Multi-Generational STEM Makerspaces in Affordable Housing: Co-Designing a Model with the Community

Makerspace是一种学习环境，让参与者参与真实的科学和工程实践，使用动手和协作的方法来支持促进创造力、兴趣和技能发展的活动和项目。最近，学校以及博物馆、图书馆和社区中心等非正式场所的创客空间迅速增长。然而，这些空间中的许多并不是所有社会成员都可以访问的。该项目将为STEM Makerspace制作一个专注于增加访问的模型。该模式由四个关键组成部分共同运作：经济适用房、非正式STEM学习、制造者教育和多代人学习。该项目将为湾景大厦开发和研究以社区为基础的、多代人的Makerspace模式，该大厦是康涅狄格州的一个拥有200个单元的保障性住房综合体。多代STEM Makerspace项目汇集了非营利性教育研究机构CAST、全国经济适用房提供商NHP基金会/运营路径以及研究STEM学习的社会背景的波士顿大学社会学习实验室。该项目将制作一本多代Maker剧本，其中包括一系列为期四周的研讨会的教育指南，这些研讨会围绕不同的主题和制作模式。Playbook还将作为一个项目模式，指导类似的社区如何创建和运行自己的可持续和蓬勃发展的Maker项目。湾景大厦社区的家庭将通过参与现场制作空间来建立对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)概念的理解。家庭将通过制定与STEM学习、教育和职业相关的长期目标来联系他们正在做的事情。该项目还将使个人能够参与共同设计(个人提供创造性贡献)，使之能够转化为支持可持续创造空间的社区结构和价值观。经济适用房背景将提供对影响学习者STEM认同感的个人和其他社会因素的理解。该项目将把STEM学习作为驻地服务的一部分，从而支持脱贫行动。这项研究将考察低收入社区如何进入、参与和学习创业者空间，并将他们的学习与相关目标联系起来。该团队将使用基于设计的研究(DBR)，参与者和研究人员一起工作来设计干预措施，旨在通过制定、分析和修改的循环来探索理论。DBR研究将回答以下问题：1)如果有的话，该模式以什么方式支持住院医生体验STEM学习？2)住院医生设定了什么样的制定目标，他们如何将STEM嵌入这些目标？3)如果住院医生通过研讨会体验到STEM学习的结果，他们是否也看到了他们的制定目标和长期目标之间的关系？4)那些更频繁地使用Makerspace的住院医生在结果STEM学习方面是否体验到了更积极的结果？5)各种制造空间结构--辅导员、专用空间和设备的培训，攻略-支持这种模式？6)居民团体是否定期参与创客空间？如果是，这些团体中有哪些人？这些群体是否开始认同自己是一个制造者社区？社区正在寻找价值的创造者空间吗？7)创造者空间的组织和运营在哪些方面支持为多代人和后续学习建立可持续的模式？参与者将包括90名青年和90名成年人，他们来自湾景大厦的居民社区。将收集的研究数据包括对居民对每个研讨会要素的解释、分析和理解进行评分的开放式响应措施。此外，访谈协议将用于指导多代Maker Playbook功能的改进，并分析平台内多代Maker Playbook的可用性、可行性、参与度和用户体验。该计划将使用关于参与者目标和STEM身份的半结构化访谈协议，以及关于社区创造者价值观和制造者空间结构的焦点小组协议。此外，利克特式的STEM认同感调查也将改编自科学认同量表。项目评估将检查项目目标和目的的总体实现情况。项目成果将通过传统的传播方式传达给学者和实践者。该团队还将创建有针对性的数字媒体，包括在线文章、播客采访和博客文章，以接触到更广泛的受众。该奖项由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径来扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验的途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Makerspaces are learning environments that engage participants in authentic science and engineering practices, using hands-on and collaborative approaches to support activities and projects that foster creativity, interest, and skill development. Recently there has been a rapid growth of makerspaces in schools and in informal places like museums, libraries, and community centers. However, many of these spaces are not accessible to all members of society. This project will produce a model for a STEM makerspace that focuses on increasing access. The model has four critical components that operate together: affordable housing, informal STEM learning, maker education, and multi-generational learning. This project will develop and study the community-based, multigenerational makerspace model for Bayview Towers, a 200-unit affordable housing complex in Connecticut. The Multi-Gen STEM Makerspaces project brings together CAST, a non-profit education research organization, the NHP Foundation/Operation Pathways, a national affordable housing provider, and the Boston University Social Learning Lab, which researches the social context for STEM learning. The project will produce a Multi-Gen Maker Playbook comprised of an educational guide for a series of four-week workshops around different themes and modes of making. The Playbook will also serve as a program model that guides similar communities on how to create and run sustainable and thriving maker programs of their own. Families in the Bayview Towers community will build an understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts through participation in an onsite makerspace. Families will relate what they are doing through making to longer-term goals connected to STEM learning, education, and careers. The project will also enable the engagement of individuals in the co-design (individuals provide creative contributions) of making that can be translated into community structures and values that support a sustainable makerspace. The affordable housing context will provide understanding of individual and other social factors that impact learners' sense of STEM identity. The project will support mobility from poverty by including STEM learning as part of the resident services. The research will examine how low income communities access, engage, and learn in makerspaces, and relate their learning to relevant goals. The team will use design-based research (DBR) whereby participants and researchers work together to design interventions intended to explore theory through cycles of enactment, analysis, and revision. The DBR research will answer the following questions: 1) In what ways, if any, does the model support residents experiencing STEM learning as consequential? 2) What kind of making goals do residents set and how do they embed STEM in these goals? 3) If residents experience STEM learning as consequential through the workshops, do they also see the relationship between their making goals and longer term goals? 4) Do those residents that use the makerspace more frequently experience more positive outcomes in terms of consequential STEM learning? 5) How do the various makerspace structures - training of facilitators, dedicated space and equipment, Playbook - support the model? 6) Are groups of residents participating regularly in the makerspace and if so, who is in these groups? Do these groups start to identify as a maker community? Is the community finding the makerspace of value? 7) In what ways does the organization and operations of the makerspace support building a sustainable model for multigenerational and consequential learning? Participants will include 90 youth and 90 adults from the resident community at Bayview Towers. Research data to be collected includes open-ended response measures for scoring residents' interpretation, analysis and understanding of each workshop elements. Also, interview protocols will be used to guide the refinement of the Multi-Gen Maker Playbook features and analyze usability, feasibility, engagement and user experience of the Multi-Gen Maker Playbook within the platform. The program will use semi-structured interview protocols on participants' goals and STEM identity and focus group protocols on community maker values and makerspace structures. Additionally, a Likert-style survey on STEM identity will also be adapted from the Science Identity Scale. Project evaluation will examine the overall achievement of program goals and objectives. Project results will be communicated by traditional means of dissemination to scholars and practitioners. The team will also create targeted digital media, including online articles, podcast interviews, and blog posts, to reach a broader audience. This award 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.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.