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In this descriptive brief paper about work in progress, two science education university faculty and a post-doctoral researcher share an arts-based assessment developed to investigate students’ understanding of computational thinking. The mark out poetry activity was designed for use in an NSF grant funded mixed methods, multi-partner STEM-C research project. Piloted in an undergraduate science teacher education course at a public university, the assessment is intended for later use with public high school juniors and seniors who are partnering in the grant’s work, and likely have little experience with computational thinking. Collected data has the potential to inform the researchers about changes in participants’ understanding of computational thinking over time, as well as the efficacy of the equity-based grant project. This paper includes instructions for the activity, an example of one undergraduate’s work, and a preliminary analysis of the work of the five students in the pilot. This presentation may inform the work of constituents of technological, teacher education, and K-12 learning communities who want to broaden and deepen their assessment practices with the inclusion of qualitative, arts- and equity-based data collection and analysis. (Funding-NSF Grant 1842342.) 

In this descriptive brief paper three science education university faculty and a postdoctoral researcher share the difference between the delivery, execution, and assessment of the same educative making learning opportunities assigned to science education preservice teachers first in face-to-face undergraduate courses taught before the COVID-19 pandemic, and then in an online version of the same courses. This presentation may inform the work of constituents of science and teacher education and maker learning communities who want to employ best practices as they modify curriculum for virtual delivery. (Funding-NSF Grant 1842342.) 

This descriptive brief paper is an abbreviated report about a larger autoethnographic study written by the first author as a post-doctoral research associate working in educative making as part of an NSF grant for which the goal is to attract a diverse population to the career path of mechatronics. Teleworking from home under shelter-in-place orders, she employed the methodology of reflexive embodied autoethnography with applied sensibilities to investigate the cultural experience of her two semesters as a participant observer who built a new university Makerspace in the USA and supported its use by undergraduate science education preservice teachers. Sans the underlying personal experience narrative of the larger study, this account encapsulates its findings with regards to conceptual, physical, and cultural characteristics of the Makerspace and the teaching and learning therein. This report concludes with considerations for the design, utility, and culture of fabrication laboratories which support deep engagement. This account may inform the work of informal and formal science education and educative making learning communities which strive for transformative learning. (Funding - NSF Grant 1842342.)