Background: Makers are a growing community of STEM-minded people who bridge technical and non-technical backgrounds to imagine, build and fabricate engineering systems. Some have engineering training, some do not. This paper presents a study to explore the educational pathways of adult Makers and how they intersect with engineering. This research is guided by the following research questions: (1) What can we learn about the educational pathways of adult Makers through the lens of constructivist grounded theory? and (2) How do the educational pathways of Makers intersect with engineering? This

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 potential differences between self-identified sexes, youth who participated in making activities were interviewed about their experiences with failure and thoughts about the term. Youth’s perceptions of failure fell into four categories: failure as enhancing, failure as

Makerspaces are situated in diverse settings and engage in differing projects. Consequently, it appears that there is variation in what activities are engaged in and how time is spent in makerspaces. To date, the time-use of these activities within makerspaces has yet to be explored. The present paper identifies seven primary activity categories and discusses how time is devoted to these activities across three maker camps.

A Maker is a modern-day tinkerer and hands-on builder of DIY artifacts. Makers create their inventions wholly out of their imaginations, with the support of a rich collaborative online and in-person community. This paper describes the results from a qualitative study of adult Makers and their characteristics of collaboration in the Maker community. Results indicate that Makers exhibit a mindset of Additive Innovation. This describes the open community of sharing and learning that is the Maker community. Connections between engineering and Making are also discussed.