This paper provides detailed descriptions of the goals, theoretical perspectives, context, and methods used in A study of collaborative practices at interactive engineering challenge exhibits (the C-PIECE Study), the first of two studies in the Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) research program. The C-PIECE Study supported foundational and exploratory lines of inquiry related to engineering practices used by families engaging with design challenge exhibits. This paper describes the study background and methods as an anchor to four other products that detail these four specific lines of inquiry and
The purpose of this research was to explore associations between engineering practices included in the C-PIECE framework. In this work, we took particular interest in practices under the Defining a Problem proficiency. Practices under Defining a Problem have great potential to influence the entire exhibit interaction and early observations indicated that visitor groups did not engage frequently in these practices at the informed level, therefore they were seen as an opportunity ripe for study. Through observations, interviews, and video analysis, the DOT research team investigated the
Are you interested in co-creating fun activities that exercise groups’ engineering practices? Are you curious about the types of practices that groups can exercise through exhibits?
The Framework of Collaborative Practices at Interactive Engineering Challenge Exhibits (C-PIECE Framework) provides informal education professionals with a guide when co-developing, designing, facilitating, evaluating and researching engineering design challenge experiences.
This framework was developed with input from inter-generational families, including girls 9 to 14 years old. It was adapted from theory
Our museum-based participatory research (PR) project was a collaboration between researchers and educators in an out-of-school time STEM education program for young people that positions STEM as a tool for community social justice. This project drew on literatures on reflective practice in museums and on research-practice partnerships. Yet following existing approaches did not work for us. Aligning research and pedagogical practices, we co-created practical, reflective, and practice-based data generation methods, calling them “embedded research practices:” context-specific, emergent methods
This brief focuses on a participatory study with the high school program of the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). Young people are organized into teams of up to 20 youth with an adult practitioner who delivers programming based on a STEM content area. Their activities and project-based learning are based in both STEM and social justice, coined in the KAYSC as “STEM Justice.”
As part of our study, we wanted to understand youth and adult needs that exist in an informal STEM education program that weaves equity into its core. This brief
This brief is for practitioners and researchers in informal learning who want to collaborate in participatory research. While we have learned from similar work (much of which is in formal education or large-scale projects), what we found didn’t always apply to us or our contexts. For instance, content (curriculum) and assessment look different in schools versus on a museum floor. While informal educators don’t have the pressure of high-stakes testing and accountability, they are often part-time workers and may not have as much theoretical training or professional development as formal
The theory of “science capital” is increasingly showing up in formal and informal science education. Both face the common challenge of what is often called a “theory/practice divide”: academic theory not seeming relevant to the day-to-day needs and practices of educators.
This brief shares what happened when practitioners and researchers working with the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota took both theory and practice seriously, reclaiming terms and ideas in service of our work and communities. It explores how an informal science learning (ISL)
This brief shares youth development insights from a museum-based, informal science learning program that uses STEM as a tool for social justice. Key to the success of this program were young people and adults feeling at home in a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive space; activities that focused on connecting and relationships; a holistically supportive space that attended to family and personal needs; shared norms for conversation and expectations; and science content grounded in young people’s lives, experiences, and communities as well as work with community members.
These needs were
Context
Engaging youth as partners in academic research projects offers many benefits for the youth and the research team. However, it is not always clear to researchers how to engage youth effectively to optimize the experience and maximize the impact.
Objective
This article provides practical recommendations to help researchers engage youth in meaningful ways in academic research, from initial planning to project completion. These general recommendations can be applied to all types of research methodologies, from community action-based research to highly technical designs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lisa HawkeJacqueline RelihanJoshua MillerEmma McCannJessica RongKarleigh DarnaySamantha DochertyGloria ChaimJoanna Henderson
Maker Education scholarship is accumulating increasingly complex understandings of the kinds of learning associated with maker practices along with principles and pedagogies that support such learning. However, even as large investments are being made to spread maker education, there is little understanding of how organizations that are intended targets of such investments learn to develop new maker related educational programs. Using the framework of Expansive Learning, focusing on organizational learning processes resulting in new and unfolding forms of activity, this paper begins to fill
Meaningful Making 2 is a second volume of projects and strategies from the Columbia University FabLearn Fellows. This diverse group of leading K–12 educators teach in Fab Labs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums—all with the goal of making learning more meaningful for every child.
A learning revolution is in the making around the world. Enthusiastic educators are using the new tools and technology of the maker movement to give children authentic learning experiences beyond textbooks and tests. The FabLearn Fellows work at the forefront of this movement in all
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paulo BliksteinSylvia Libow MartinezHeather Allen PangKevin Jarrett
This book contains project ideas, articles, and best practices from educators at the forefront of making and hands-on education. The Stanford University FabLearn Fellows are a group of K-12 educators teaching in Fab Labs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums—all with the goal of making learning more meaningful.
In this book, the FabLearn Fellows share inspirational ideas from their learning spaces, assessment strategies and recommended projects across a broad range of age levels. Illustrated with color photos of real student work, the Fellows take you on a
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paulo BliksteinSylvia Libow MartinezHeather Allen Pang