Student Perceptions of and Learning in Maker Spaces Embedded in Their Undergraduate Engineering Preparation Programs

Abstract

His scholarly interests include all areas of STEM teaching and learning, inservice and preservice teacher professional development, program evaluation, multidisciplinary research, and conceptual change. Nadelson uses his over 20 years of high school and college math, science, computer science, and engineering teaching to frame his research on STEM teaching and learning. Nadelson brings a unique perspective of research, bridging experience with practice and theory to explore a range of interests in STEM teaching and learning.

Undergraduate Students Becoming Engineers: The Affordances of University-Based Makerspaces

“…Additionally, while a plethora of research exists concerning the role of professional engineering programs, broadly speaking, on the development of undergraduate students as engineers (e.g., [22][23][24]), research is just now emerging on the role of makerspaces in this development [25]. Limited evidence indicates that makerspace activities help students develop dispositions and practices relevant to engineering, such as confidence and motivation related to designing [26,27], creativity related to the graphical representation of ideas [28], and collaboration abilities [3,6]. Others argue that university-based makerspaces may encourage student engagement in real-world problem-solving [14,27,29].…”

“…Limited evidence indicates that makerspace activities help students develop dispositions and practices relevant to engineering, such as confidence and motivation related to designing [26,27], creativity related to the graphical representation of ideas [28], and collaboration abilities [3,6]. Others argue that university-based makerspaces may encourage student engagement in real-world problem-solving [14,27,29]. This includes around some of society's most pressing problems [12], such as sustainability, wicked in its complexity [30], requiring collaboration and integration of diverse knowledge bases and skills across disciplines.…”

Light Blue Walls and Tan Flooring: A Culture of Belonging in Engineering Making Spaces (or Not?)

“…Amongst educational making spaces, an individual's sense of belonging is linked to one's feelings of having common characteristics within the space [19], which may be determined by what projects, activities, and type of expertise are present in the space [10] and being able to build positive relations with others in the space [14]. Thus, external cues (either in the ambient environment or in the physical infrastructure of the space), making activities (e.g., artifacts and projects), and social interactions (or lack of) influence individuals' sense of belonging in these spaces [8].…”

“…A total of 45 (faculty members), 29 (staff), and 148 (undergraduate engineering students) semi-structured interviews were collected across the six sites. Our prior research has explored the experiences and perceptions of space leaders, directors, and managers (e.g., administrators with and without instructional roles), staff (e.g., industrial specialists with and without instructional roles), student-staff, and faculty members integrating the engineering making spaces into their instruction, and students using the spaces [3,4,11,13,14,30]. We also explored these interviews from the lens of equity of access [11] and found that access was connected to a culture of belonging in these spaces.…”

“…For the latter point, the term 'belonging' in the context of engineering making spaces is not well understood. The few studies that have sought to understand belonging in makerspaces have defined the construct as a connection to others with peers in the space, being accepted and integrated into a group [10,14]. Belonging is believed to begin with student access to the spaces [3,4,10,11].…”