Investigating STEM Literacies in Maker Spaces

全国各地的许多社区都在发展“创作者空间”，这是一个将物理制造设备、一起工作的人的社会社区以及学习如何设计和创作作品的教育活动结合在一起的环境。越来越多的创客空间和创客技术为学龄儿童提供了更多的学习机会。在这种环境中，参与者参与多种形式的交流，其中个人和群体同时专注于不同的项目。在这个项目中进行的研究将解决那些从事制造运动的人的一个重要需求：有助于更好地理解制造空间的参与者在创造和生产具有个人和社会价值的实物产品时如何参与科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的证据。具体地说，这项研究将产生关于参与者如何提出和解决问题；识别、组织和整合来自不同来源的信息；整合不同类型的信息(视觉、定量和口头)；以及与他人分享想法、知识和工作的新知识。为了理解和支持参与制作的STEM素养，调查人员将研究一些不同的非正式学习网站，这些网站自认为是创作者空间，并为不同年龄的参与者提供服务。该项目将在三个定性研究周期中使用人种学和设计研究技术。在第一个周期中，研究人员将调查两个面向成人的Maker空间，以生成关于更有经验的成人Maker如何使用这些空间的案例研究和开发理论，并创建成人Maker空间的案例研究，并开发理解Maker空间中识字的方法技术。在第二周期，这项研究将扩展到两个校外时间面向青年的创作者空间，建立两个新的案例研究，并启动基于设计的研究活动。在第三个周期中，该团队将通过快速迭代的基于设计的研究，进一步将他们开发的理论和结果应用于支持参与者科学素养的干预措施，并在学校现有的两个Maker空间进行实践。通过同行评议的出版物、简报、会议演讲、出现在地方和国家制造商组织的网站上，项目成果将与致力于为创新经济扩大美国科学和数学专业人员基础的组织和个人广泛分享。

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.