Making the makers: how increased agency and social impact driven makerspaces grow engineering identity and self-efficacy in marginalized students

该项目旨在通过利用创客空间改善边缘化学生在STEM教育中的体验，为国家利益服务。创客空间越来越受欢迎，因为学生可以在公共环境中获得动手技术技能，从而提高他们的信心和成就感。当学生能够控制自己的学习时，这有助于形成一种包容感。有证据表明，具有社会影响力的主题可能会增加大学STEM项目的入学率。一个根本的未解决的问题是，这些类型的福利在多大程度上可能对边缘化学生产生具体和积极的影响。这个问题尚未解决的本质源于当代研究，该研究表明，创客空间有时可能会使来自代表性不足的背景的学生之间的差距永久化。该项目旨在开发创客空间学生的学习体验，展示如何最大化积极影响，同时最大限度地减少负面影响的延续。这些学习经验将包括密歇根大学（UM）的一个新的原型创客空间和新的社会影响课程，以及麻省理工学院的一个新的社会影响创客项目研讨会。该项目将为大学提供最佳实践建议，以创建创客空间，更好地支持边缘化学生参与和教育STEM教育。这项工作的目标是创建一个模型和一套指标，以表征创客空间在影响对边缘化学生很重要的关键特征方面的作用，如工程师身份、归属感和对失败的看法。工作范围包括一项为期四年的纵向研究，将跟踪麻省理工学院和UM的三个队列（大约100名学生）。该项目将解决三个研究问题：(1)非正式创客空间体验中不断增加的代理如何影响边缘化学生的工程认同感、归属感、失败观和工程自我效能感？(2)与正规创客课程相比，非正式创客空间体验对这些因素的影响如何？(3)与非社会影响项目相比，具有社会影响的创客项目如何影响边缘化学生的参与？本文将分析来自定量访谈、定性访谈、调查和工具化创客空间指导项目的数据，以回答这些问题。项目成果将通过美国工程教育学会、学术制作国际研讨会和学术制作与创客空间国际期刊的出版物和报告传播。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving marginalized students' experiences in STEM education using makerspaces. Makerspaces have been growing in popularity as environments in which students can gain hands-on technical skills in a communal setting, thereby improving their confidence and sense of achievement. When students have control over their learning, it contributes to a sense of inclusion. There is evidence that socially impactful themes may increase enrollment in university STEM programs. A fundamental unresolved issue is to what extent these types of benefits may specifically and positively impact marginalized students. The unresolved nature of this issue stems from contemporary research that suggests makerspaces may sometimes perpetuate disparities among students from underrepresented backgrounds. This project intends to develop makerspace student learning experiences that demonstrate how to maximize positive effects while minimizing the perpetuation of negative effects. These learning experiences will include a new prototype makerspace and new social impact course at the University of Michigan (UM), and a new social impact maker project workshop at MIT. This project will provide recommendations for best practices that universities may adapt to create makerspaces that better support the engagement and education of marginalized students in STEM education.The goal of this work is to create a model and a set of metrics that characterize makerspaces' role in affecting key characteristics that are important for marginalized students, such as engineering identity, sense of belonging, and views on failure. The scope of work covers a four-year, longitudinal study that will track three cohorts (approximately 100 students) at MIT and UM. The project will address three research questions: (1) How does increasing agency in informal makerspace experiences affect marginalized students’ sense of engineering identity, sense of belonging, view of failure, and self-efficacy in engineering? (2) How do informal makerspace experiences compare with formal maker-oriented courses in influencing these factors? (3) How do socially impactful maker projects influence the engagement of marginalized students compared with non-socially impactful projects? Data from quantitative interviews, qualitative interviews, surveys, and guided projects in instrumented makerspaces will be analyzed to answer these questions. Project results will be disseminated via publications and presentations within the American Society for Engineering Education, the International Symposium on Academic Making, and the International Journal of Academic Making and Makerspaces. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.