EAGER: MAKER: Inspiring the Flathead Indian Reservation's Next-Generation Workforce through Mobile, Cultural Making

创客空间为STEM和青年榜样参与提供了强大的机会，但在农村、部落社区仍然稀缺。该项目将创建一个移动创客空间，将传统和文化制作结合在一起，丰富的美国印第安人STEM角色模型以及Salish， Kootenai和Pend d'Oreille部落的传统工具和实践。该项目追求的研究问题是：将文化和传统的创客空间活动结合起来，是否能促进设计思维和社区的制造能力？该项目旨在为农村、部落社区的社区驱动制造开发一个全国性的模式。通过创建一个移动的文化创客空间、文化创客课程和参与模式，与非正式的科学教育和创客领域分享，该项目旨在使文化工具和知识能够提高农村、部落社区的创客能力。通过访问蒙大拿州平头印第安人保留地的每个社区，该项目旨在提高K-12学生对文化制作和设计思维的兴趣和意识；他们有机会接触到从事设计思维的文化榜样；以及他们的创新信心、实验思维/思维转变和设计思维技能。该项目的移动创客空间是与文化遗产专家、手工艺者和部落长老合作设计的，将在一系列学校和社区环境中吸引约5000名K-12青年。所有这些努力的最终目标都是在STEM、设计思维和制造中灌输归属感，以及在平头保留地培养本土的美国印第安人STEM劳动力。该项目有可能以一种文化意识的方式，引入和吸引广泛的学习者，包括来自美国农村印第安社区的优秀学生，具体到制造，以及更广泛的STEM。拟议方案的计划可持续性也确保所有学习者的潜在吸引力的连续性，包括那些高优点，但手段不足；因此，S-STEM联合资助被认为是适合这个项目的。这种情境参与/制作入门将为学习者提供追求STEM学位的途径。该项目是NSF“制造商致同事信”（DCL）项目（NSF 15-086）的一部分，是计算机与信息科学与工程（CISE）、教育与人力资源（EHR）和工程（ENG）部门的合作投资。

Makerspaces provide powerful opportunities for STEM and role-model engagement with youth but remain scarce in rural, tribal communities. This project will create a mobile makerspace that weaves together conventional and cultural making, rich with American Indian STEM role models and traditional tools and practices of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreille tribes. The project pursues the research question: does pairing cultural and conventional makerspace activities advance design thinking and community capacity in making? The project is designed to develop a national model for community-driven making in rural, tribal communities.By creating a mobile, cultural makerspace and a cultural making curriculum and engagement model to share with the informal science education and maker fields, this project seeks to enable cultural tools and knowledge to increase making capabilities in rural, tribal communities. Through visits to each of the communities on Montana's Flathead Indian Reservation, the project aims to increase K-12 students' interest in and awareness of cultural making and design thinking; their access to cultural role models engaged in design thinking; and their creative confidence, experimental mindset/mindshift, and design thinking skills. Designed in partnership with cultural heritage experts, craftspeople, and tribal elders, the project's mobile makerspace will engage an estimated 5,000 K-12 youth in an array of school and community settings. All of these efforts pursue the end goals of instilling a sense of belonging in STEM, design thinking, and making, as well as empowering a homegrown, American Indian STEM workforce on the Flathead Reservation.This project has the potential to introduce and engage a wide range of learners, including meritorious students, from a rural American Indian community to making specifically, and to STEM more broadly, in a culturally aware way. 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 Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR) and Engineering (ENG).