making in children: Challenges and opportunities

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.01.020  

   Brocas, Isabelle ; Carrillo, Juan D. ( November 2020 , Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization)

   null (Ed.)
4. Novel Micro-Scale Steel-Making from Molten Cast Iron Practised in Medieval Nomadic Communities of East Mongolia: Steel-making from molten cast iron in medieval eastern Mongolia

   https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12413  

   Park, J.-S. ; Honeychurch, W. ; Chunag, A. ( February 2019 , Archaeometry)
5. Making a New Path: Lessons Learned During the ‘Making the Data’ Phase of our Project.

   Kellam, N. ; Cirell, A. ; Coley, B. ; Boklage, A. ( January 2018 , Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Intl. Mtg.)

   In this NSF-funded Research in the Formation of Engineers (RFE) project, we are broadly interested in understanding how makerspace engagement influences the identity formation of engineering students, with a focus on students from underrepresented groups (URGs). Makerspaces are becoming very popular and have started to become much more common in K-12 schools, libraries, community centers, and universities. Makerspaces differ from traditional shops or labs in that Makersor those engaged in building or making in the spaceare typically given free rein to build products related to their interests in addition to pedagogical deliverables. It is implicitly assumed that makerspaces promote pathways to STEM majors, and, ultimately, STEM careers. In this project, we are therefore interested in developing an understanding of how engaging in university-affiliated makerspaces impacts the engineering identity development of students. We are currently midway in our data collection and analysis phases of the project, also known as the ‘making the data’ phase of our project [1]. In this paper, we will describe our preliminary work and focus the discussion on lessons learned. We will conclude the paper with brief descriptions of three journal articles in preparation or press, as we wrap up the ‘making the data’ phase of our project. 

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