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Conference Proceedings

Poster - STEMLiMS: Investigating STEM Literacies in MakerSpaces

March 21, 2016 | Public Programs, Informal/Formal Connections
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. Makerspaces are social spaces with tools, where individuals and groups conceptualize, design, and make things using new and old technologies. Literacy practices are the ways people use representational texts to navigate and make sense of their worlds. They are used in particular contexts with particular goals. By “representational texts” we mean written words, talk, photographs, diagrams, videos, schematics, computer code, electrical circuit diagrams, mathematical notations, gesture, and myriad other representations. This project aims to describe the ways in which people use representations to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while making; create bridges between informal spaces where the bulk of makerspace activities currently reside and formal spaces like schools; broaden what it means to participate in STEM disciplines in schools by recognizing the ways in which makerspaces promote expansive and creative STEM practices; engage new youth in making by building from the literacy practices that all youth bring to creative and personally meaningful activity; and design literacy supports for new makers to engage in makerspace activities and develop literacy practices that are useful across all STEM disciplines, in both formal and informal settings.

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Photo on 8 21 15 at 6 45 AM  2
    Principal Investigator
    TERC Inc
  • Citation

    Funders

    NSF
    Funding Program: AISL
    Award Number: 1422532
    Resource Type: Reference Materials
    Discipline: Engineering | General STEM | Literacy | Nature of science | Technology
    Audience: Elementary School Children (6-10) | Middle School Children (11-13) | Youth/Teen (up to 17) | General Public | Educators/Teachers | Museum/ISE Professionals
    Environment Type: Public Programs | Making and Tinkering Programs | Informal/Formal Connections | K-12 Programs

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