How to Cultivate an Environmentally Responsible Maker? A CPS Approach to a Comprehensive Maker Education Model

Abstract

Environmental education is intended to increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues and enhance individuals’ problem-solving and decision-making skills by tackling problems in the real world. “Maker education,” on the contrary, mostly relies on “problem-based” and “project-based learning” approaches with hands-on activities and collaborative learning experiences to engage students in solving authentic problems. The current study proposes an innovative curriculum design to integrate maker-centered learning with environmental thematic teaching. It then develops a series of project-based maker-centered learning activities aspiring to lead students to cultivate their creative problem solving (CPS) abilities in dealing with the environmental issues they encounter in their daily life. The developed information platform enables learners to access class materials and techniques, including 3D modeling, printing, and programming, to provide and nurture learners’ CPS abilities, and facilitates their information-, product-, and resource sharing. This study adopted a quasi-experimental design, and the developed curriculum was implemented in the teaching of two classes of a university in Taiwan (N = 73). Multiple scales were developed and applied to measure maker self-efficacy and environmental attitude to determine students’ learning outcomes. In conclusion, the study provided empirical evidence of how to design an effective maker-centered environmental curriculum to cultivate environmental awareness and attitude. Also, it provides a framework, a “comprehensive maker education model,” to develop better teaching and learning strategies and improve the effectiveness of a maker curriculum in higher education.