EAGER: Maker: Industrial Experience and Disciplinary Knowledge Impact on Creative Outcomes in a Making Context

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This project investigates the impacts of industrial experiences gained through MAKING on graduate engineering programs. It measures the impact on student's ability to generate and implement creative design solutions in the context of a human-centered design and manufacturing course for MAKING. This project seeks to understand how the course may impact graduate students whose creative potential may have been altered (perhaps diminished) through traditional formal education. The four distinct graduate programs that will be investigated are: industrial engineering (IE), mechanical engineering (ME), industrial design (Design), and human-computer interaction (HCI). Graduate students from different backgrounds are encouraged to understand how things work; to invent and redesign things through multiple iterations; and to develop and test prototypes quickly in a cost-effective manner. Within this MAKER learning context, the impacts of industrial experiences and disciplinary knowledge on learners' creative outcomes are being investigated.This project adds to the collective knowledge of how various disciplines consider and approach creativity and design, and in what ways industrial experiences affect graduate students' creative outcomes. This project will help us to better prepare students with cross-disciplinary and convergent creativity and provide more comprehensive understanding of design through creativity-focused teaching and rapid prototyping (MAKING processes). Part of the long term goal of this project is the development of creativity in highly trained Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workers. Ultimately, the impact of this systematic investigation on creativity in a MAKING environment will provide information that will support increasing the number of STEM based workers in the United States. This project has the potential to introduce and engage a wide range of learners, including meritorious students, from a rural community to MAKING. The planned sustainability of the proposed program also ensures continuity of potentially engaging all learners, including those of high merit but insufficient means; therefore, S-STEM co-funding is deemed appropriate for this project. This in-context engagement/introduction to making will present a pathway for learners to pursue STEM degrees. This project is a part of NSF's Maker Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) portfolio (NSF 15-086), a collaborative investment of Directorates for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), and Engineering (ENG).