EAGER: MAKER: Nebraska Innovative Maker Co-laboratory

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目的工作，以更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动机和能力的实践。该项目将设计、开发和测试一个创客空间参与模式，将地理上分散的学习社区和参与创客活动和空间的导师联系起来，提供非正式的STEM学习途径，并扩大青年及其社区对STEM活动的参与。该项目将在一个相对孤立和服务不足的农村社区建立一个专门的公共图书馆创客空间，与内布拉斯加大学林肯分校的一个锚点空间密切相关，该空间支持开放式、自主学习、想法探索、技术技能、创业和合作项目。该项目设计将汇集来自各个领域（如工程、纺织、摄影、机器人和STEM教育）的专家，为年轻人提供六个重点领域的实践机会：电子、纺织品（包括可穿戴电子产品的电子纺织品）、计算机、数字媒体创作、音乐技术和数字制造。青年将根据自己的兴趣选择项目和学习途径。然后，青年将完成小型课程，并获得与他们选择的项目相关的设备和技能证书。虚拟协作空间和机器人远程呈现之间的预期协同作用将为青年和导师团队提供机会，使他们能够不分地理位置地进行协作，创造性地进行协作，解决问题和创新。（远程呈现机器人被定义为一种平台，它允许用户通过技术感知到他们正在另一个通常是远程的物理空间中操作。）该项目侧重于使用两个主要策略；a)虚拟协作空间和b)机器人远程呈现，为农村青年提供参与创客运动的途径。这种模式将提供一种可复制的策略，以接触社区内服务不足的农村青年受众，使他们能够与专家和导师建立更广泛的学习社区，从而充分参与创客体验。在创客空间中使用远程呈现机器人进行一对一的协作和指导，将特别有助于解决这种指导的物理需求。虚拟创新实验室空间将允许年轻人发展项目想法并参与协作解决问题。这些空间将通过基于手机的头戴式显示器进入。学生调查、观察、社会网络分析以及青年与导师之间互动的系统编码将用于研究通过共享制作活动发生的协作、问题解决和创新的本质。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). The project will design, develop and test a Makerspace engagement model that connects geographically dispersed learning communities and mentors participating in Maker activities and spaces to provide informal STEM learning pathways and to broaden participation for STEM activities for youth and their community. The project will establish a dedicated public library-based Makerspace in a rural, relatively isolated and underserved community with close connections to an anchor space at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that supports open-ended, self-directed learning, idea exploration, technical skills, entrepreneurship, and collaborative projects. The project design will bring together experts from a wide variety of fields (e.g., engineering, textiles, photography, robotics, and STEM education) to provide youth with hands-on opportunities in six focus areas, electronics, textiles including e-textiles with wearable electronics, computers, digital media creation, music technology, and digital fabrication.  Youth will select a project and learning pathway based on their interests. Youth will then complete mini-courses and receive certification on the equipment and skills relevant to their chosen project. The expected synergy between virtual collaborative spaces and robotic telepresence will provide opportunities for teams of youth and mentors to collaborate regardless of geographic location and to creatively collaborate, problem solve and innovate. (Telepresence robots are defined as platforms that allow users to perceive that they are operating in another, typically remote physical space via technology.)  This project focuses on using two main strategies; a) virtual collaborative spaces and b) robotic telepresence, to provide rural youth access to the Maker movement. This model will provide a replicable strategy of reaching rural underserved youth audiences within their communities so that they may establish wider learning communities with experts and mentors and thereby fully participate in the maker experience. The use of telepresence robotics for focused one-on-one collaboration and guidance in the Makerspace will particularly help to address the physical needs of such mentoring. Virtual innovative lab spaces will allow youth to develop project ideas and engage in collaborative problem solving. The spaces will be accessible via mobile phone based Head-Mounted Displays. Student surveys, observation, social network analysis, and the systematic coding of interactions between youth and mentors will be used to research the nature of the collaboration, problem solving and innovation that occurs through shared making activities.