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Digital storytelling in combination with makerspace activities holds significant potential to engage students and support their learning. When students play, such as through makerspace activities, they engage in critical thinking and problem solving. In our work, we are joining storytelling with computational thinking (CT) practices, physical science exploration, and makerspace activities through a digital narrative-centered learning environment for elementary school. Learning within the environment is undergirded by makerspace play that centers on finding solutions to an open problem—how can stranded scientists on a remote island power up their village using found materials? The learning environment supports students’ CT practices and science content learning as they use and problem solve with physical energy conversion kits, culminating in their creation of an interactive story. We present here a brief case study of the ways students’ experiences with makerspace play support their problem solving and storytelling.
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Pedagogical Practices that Facilitate the Development of Computational Thinking Skills and Dispositions in Makerspaces
Focusing on computational thinking (CT) as the process to integrate computer science across subjects, and making as the activity to engage in this process, is a promising way to introduce students to computing. However, there is little guidance on what practices instructors should employ in maker activities to support CT skill/disposition development. This case study takes place in a makerspace program, using the cognitive apprenticeship conceptual framework as analytical framing to answer the question: Within makerspace activities what evidence exists regarding promising practices that support youth development of CT skills and dispositions? Findings inform our understanding of practices instructors can utilize in making activities to assist students in advancing their CT skills/dispositions: tinkering, embodiment, walkthroughs, drawing, and debugging.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1837780
- PAR ID:
- 10451899
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association
- ISSN:
- 0163-9676
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Classes involving physical making were severely disrupted by COVID-19. As workshops, makerspaces, and fab labs shut down in Spring 2020, instructors developed new models for teaching physical prototyping, electronics production, and digital fabrication at a distance. Instructors shipped materials and equipment directly to students, converted makerspaces to job-shops, and substituted low-tech construction methods and hobbyist equipment for industrial tools. The experiences of students and instructors during the pandemic highlighted new learning opportunities when making outside the makerspace. Simultaneously, the shutdown raised new questions on the limits of remote learning for digital fabrication, electronics, and manual craft. This panel brings together experts in making to discuss their experiences teaching physical production in art, design, and engineering during the pandemic. Panelists will discuss their teaching strategies, describe what worked and what did not, and argue for how we can best support students learning hands-on skills going forward.more » « less
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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
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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
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Raju, PK (Ed.)Experiences during post-secondary education can accentuate the ongoing, ever-changing process of developing 21st-century skills for undergraduate students. These 21st-century skills, including critical thinking (CT), are important for students to develop for competitive job placement after graduation. The future workforce requires diverse knowledge, skills, and dispositions to navigate complex and ever-changing jobs, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Purpose: This project aimed to qualitatively investigate previously determined quantitative attributes of CT to gain a deeper understanding of how these attributes manifest themselves in undergraduate STEM scholars’ problem-solving and decision-making. Sample: Twelve program undergraduate student participants from a STEM professional development program partook in completing materials for this study. Methods: We used a phenomenology approach to explore the nuances of CT attributes from the responses of our program participants. We explored how the eight CT attributes (induction, analysis, inference, evaluation, deduction, interpretation, explanation, numeracy) emerged from participant responses, in isolation and in interaction with each other in undergraduate STEM students’ responses to real-world scenarios to find potential trends or insights to better understand the intricate nature of critical thinking as a construct. Results: While we aimed to explore CT attributes in isolation based on their previously defined definitions, our findings demonstrate that certain CT attributes occurred concurrently with other CT attributes at higher frequencies than others (e.g., analysis and induction). These concurrent attributes show that undergraduate students identified various entry points to a real-life scenario, and simultaneously find multiple solutions to these complex problems. The findings of this exploratory study suggest areas for STEM program improvement based on the qualitative examination of whether CT attributes are present, and how they might also happen concurrently more frequently when undergraduate students face real-life decision-making scenarios. Conclusions: Findings from this study will help create a more robust program model for undergraduate student development to meet STEM workforce demands and competitive job placement after graduation. A deep understanding of what makes up this complex construct is essential to increase students’ CT skills. Further research in this area may explore how CT attributes offer additional insights for framing undergraduate professional development programs. With careful attention to distinct and concurrent attributes, carefully designed professional development might be more effective and transferrable to STEM fields.more » « less
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