Resources

This research report presents the results of a STEM summer program on robotics and game design. The program was part of a three-year study funded by the National Science Foundation. Children in grades four through six participated in a two-week summer camp in 2015 to learn STEM by engaging in LEGO® EV3 robotics and computer-based games using Scalable Game Design. Twenty-eight students participated in the study that took place in a small urban community in the Rocky Mountain West. This paper reports on the results of this part of the study, specifically, how children’s computational thinking

This research report presents the final year results of a three-year research project on computational thinking (CT). The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, involved training teachers in grades four through six to implement Scalable Game Design and LEGO® EV3 robotics during afterschool clubs. Thirty teachers and 531 students took part in the Year-3 study that blended game design and robotics. Eight of these teachers and 98 students participated in a large urban city in Pennsylvania, while the remaining 22 teachers and 433 students participated in rural Wyoming. This paper

Making and tinkering is currently gaining traction as an interdisciplinary approach to education. However, little is known about how these activities and explorations in formal and informal learning spaces address the content and skills common to professionals across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As such, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how youth were engaged in the eight science and engineering practice outlined within the US Next Generation Science Standards within an informal learnin environment utilizing principles of tinkering within the daily

As digital fabrication technology has become mainstream, the increased demand for 3D printed objects has created a new market for professional outsourcing. Given that most of this work does not require advanced training, and is an appropriate entry-level manufacturing job, there is an exciting opportunity to employ youth already skilled in "making" and interested in technology to do this work as an after-school job. The combination of this new technology and workforce calls for new workflows that streamline client-driven digital manufacturing. However, the limitations of current digital

Making is a social phenomenon that encourages the adoption of many of the practices, skills, and knowledges associated with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. It also incorporates many of the key personal attributes of the Engineer of 2020. Although educators have started to institutionalize this connection through the establishment of makerspaces and Maker-based curriculum, less effort has been made to understand how the current population of ‘‘grassroots’’ Makers have come to identify with this movement. In this qualitative research study, we analyze

This Work in Progress Paper presents an NSF funded study focused on understanding the role that makerspaces play in the identity development of engineering students from underrepresented groups (URGs). In recent years, makerspaces have become a popular addition to universities, with an implicit assumption that makerspaces will increase students choosing to major in STEM disciplines. The research question that guided this work is the following: How well do I-poems and thematic analysis help us uncover complex and nuanced understandings of the identities of engineering students and makers who