Although there is a growing body of research on mathematics in informal learning environments (Pattison, Rubin, & Wright, 2016; Rubin, Garibay, & Pattison, 2016), less has been done to understand how math can be integrated into other informal STEM education settings or topics, and how this integration might engage those who do not already have positive attitudes about math. Over the last decade there has been a proliferation of out-of-school environments that foster building, making, tinkering, and design activities (Bevan, Gutwill, Petrich, & Wilkinson, 2015; Vossoughi, Escudé, Kong, & Hooper
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
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. The project's goal is to demonstrate an educational model fully commensurate with the demands of the 21st Century workforce, and more specifically, with the emerging “green-tech” economy.
The Lawrence Hall of Science will implement the "Mobile Inventor's Lab," a project to extend the benefits of an ongoing outreach program into a model that can serve visitors at a variety of locations in communities underserved by local science education organizations. The museum will refine its engineering design experiences to be easily reconfigured and delivered in a variety of locations, and develop activities and kits for library and community partner staff. This project will expand the impact of the hall's educational resources and offer audiences the opportunity to interact with and learn about engineering design experiences in their own communities.
The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation will create on-the-floor makerspaces in libraries in underserved neighborhoods in North Philadelphia. These spaces will help local residents of all ages to gain access to technology and participatory education, and encourage creative applications and collaborative projects. Mentors will guide multigenerational community members as they create cross-disciplinary, interest-driven electronic art projects; build interest and knowledge in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics), and use tools and skills to create and share artifacts that reflect their identities and communities. Through the act of making, participants of all ages will have the opportunity to design meaningful digital and physical objects that capture the richness and diversity of their neighborhoods. These place-based, interest-driven, and mentor-guided makerspaces will provide a replicable, scalable model for libraries and museums nationally.
This University of Wisconsin System will conduct research to understand how the Madison Public Library (MPL) is building a production-oriented approach to literacy and learning through their maker-focused program, the Bubbler. On a national level, this project speaks to educational research communities, professionals, members of informal learning institutions, and organizers of designed makerspaces. At the local level, it addresses underserved populations in the Madison area and MPL in evaluating and developing the Bubbler. Findings will be shared through conference presentations, journal articles, and networks of library professionals.
Through a generous three-year grant from the Abundance Foundation, the Agency by Design (AbD) initiative at Project Zero, a research organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, began to investigate the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning. Over the last two years we have simultaneously pursued three strands of work: 1) a review of pertinent literature; 2) interviews and site visits with leading maker educators; and 3) action research and concept development. We’re now commencing our third year of work. Our active data collection stage is over. We are
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Harvard Project ZeroHarvard Project Zero
Cultures develop when people find ways to play, make, and share. This report describes how human cultures can be characterised by their similarities rather than their differences, and emphasises the importance of recognising playfulness and creativity to develop societies prepared to accommodate the rapid changes associated with technology and globalisation.
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LEGO FoundationDavid GauntlettBo Stjerne Thompson
Many communities across the country are developing "maker spaces," environments that combine physical fabrication equipment, social communities of people working together, and educational activities for learning how to design and create works. Increasingly, maker spaces and maker technologies provide extended learning opportunities for school-aged young people. In such environments participants engage in many forms of communication where individuals and groups of people are focused on different projects simultaneously. The research conducted in this project will address an important need of those engaged in the making movement: evidence leading to a better understanding of how participants in maker spaces engage with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as they create and produce physical products of personal and social value. Specifically, this research will generate new knowledge regarding how participants: pose and solve problems; identify, organize and integrate information from different sources; integrate information of different kinds (visual, quantitative, and verbal); and share ideas, knowledge and work with others. To understand and support STEM literacies involved in making, the investigators will study a number of different informal learning sites that self-identify as maker spaces and serve different-aged participants. The project will use ethnographic and design research techniques in three cycles of qualitative research. In Cycle One, the researchers will investigate two adult-oriented maker spaces in order to generate case studies and develop theories about how more experienced adult makers use the spaces and to create case studies of adult maker spaces, and to develop methodological techniques for understanding literacy in maker spaces. In Cycle Two, the study will expand into two out-of-school time youth-oriented maker spaces, building two new case studies and initiating design-based research activities. In Cycle Three, the team will further apply their developing theories and findings, through rapid iterative design-based research, to interventions that support participants' science literacy and making practices in two maker spaces that exist in schools. Through peer-reviewed publications, briefs, conference presentations, presence on websites of local and national maker organizations, project findings will be widely shared with organizations and individuals that are engaged in broadening the base of U.S. science and mathematics professionals for an innovation economy.
There is a growing demand from educators and policymakers for definitions, measures, and guidelines of design that capture the qualities of making as a learning process. The articles that comprise this dissertation respond to this demand, mapping the practices and perspectives of the maker community to foundational theories of the learning sciences. Theoretically, the work is based in the communities of practice framework. In adopting this approach, I am able to distinguish what making is as a learning process, through the identification of the core learning practices of the making community
This paper provides a brief overview of the ideas and principles underlying the connected learning movement, highlighting examples of how libraries are boosting 21st-century learning and promoting community development by partnering with a range of organisations and individuals to incorporate connected opportunities into their programmes. The connected learning movement supports interest-driven, peer-supported, and academically oriented learning for youth by promoting the core values of equity, participation, and social connection. By connecting formal and informal learning organisations with
Making Stuff Season Two is designed to build on the success of the first season of Making Stuff by expanding the series content to include a broader range of STEM topics, creating a larger outreach coalition model and a “community of practice,” and developing new outreach activities and digital resources. Specifically, this project created a national television 4-part miniseries, an educational outreach campaign, expanded digital content, promotion activities, station relations, and project evaluation. These project components help to achieve the following goals: 1. To increase public understanding that basic research leads to technological innovation; 2. To increase and sustain public awareness and excitement about innovation and its impact on society; and 3. To establish a community of practice that enhances the frequency and quality of collaboration among STEM researchers and informal educators. These goals were selected in order to address a wider societal issue, and an important element of the overall mission of NOVA: to inspire new generations of scientists, learners, and innovators. By creating novel and engaging STEM content, reaching out to new partners, and developing new outreach tools, the second season of Making Stuff is designed to reach new target audiences including underserved teens and college students crucial to building a more robust and diversified STEM workforce pipeline. Series Description: In this four-part special, technology columnist and best-selling author David Pogue takes a wild ride through the cutting-edge science that is powering a next wave of technological innovation. Pogue meets the scientists and engineers who are plunging to the bottom of the temperature scale, finding design inspiration in nature, and breaking every speed limit to make tomorrow's "stuff" "Colder," "Faster," "Safer," and "Wilder." Making Stuff Faster Ever since humans stood on two feet we have had the basic urge to go faster. But are there physical limits to how fast we can go? David Pogue wants to find out, and in "Making Stuff Faster," he’ll investigate everything from electric muscle cars and the America’s cup sailboat to bicycles that smash speed records. Along the way, he finds that speed is more than just getting us from point A to B, it's also about getting things done in less time. From boarding a 737 to pushing the speed light travels, Pogue's quest for ultimate speed limits takes him to unexpected places where he’ll come face-to-face with the final frontiers of speed. Making Stuff Wilder What happens when scientists open up nature's toolbox? In "Making Stuff Wilder," David Pogue explores bold new innovations inspired by the Earth's greatest inventor, life itself. From robotic "mules" and "cheetahs" for the military, to fabrics born out of fish slime, host David Pogue travels the globe to find the world’s wildest new inventions and technologies. It is a journey that sees today's microbes turned into tomorrow’s metallurgists, viruses building batteries, and ideas that change not just the stuff we make, but the way we make our stuff. As we develop our own new technologies, what can we learn from billions of years of nature’s research? Making Stuff Colder Cold is the new hot in this brave new world. For centuries we've fought it, shunned it, and huddled against it. Cold has always been the enemy of life, but now it may hold the key to a new generation of science and technology that will improve our lives. In "Making Stuff Colder," David Pogue explores the frontiers of cold science from saving the lives of severe trauma patients to ultracold physics, where bizarre new properties of matter are the norm and the basis of new technologies like levitating trains and quantum computers. Making Stuff Safer The world has always been a dangerous place, so how do we increase our odds of survival? In "Making Stuff Safer," David Pogue explores the cutting-edge research of scientists and engineers who want to keep us out of harm’s way. Some are countering the threat of natural disasters with new firefighting materials and safer buildings. Others are at work on technologies to thwart terrorist attacks. A next-generation vaccine will save millions from deadly disease. And innovations like smarter cars and better sports gear will reduce the risk of everyday activities. We’ll never eliminate danger—but science and technology are making stuff safer.
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WGBH Educational FoundationPaula Apsell