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

Abstract

In the last decade, postsecondary institutions have seen a notable increase in makerspaces on their campuses and the integration of these spaces into engineering programs. Yet research into the efficacy of university-based makerspaces is sparse. We contribute to this nascent body of research in reporting on findings from a phenomenological study on the perceptions of faculty, staff, and students concerning six university-based makerspaces in the United States. We discuss the findings using a framework of heterogeneous engineering (integration of the social and technical aspects of engineering practice). Various physical, climate, and programmatic features of makerspaces were read as affordances for students’ development of engineering practices and their continued participation and persistence in engineering. We discuss the potential of makerspaces in helping students develop knowledge, skills, and proclivities that may support their attending to especially wicked societal problems, such as issues of sustainability. We offer implications for makerspace administrators, engineering program leaders, faculty, and staff, as well as those developing and delivering professional development for faculty and staff, to better incorporate makerspaces into the university engineering curriculum.

Inclusively Recognizing Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship Impact within Promotion and Tenure Considerations

“…Beyond providing financial support for student researchers, faculty engaged in I&E activities can develop and offer educational programming through which students can develop collaboration, communication, and marketing skills [47] and design thinking [48]. The interdisciplinary and "soft" skills (e.g., communication skills and creativity) promoted by I&E work help students learn to contribute to solving local and global challenges [47,[49][50][51][52]. From an economic development standpoint, startups (one of many results of faculty I&E) are disproportionately responsible for job growth [53] and can be an excellent way to ensure a career for those graduate students who will not be entering academia and yet are instrumental to the commercialization efforts [54].…”

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

“…In spaces designed for making within undergraduate engineering education (e.g., makerspaces, prototyping centers, machine shops), individuals that work in these spaces help students learn about design and development [1,2] of products and prototypes. Through sustained interactions with students, leadership, management and staff in these spaces anticipate that space users (students) will apply what they learn in their coursework and develop workplace skills connected to prototyping [3][4][5].…”

“…For example, in engineering, these types of spaces are used to support classroom instruction and aid students in career preparation via prototyping experiences and activities [1]. It is also anticipated that when students engage with these types of career-forming activities, there is a greater likelihood that students will persist in their degrees [3,6]. Building such a space may represent a noble start; however, it may not be sufficient to attract a diverse population of users [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…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]. Understanding the relationships between access and belonging in the context of engineering making spaces requires that the goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion are met [11].…”

“…Understanding the relationships between access and belonging in the context of engineering making spaces requires that the goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion are met [11]. For example, Villanueva Alarcón and others [11] recently explored and expanded upon current definitions of 'access' in the context of university making spaces using semi-structured interviews with members of engineering making space management and staff [3,4,8,10,12,13]. The latter scholars found that for equity of access to occur, making spaces should: (a) be designed and operated for multiple points of student entry (via course offerings in the space); (b) be operated to facilitate effective student making processes and pathways in their engineering education through competency-building activities, certifications, and trainings; (c) include considerations of the unintended burdens and consequences for expanding access such as purchasing of equipment and costs and adding or removing personnel; and (d) leverage a culture of belonging for increased student "membership (sense of community) and equity (freedom from bias, prejudice, injustice)" [11] (p. 10).…”