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Makerspaces, innovation labs, and creativity spaces are gaining traction in K-12 schools and community centers. This exploratory project, Making Inspired by Nature, brings together the art of making, the disciplined practices of design thinking, and the creative practices of biomimicry to engage preservice teachers and children in building innovative solutions to real-world problems. To achieve this, this project is (a) building and evaluating digital resources and hands-on activities for engaging elementary children in innovation through the application of biomimicry and design thinking in a maker context and (b) evaluating models for deepening pre-service teachers’ pedagogical knowledge for supporting student learning in maker-centered classrooms. This NSF IUSE funded project, just ending year 1 of a 2-year project, was in response to an NSF Dear Colleague Letter calling for EAGER proposals to conduct exploratory work with respect to STEM learning and design thinking.
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Establishing a peer review system for open-source educational CAD models
Since the advent of affordable fabrication technologies such as 3D printers, many schools have established maker spaces. The educational effectiveness of fabrication tools in K-12 maker spaces is facilitated by access to useful Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) models and associated instructional supports. The launch of Educational Fabrication & Design provides a site for peer review and publication of CAD models designed for K-12 education. Upon acceptance, articles will be published with a link to a corresponding model in an educational CAD Model Repository.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2229627
- PAR ID:
- 10559890
- Editor(s):
- Mouza, C
- Publisher / Repository:
- Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Contemporary issues in technology and teacher education
- ISSN:
- 1528-5804
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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