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1. Measuring Making: Instrumenting Makerspace

   Barakat, Layal; Culpepper, Martin (September 2024, International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces)

   The intent of this project is to share early work that has been done to define means and methods used to instrument makerspaces for the purpose of collecting data about who is using what, and when they are using it. This capability is important to helping staff understand how students engage with their makerspaces. This poster discusses the link between goals, hardware, software, implementation and other choices/decisions that were used to instrument a makerspace. Having this example is important as these results can be adapted to other types of makerspaces, thereby enabling staff to better understand which tools students are using and impact of pedagogical interventions in makerspaces. 

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2. Topic Modeling for Makerspace Artifact Analysis

   https://doi.org/10.32473/flairs.v34i1.128699  

   Wilson, David; Okerlund, Johanna; Exley, Dominique (May 2021, The International FLAIRS Conference Proceedings)

   null (Ed.)

   As the making phenomenon becomes more prevalent, diverse, and vast, it becomes increasingly challenging to identify general temporal or spatial trends in types of making endeavors. Identifying trends in what participants are making is important to makerspace leaders who seek to understand the impact of the making phenomenon on the world or who are interested in broadening participation within their own maker contexts. This paper shows how topic modeling by means of LDA can be used to analyze maker artifacts, and illustrates how these types of insights can be used to make inferences about the making phenomenon, as well as to inform efforts to broaden participation. 

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3. Building an Identity in the Makerspace

   Usinski, Danielle; Swenson, Jessica; Treadway, Emma; Plagge, Alyndra; Lape, Shea (June 2024, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   The purpose of this complete research paper is to analyze the impacts of an open makerspace on the development of students’ engineering identities. This paper seeks to build upon current belonging analyses about makerspaces and shift the focus towards students’ engineering identities. Our team interviewed 17 first-year engineering students attending a small, private university located in the American southwest. During the interviews, they were asked to reflect on their experiences in classes and involvement in engineering related activities. Some of the interview questions are influenced by previous models of engineering identity. Our research team noticed a pattern of students spending personal time using the Makerspace in their engineering department. This is an open workshop where students have access to free supplies to do what we’ve called “make” which is the act of problem solving, designing, and building using the tools provided. The high rate at which this space is mentioned in tandem with the students’ successes during the two semesters exemplifies the impact it has on student retention rates. We noticed a trend that students who have strong engineering identities tend to spend time making in the Makerspace. Any mention of the Makerspace itself or any connective context pieces relating to activities of the Makerspace spoken by the group of students were collected by our research team. This paper will examine how heavy of an impact, if at all, the Makerspace has on the further development of a student's ability to recognize themselves as an engineer if they came into college with an initial interest in making. Our analysis suggests the Makerspace provides an opportunity for students to display performance when making. This in turn causes students to see themselves as engineers when they experience internal and external recognition from being in the Makerspace. The results of this analysis will aid in the creation of effective intervention methods universities can implement during the first year engineering curriculum to increase retention rates. 

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4. What is an Equitable Academic Makerspace?

   bravo, elisa; austin-breneman, jesse (November 2022, International symposium on academic makerspaces)
5. Makerspace Participation: Which Students Return and Why?

   Josiam, M. (June 2019, 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Tampa, FL)

   Makerspaces are becoming increasingly common facilities in engineering departments and universities across the country. Facility stakeholders, including students, professors, and university administration, hold many assumptions about the benefits and importance of the spaces, but little research has been done to quantify student usage and to evaluate participation within these spaces. This is especially important to understand given the interdisciplinary and multipurpose nature of these facilities. In this paper, we seek to understand which undergraduate engineering students use the Makerspace and what factors influence their likelihood to return. In partnership with a Makerspace at a large, public institution in the Southwest, we analyzed nearly 29,500 sign-in entries from 4,230 unique participants. Log-in information from these students included an open-ended response to their reason for visiting the facility, which was coded into five categories. We provide descriptives by major of the students, who visited the Makerspace within a two-year period, as well as results of chi-square analyses to determine differences in use of the Makerspace and results of logistic regression to determine the probability of students’ return. Analysis of this data begins to uncover the ways in which undergraduate students engage with Makerspaces and illuminates differences in behavior between majors. Further research should investigate the reasons behind these patterns and possible barriers to entry. 

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