CAREER: Equity in the Making: Investigating Spatial Arrangements of Makerspaces and Their Impact on Diverse User Populations

创客空间是实践STEM概念和技能的场所。他们配备了高科技工具、用品和设备，比如3D打印机，以支持协作、创造性的工作来建造东西。鉴于其支持STEM学习的潜力，创客空间越来越多地融入全国各地的大学。然而，如果观察者观察谁决定利用创客空间，他们会看到许多学生把头伸进门里，环顾四周，然后离开。观察人士可能还会注意到，决定离开的学生中，不成比例地更多来自STEM中代表性不足的群体。在这个CAREER项目中，研究者将研究大学创客空间的空间安排在阻止和吸引不同本科生参与者方面所起的作用。这项工作的更广泛影响包括有可能确定使stem丰富的学习环境更受欢迎和包容的方法。研究人员将调查大学创客空间在潜在用户中引发的情感和情感反应，进而研究重新设计大学创客空间安排的方法，以吸引广泛和多样化的大学生社区的参与。这个定性的应用研究项目将采用访谈、调查和基于自然探究的准实验，这些实验位于物理和虚拟环境中。研究的指导问题包括：大学创客空间的定义特征是什么？设计过程中涉及什么和谁？这些设计决策背后的基本原理是什么？创客空间的空间组织在多大程度上影响了学生，特别是那些来自代表性不足的大学生群体的学生，是否决定使用他们大学的创客空间？需要什么样的设计干预才能在空间上传达创客空间是公平和包容的？教师早期职业发展（Career）计划是美国国家科学基金会（NSF）范围内的一项活动，旨在支持有潜力在研究和教育中成为学术榜样的早期职业教师。本项目由美国国家科学基金会教育与人力资源理事会核心研究项目和改进本科STEM教育项目资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Makerspaces are places for hands on application of STEM concepts and skills. They are stocked with high-tech tools, supplies, and equipment, such as 3D printers, to support collaborative, creative work to build things. Given their potential to support STEM learning, makerspaces are increasingly integrated into universities across the country. However, if observers watched to see who decides to take advantage of a makerspace, they would see many students stick their heads in the door, look around, and leave. The observers would also likely note that disproportionately more of the students who decide to leave are from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. In this CAREER project, the researcher will examine the role that the spatial arrangement of a university makerspace plays in deterring and attracting diverse undergraduate participants. Broader impacts of the work include the potential to identify approaches to make STEM-rich learning environments more welcoming and inclusive. The researcher will investigate the emotional and affective responses that a university makerspace induces in potential users, and in turn examine approaches to re-design the arrangement of a university makerspace to attract participation of broad and diverse undergraduate communities. This qualitative, applied research program will employ interviews, surveys, and naturalistic inquiry-based quasi-experiments that are situated within physical and virtual environments. The guiding questions for the research include: What are the defining features of a university makerspace? What and who are involved in the design process? What is the rationale underlying these design decisions? To what extent does the spatial organization of a makerspace influence whether students, particularly those from underrepresented undergraduate communities, decide to use their university's makerspace? What design interventions are needed to spatially communicate that a makerspace is equitable and inclusive? The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-wide activity that supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. This CAREER project is supported by NSF's Education & Human Resources Directorate Core Research Program and its Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.