Learning from the Maker Community: Advancing the Maker Movement

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Making has been described as the next generation of innovation and do-it-yourself. Makers are an emergent group of imaginative inventors who value tinkering, hacking, re-making, and creating of technical artifacts. Makerspaces are places where these Makers gather in communities to learn from each other and create. There are some who believe that the Maker Movement can potentially lead to a resurgence of manufacturing job skills development as well as reshape engineering education. The Making community is diverse, encompassing informal learning in museum/library settings; Making in community spaces; university Makerspaces; engineering and science researchers who engage in Making; and education researchers who engage in Making. In order to reap the benefits of Making for the US manufacturing industry, it is necessary to understand the benefits of Making and how to advance the Maker Movement. This project will provide the initial baseline data needed to identify future directions in Making.The goal of this project is to develop, launch, and analyze a survey on Making activities across the US. In an effort to leverage the knowledge acquired by those already active in the Maker Movement it is imperative that the various stakeholders learn from each other. The proposed survey will be used to gather information from the broad Maker Community to understand what Making means. Based on findings from the survey, a written report will be created and widely shared that highlights the state of the Maker Movement and how diverse Maker segments believe the Maker Movement can be best supported. This report will document how engineering schools and others are using Makerspaces and the perceived value of housing a Makerspace (e.g., pedagogical value, contribution to diversity, and contribution to retention. Findings from the Maker Survey report will serve as a potential baseline for new research inquiries into the Maker Movement and additional data collection and analysis.