EAGER: Maker: Engaging Parents as Makers to Build Capacity for Community-Based Making

在过去的十年里，无论是在美国还是在国际上，制造者运动都有了相当大的发展。已经开发了几种不同的“制造”，但关于不同的方案结构可能如何与制造方案可能对个人和社区产生的潜在影响相关，仍有许多重要的问题需要提出和进行研究。作为当地社区一个更大的长期倡议的一部分，纽约科学馆提议利用Maker运动的理念和活动，朝着实现其最终目标--在家庭和社区范围内对STEM教育的承诺和改进--迈出重要的第一步。该项目将建立基础知识和实践知识，了解在制作方面几乎或没有先验知识或经验的父母如何选择参与、促进和学习为有来自低收入家庭的孩子和在STEM专业中代表性不足的背景的家庭设计的制作程序。这样做的目的是让他们了解制造作为一种更深入的STEM学习途径的价值。该项目被描述为“高风险和潜在的高回报”。它将团体心理学方法(而不是个体心理学)应用到制作研究中，并将父母作为潜在的学习者和领导者。虽然已经在这一领域做了一些关于父母在Maker环境中的作用的工作，但这是一种新的方法来研究Making及其对社区中更广泛的STEM学习文化的潜在影响。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，并促进参与者对更深入学习的理解。纽约科学馆将开发和研究两个非正式学习环境：一起学习，这是在纽约科学馆的科学图书馆中的桌面，工作人员最少方便的环境，以及家庭制作，在大厅的Maker设施中，这是一种高科技和工作人员便利的体验。这项研究提出了两个研究问题：(1)共同学习和家庭制作计划如何以及在多大程度上吸引和维持父母的参与，父母促进儿童的活动，以及父母自己对制作的探索？(2)从社区心理学的角度来看，什么社会结构、资源、社会过程和周围的制度条件支持或阻碍了这些父母探索和理解制作作为通向STEM学习的途径？这项研究将涉及大会堂Maker Space工作人员和研究团队之间的持续合作，并将寻求就如何设计Maker节目以吸引和保留低收入、服务不足的家庭群体提供指导，以及关于外部结构和做法如何塑造观众对制作作为STEM学习模式的看法和兴趣的新知识。

The Maker movement has grown considerably over the past decade, both in the USA and internationally. Several varieties of "making" have been developed, but there are still many important questions to ask and research to conduct about how different programmatic structures may relate to the potential impact Maker programs can have on individuals and communities. As part of a larger, long-range initiative in their local community, the New York Hall of Science proposes to leverage the philosophy and activities of the Maker movement to take important first steps toward realizing their eventual goal of developing family and community-wide commitment to and improvement of STEM education. The project would build both foundational and practical knowledge about how parents with little or no prior knowledge of or experience with Making choose to engage with, contribute to, and learn from Maker programming designed for families with children from low-income households and backgrounds that are under-represented in the STEM professions. The intent is to build their understanding of the value of Making as a pathway toward deeper STEM learning. The project is characterized as "high-risk with potentially high-payoff." It applies a community psychology approach (rather than individual psychology) to the study of Making, and it focuses on parents as potential learners and leaders. While some work has been done in the field with respect to the role of parents in Maker environments, this is a new approach to the study of Making and its potential influence on the broader culture of STEM learning in a community. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.Two informal learning environments will be developed and studied at the New York Hall of Science: Learning Together, a table-top, minimally staff-facilitated setting in the Hall's science library, and Family Making, a high-tech and staff-facilitated experience in the Hall's maker facility. The study poses two research questions: (1) How, and to what extent, do the Learning Together and Family Making programs attract and sustain parental engagement, parental facilitation of children's activity, and parents' own explorations of Making? (2) From a community psychology perspective, what social structures, resources, social processes, and surrounding institutional conditions support or impede these parental pathways into exploring and understanding Making as a pathway toward STEM learning? The study will involve sustained collaborations between the Hall's Maker Space staff and research team, and will seek to generate guidance about how to design Maker programming that attracts and retains low-income, under-served family groups and new knowledge about how external structures and practices shape this audiences' perceptions of and interest in Making as a mode of STEM learning.