More Like this

1. Learning in Academic Makerspaces: Preliminary Case Studies of How Academic Makerspaces Afford Learning for Female Students

   Tomko, Megan; Nagel, Robert; Alemán, Melissa; Newstetter, Wendy; Linsey, Julie (July 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   Recognizing the value of engagement in learning, recent engineering education initiatives have worked to encourage all types of students to pursue engineering while also facilitating the construction of makerspaces on university campuses. Makerspaces have the potential to engage a broader range of students by providing unique and personalized pathways into engineering. While this aims to improve the quality of an engineer’s education, the reality settles in when we begin to question whether these makerspaces are, in fact, encouraging learning in engineering for all types of students. In this work, we focus on investigating how a university makerspace affords learning for female students. We implemented an in-depth phenomenologically based interviewing approach which involved a series of three 90-minute semi-structured interviews with six highly engaged female undergraduate students involved in different makerspaces at a single university. The purpose of these interviews was to engage the students in their experiences with the makerspaces and the projects that they work on in this space, so as to inform how these spaces afford learning, specifically the impact on female student learning. All interviews were conducted by the same female graduate student. This work focuses on the second interviews of two females who had student worker roles in their respective makerspaces on campus. All of the interviews for these two females were transcribed resulting in 180 pages of single-spaced transcriptions, and the second interviews were analyzed through two phases of qualitative data analysis. Types of learning emerged in multiple forms and are presented via case studies of each female participant. For case one, these types of learning include machines learning, social learning, design learning, and self-learning. In the second case, the types of learning are tool learning, resourceful learning, space learning, and management learning. These types of learning are then further discussed according to engineering education pedagogy and implications. Makerspaces are often labeled as “open, learning environments,” and this work demonstrates how these spaces facilitate unique forms of learning that engage these women in the makerspace. 

   more » « less
2. Black Men in the Making: Engaging in Maker Spaces Promotes Agency and Identity for Black Males in Engineering

   Greene, M.; Kellam, N.; Coley, B. (January 2019, 2019 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity)

   Thought must be given to how individuals from underrepresented groups (URGs) conceptualize their academic engineering identities. Black male students have been shown to face a great challenge in integrating their racial identification into their self-concept. This “balancing act” involves the navigation and negotiation between multiple social spaces. The establishment of a positive identity associated with engineering is critical to how underrepresented students establish their sense of agency and overall “fit” within the institutional and/or professional setting. Yet, because of low numbers in participant populations, many studies fail to disaggregate the experiences of individuals from URGs. Further, if makerspaces represent an avenue of hope for fostering a generation of makers and innovative thinkers prepared to address the needs and challenges of our society, it is quite plausible that without careful attention we could be building another exclusionary system through makerspaces, grounded in the acceptance of Caucasian, male experiences and perceptions as the status quo. As making could potentially impact academic progression, through early exposure and opportunities to develop confidence through building, design, iteration and community, it is critical that we understand how all students, especially those from underrepresented groups, come to affiliate with, become alienated from and/or negotiate the cultural norms within these maker communities. To achieve this, it is necessary to explore the complexities of underrepresented students’ identity development. This study investigated the experiences of Black male engineering students that have also engaged in university-affiliated makerspaces as makers. Seven Black male students from a range of institution types, including Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Institutions (AANAPI), participated in narrative interviews to ascertain stories of their personal growth and identity development. Engaging in makerspaces was found to promote agency and engineering identity for Black male undergraduates; however, makerspaces located at PWIs were found to reflect the heteronormative culture of engineering in a way that challenged smooth navigation in and through these spaces for Black men. 

   more » « less
3. Contextualizing Learning: Exploring the Complex Cultural System of Learning in Engineering Makerspaces

   Nagel, R. (June 2019, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   The Engineer of 2020 recognizes creativity, invention, and innovation as indispensable qualities for engineering. It may be argued, however, that traditional engineering programs do not inherently foster these qualities in engineering students, and with limited resources and time, adding innovation-fostering experiences to already over-packed curricula may seem like an insurmountable challenge. Longitudinal studies carried out by the authors have shown that makerspaces can foster improvement in engineering students’ design self-efficacy, and three-part phenomenological interviews have shown that students in makerspaces engage in non-linear, open-ended, student-driven projects that require hands-on designing, prototyping, modeling, and testing. These studies provide initial evidence that makerspaces may have the potential to enhance students’ deep learning of engineering and engineering design. To arrive at the more complex cultural factors related to student involvement and success related to participation in makerspaces, we describe the processes of ethnographic methodologies we are using to study the intersections between the structure of an engineering curriculum and the learning that occurs outside of the classroom in makerspaces. Ethnographic methodologies of participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews enable exploration of how students (1) interact within and construct the culture of makerspaces; (2) talk about maker space culture as important to their commitment to engineering; (3) learn within maker spaces; and (4) choose the type and direction of projects. This paper specifically describes the ethnographic methodologies used to track four different undergraduate student teams participating in a two-year senior capstone project, as well as three different student teams participating in a sophomore design class in which they use makerspaces to build a human powered vehicle for a client with a disability. Initial interpretations are presented that inform our understanding of the complex cultural system in which learning occurs, ultimately helping us to consider ways to improve university makerspaces. 

   more » « less
4. Student Development at the Boundaries: Makerspaces as Affordances for Engineering Students’ Development

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063058  

   Choi, Yoon Ha; Bouwma-Gearhart, Jana; Lenhart, Cindy A.; Villanueva, Idalis; Nadelson, Louis S. (March 2021, Sustainability)

   null (Ed.)

   University-based makerspaces are receiving increasing attention as promising innovations that may contribute to the development of future engineers. Using a theory of social boundary spaces, we investigated whether the diverse experiences offered at university-based makerspaces may contribute to students’ learning and development of various “soft” or “21st century” skills that go beyond engineering-specific content knowledge. Through interviews with undergraduate student users at two university-based makerspaces in the United States we identified seven different types of boundary spaces (where multiple communities, and the individuals and activities affiliated with those communities, come together). We identified students engaging in the processes of identification, reflection, and coordination, which allowed them to make sense of, and navigate, the various boundary spaces they encountered in the makerspaces. These processes provided students with opportunities to engage with, and learn from, individuals and practices affiliated with various communities and disciplines. These opportunities can lead to students’ development of necessary skills to creatively and collaboratively address interdisciplinary socio-scientific problems. We suggest that university-based makerspaces can offer important developmental experiences for a diverse body of students that may be challenging for a single university department, program, or course to offer. Based on these findings, we recommend university programs and faculty intentionally integrate makerspace activities into undergraduate curricula to support students’ development of skills, knowledge, and practices relevant for engineering as well as 21st century skills more broadly. 

   more » « less
5. Student development at the boundaries: Makerspaces as affordances for engineering students’ development.

   *Choi, Y. H.; Bouwma-Gearhart, J.; Lenhart, C. A.; & Nadelson, L. S. (January 2021, Sustainability)

   University-based makerspaces are receiving increasing attention as promising innovations that may contribute to the development of future engineers. Using a theory of social boundary spaces, we investigated whether the diverse experiences offered at university-based makerspaces may contribute to students’ learning and development of various “soft” or “21st century” skills that go beyond engineering-specific content knowledge. Through interviews with undergraduate student users at two university-based makerspaces in the United States we identified seven different types of boundary spaces (where multiple communities, and the individuals and activities affiliated with those communities, come together). We identified students engaging in the processes of identification, reflection, and coordination, which allowed them to make sense of, and navigate, the various boundary spaces they encountered in the makerspaces. These processes provided students with opportunities to engage with, and learn from, individuals and practices affiliated with various communities and disciplines. These opportunities can lead to students’ development of necessary skills to creatively and collaboratively address interdisciplinary socio-scientific problems. We suggest that universitybased makerspaces can offer important developmental experiences for a diverse body of students that may be challenging for a single university department, program, or course to offer. Based on these findings, we recommend university programs and faculty intentionally integrate makerspace activities into undergraduate curricula to support students’ development of skills, knowledge, and practices relevant for engineering as well as 21st century skills more broadly. 

   more » « less