A makerspace is a place where participants explore their own interests and learn by creating, tinkering, and inventing artifacts through the use of a rich variety of tools and materials. This project will develop and research a flexible model for makerspaces that can be adapted to local settings to support informal STEM learning for hospitalized, chronically ill patients in pediatric environments who are predominantly youth of color from low-income backgrounds. These youth are subject to health disparities and healthcare inequities. Their frequent absence from school and other activities disrupt friendship formations, reduce their opportunities for social support, reduce their access to environments where they can feel a sense of self-agency through learning and creative activities. Through patient centered co-design, this project will build adaptable STEM makerspace environments conducive to STEM-rich learning, the exercise of self-agency, and development of STEM identity. Project design will focus on the sensitive nature of working with vulnerable populations (i.e., immunocompromised patients). The project will develop and disseminate several resources: (1) a flexible makerspace model that can be adapted to work in different pediatric settings; (2) research methods for conducting research in highly sensitive environments with and alongside young patients; and (3) professional development resources and a playbook including guidebook and facilitators guide that will articulate principles and processes for designing, implementing and sustaining makerspaces in pediatric settings. These resources will be widely disseminated through maker and other informal STEM networks.
The project will pursue two innovations. First, the project will develop the physical design of adaptable informal STEM makerspaces in pediatric settings. Second, the project will develop innovative patient-centered methodologies for studying approaches to physical design and the effects of makerspace installations for informal STEM-learning, self-agency, and STEM identity development. Using a design-based research approach, the project will investigate: (1) the extent to which physical makerspace designs support access to material, relational, and ideational resources for STEM-learning and well-being; (2) the extent to which makerspace installations, researchers, and medical care staff support patients in accessing and generating tools and other resources for personal learning and a sense of agency; and (3) the extent to which makerspace design with a focus on affording material, relational, and ideational resources provide rich opportunities for young patients to explore their own interests and cultivate STEM identities. One of the project's innovations, beyond development of adaptable makerspace model involves developing an innovative patient-centered methodology for conducting educational research toward broadening participation in STEM in highly sensitive medical care environments. The project will employ a mixed-methods research design and collect a variety of data to address these areas of research including documentation of makerspace design plans and renderings, observational data gathered through fieldnotes, video and audio recordings, informal interviews with patients, their families, and child-care staff, and patient generated artifacts. Articles for researchers and practitioners will be submitted for publication to appropriate professional journals and peer-reviewed publications.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings.
This Innovations in Development award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
While there is increased interest in youth-centered maker programs in informal educational contexts, scarce research-informed professional development exist that focus on how informal educators do or should plan and handle ongoing, just-in-time support during moments of failure. Prior research supports the important role of failure in maker programming to increase learning, resilience and other noncognitive skills such as self-efficacy and independence. The objective of this project is to address this gap through adapting, implementing, and refining a professional development program for informal educators to productively attend, interpret, and respond to youths’ experiences with failure while engaged in maker programs in informal learning contexts. In the first two years of the project, the research team will work closely with six partners to implement and refine the professional development model: The Tech Museum of Innovation, The Bakken Museum, Montshire Museum of Science, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Thinkery, and Amazeum Children’s Museum. In the last year of the project, the team will scale-up the professional development model through partnering with an additional nine institutions implementing maker programming for youth. The professional development consists of two models. In the first model, we support one to two lead facilitators at each partnering institution through an initial three-day workshop and ongoing support meetings. In the second model, the lead facilitators support other informal educators at their institution implementing making programs for youth. This project will enhance the infrastructure for research and education as collaborations and professional learning communities will be established among a variety of informal learning institutions. The project will also demonstrate a link between research and institutional and societal benefits through shifting the connotation and perceptions of failure to be valued for its educational potential and to empower informal educators to support discomfort and struggle throughout maker programs with youth.
The three goals of this collaborative project are to (a) advance the field of informal education through a research-based professional development program specific to youths’ failures during maker programs; (b) support shifts in informal educators’ facilitation practices and perspectives around youth’s failure experiences, and (c) investigate the effects of the professional development on youths’ resilience and failure mindset. The iterative nature of this project will be informed by the collection and analysis of video data of professional development sessions and informal educators facilitating maker programs, reflective journaling, surveys regarding the professional development, and pre-post surveys from youth engaged in the maker programs. Dissemination will address multiple stakeholders, including informal educators, program developers, evaluators, researchers, and public audiences.
This Innovations in Development project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
Engaging with Tinkering is a highly stimulating and complex experience and invites rich reflections from museum practitioners and teachers. "Tinkering as an inclusive approach for building STEM identity and supporting students facing disadvantage or with low science capital” presents the reflective practice process and tools designed by the "Tinkering EU: Building Science Capital for All" project aiming to understand in more depth the potential impact of using a Tinkering approach with students facing disadvantage. Using tools specifically designed to help teachers observe their students
Today’s digital and online media demand an approach to learning keyed to a networked and interconnected world. The growth of online communities, social and online media, open educational resources, ubiquitous computing, big data, and digital production tools means young people are coming of age with a growing abundance of access to knowledge, information, and social connection. These shifts are tied to a host of new opportunities for interest-driven learning, creative expression, and diverse forms of contribution to civic, political, and economic life. Even learning of traditional academic
We examined the conversational reflections of 248 families with 6–11‐year‐old children shortly after they visited a tinkering exhibit. Our aim was to understand the conditions of tinkering and conversational reflection that can enhance STEM learning opportunities for young children. We discuss implications for the design of tinkering and reflection activities that can both reveal and advance STEM learning.
This Conference Paper was presented at the International Soceity for the Learning Sciences Confernece in June 2018. We summarize interviews with youth ages 9-15 about their failure mindsets, and if those midsets cross boundaries between learning environments.
Previous research on youth’s perceptions and reactions to failure established a view of failure as a negative, debilitating experience for youth, yet STEM and in particular making programs increasingly promote a pedagogy of failures as productive learning experiences. Looking to unpack perceptions of failure across contexts and
Casual games are everywhere. People play them throughout life to pass the time, to engage in social interactions, and to learn. However, their simplicity and use in distraction-heavy environments can attenuate their potential for learning. This experimental study explored the effects playing an online, casual game has on awareness of human biological systems. Two hundred and forty-two children were given pretests at a Museum and posttests at home after playing either a treatment or control game. Also, 41 children were interviewed to explore deeper meanings behind the test results. Results show
This presentation was a part of a workshop/paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Children's Museums. The presentation includes strategies on how to increase STEM learning through tinkering experiences at museums.
The Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) aims to help member institutions inform and educate the public about science through a global lens. The World Biotech Tour (WBT) was a three-year initiative designed to not only promote a greater understanding of biotechnology through public outreach and programming led by science centers and museums, but also as an opportunity for ASTC to collect useful data on the resources required and challenges encountered at different science museums around the world when implementing a long-term, multi-country program. The WBT involved students
Digital Observation Technology Skills (DOTS) is a framework for integrating modern, mobile technology into outdoor, experiential science education. DOTS addresses longstanding tensions between modern technology and classical outdoor education by carefully selecting appropriate digital technology for educational purposes and by situating these tools in classical experiential pedagogy.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
R. Justin HoughamMarc NutterCaitlin Graham