Maker Projects Research Articles

“Plastic recycling in a cotton candy machine” – a maker project for science education

AbstractTrotz engagierter politischer Initiativen sowie Forderungen und Förderungen für eine Kreislaufwirtschaft steigt das jährlich produzierte Volumen an Kunststoffen, während der Anteil im Kreislauf gehaltener Kunststoffe dem Wachstum nur bedingt gerecht wird. Im Rahmen einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung ist die Auseinandersetzung mit Kunststoffen und deren Recycling insbesondere in jungen Teilen der Bevölkerung essentiell, um die Relevanz einer zukunftsweisenden Circular Economy nachvollziehen und weitertragen zu können. Im naturwissenschaftlichen Regelunterricht jedoch werden Recyclingprozesse mitunter aufgrund ihrer Komplexität nur oberflächlich integriert. Im Rahmen des Make@thons „Nachhaltige Textilien“ entwickelte eine Schüler:innengruppe mit dem Kunststoffrecycling in der Zuckerwattemaschine eine niedrigschwellige und kostengünstige Möglichkeit zur Integration dieser Recyclingprozesse in den Unterricht.

Making The Future School: An Analysis of Teens' Collaborative Digital Fabrication Project

Maker culture emphasizes informal, networked, self- and peer-led learning, motivated by fun and self-fulfillment, and learning through mistakes. However, studies often describe activities involving a lot of guidance. As guidance may lead to both the process and outcomes influenced by those guiding the activity, it is also important to examine how projects evolve without the supporters' push. We take a nexus analytical approach to explore 1) how teens' background, interactions with others, and available materials and spaces are at play when they shape their ideas and outputs in a collaborative maker project with minimal support, and 2) how these factors can be considered to better support learning in such projects. The work carried out by five teens in a local FabLab was based on peer collaboration within changing apprentice mentor pairs. When they ideated and prototyped for a future school, researchers provided minimal support, mainly online. Without their push, teens quickly modified tasks which both guided and narrowed down their thinking. Their experiences from school environment and the FabLab space served as an inspiration as they designed solutions to overcome current problems in the current school setting or digital fabrication process. When making, they gravitated towards processes they had previous experience of or which they enjoyed, perhaps partly affected by the competing discourses of maker culture and expertise we observed to be present in the FabLab space. While building on existing skillsets, this may leave the potential of novel trajectories and expanding one's skills and competences unexplored. Teens' self-esteem improved as they turned from apprentices to mentors for their peers. This allowed them to process their learning from a different perspective. In general, our results paint a detailed picture of the roles of different participants in a maker project and provide an example of how familiar discourses of education persist in teens' designs. Looking at the project through the lens of Nexus analysis contributes to an increased understanding of the space for action and participants' histories, and interactions on the process, valuable for researchers studying DF and making, and practitioners working in makerspaces and FabLabs with different user groups. On a more practical level, our work contributes to a deeper understanding on how to include teens into non-guided and community-driven maker practices. We provide practical implications on how to support learning in collaborative making projects in informal learning situations, and regarding the role of the different actors and the environment in such situations. We also identify avenues for future research in this area.

A Systematic Analysis on Raspberry Pi Prototyping: Uses, Challenges, Benefits, and Drawbacks

A small, affordable computer, the size of a debit card called Raspberry Pi, that uses a regular mouse and keyboard and connects to either a desktop screen or television. It makes it possible for people of all generations to learn about computer devices and various programming languages like Python and Scratch. It has all the characteristics of a desktop computer, including the potential to browse the internet, view high-definition video, work with spreadsheets, write documents, and play games. In addition, the Raspberry Pi was involved with several digital maker projects, such as song players and climate forecasting. It is therefore effective in communicating with people around the world. In this article, detailed features and information of the Raspberry Pi have been discussed very clearly as well as each version along with its alternative boards. The hardware components utilized, as well as the software needed to program it, will be discussed in this article (Raspberry Pi board). This article will offer a broad overview of the Raspberry Pi and is helpful for individuals who want to learn and do projects using the Raspberry Pi by giving them a proper guide and details regarding the Pi boards. It serves as the comprehensive guide for the basic ideas and uses of the Raspberry Pi boards.

Non-linear maker pedagogy in Finnish craft education

This research explores the use of a non-linear maker pedagogy for implementing a major change in the Finnish national core curriculum. The latest curriculum change (2014) introduced so-called transversal competences, but also a major change for the subject of crafts: ‘multi-material’ crafts that involve former separately taught textile and technical crafts both now introduced to all pupils. These changes set the stage for in-service teacher training, as well as for pedagogical solutions, such as a non-linear maker pedagogy and closer collaboration between technical and textile craft teachers. A non-linear maker pedagogy refers to an approach combining several features: a shift from individual learning and solo teaching to collaborative knowledge-creating learning, opportunities for collective invention and improvisation, pupil-centred situated inquiry and the creation of artefacts that combine material and digital realms. In this collective case study, we interviewed six teachers who co-taught non-linear maker projects in six different schools. Through a qualitative content analysis, we identified successes and challenges regarding the use of a non-linear maker pedagogy, pupil collaboration and teaching digital skills through robotics and e-textiles. In the interviews, teachers reflected on their work mainly by describing their pupils’ accomplishments, reactions and learning. These reflections indicated similar challenges and successes, suggesting that the variation between pupils and pupil groups was larger than that between schools. Furthermore, we discuss whether the selected pedagogical approach was unduly ambitious. Despite all the challenges, most of the teachers expressed their commitment to developing their teaching practices along the lines of a non-linear maker pedagogy.Keywords: Co-teaching, Curriculum change, Digital skills, Non-linear maker pedagogy, Pupil-directed situated inquiry

A learning design framework based on UDL principles to develop maker projects for pre-service teacher and educator training

During pre-service teacher and educator training it is essential that future teachers and educators learn how to design a learning module or a curriculum and that they master an approach of learning design, considering also inclusion and equity issues to increase participation and learning of all the students, embracing their diversities and addressing their different needs. The aim of this study is to describe an encompassing approach of learning design infused of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that was developed and adopted within a Faculty’s Laboratory on educational technology targeted at future primary school teachers and within a Course on Maker Education for the future educators of the Degree Course in Education. This Framework is the result of the experimentation of various previous versions of it during the last two academic years and appears to promote the creation of accessible, engaging and inclusive maker education projects that meet the needs of each learner.

Hands-on, Minds-on, Hearts-on, Social-on: A Collaborative Maker Project Integrating Arts in a Synchronous Online Environment for Teachers

This article presents a collaborative maker project integrating the arts in a synchronous online environment. Based on the Thinkering, Making, Sharing, and Reflecting (TMSR) model, the four components of hands-on, minds-on, hearts-on, and social-on learning were integrated into an online collaborative maker project involving arts, music, and coding. The authors first describe the theoretical framework of the TMSR model and the design and implementation of the maker project, and then report on the experiences and reflections of the participating teachers, who were enrolled in an online graduate course. Survey results showed that the project fostered the teachers’ connectedness, positive emotions, and satisfaction toward the online learning environment. In addition, qualitative data from their reflective essays revealed that the teacher participants experienced all aspects of hands-on, social-on, hearts-on, and minds-on learning in the online environment both as learners and as teachers. Finally, the qualitative themes showed that the teachers acknowledged supportive maker project components that can be applied in their own teaching context. Implications of the findings for art-integrated maker projects in public school settings were also addressed.

Literacies in the Making: Exploring elementary students’ digital-physical meaning-making practices while crafting musical instruments from recycled materials

ABSTRACT This study describes the literacies practices of three bi/multilingual fifth-grade students attending a French-language school in an urban community in Canada during a digital-physical Maker activity that included three phases: Plan Making, Instrument Making and Multimodal Making. Framed by theories of new literacies and embodied/sensory literacies, the authors captured students’ first-person gaze with video spy glasses to inform understandings of their meaning-making practices in activity. Evidence suggests that students’ Making was shaped by the ways that they understood themselves in relation to others, to materials, and to the expectations of schooling. Given the embodied meanings situated in the musical instruments that students made and the diverse, dynamic, discursive nature of students’ literacies practices while Making at every phase, teachers are encouraged to adopt non-linear conceptualisations of Maker projects, and pedagogies that are active, responsive, and place value on the embodied meaning-making processes that bi/multilingual youth can use.

"Finding the Right Window Into What They're Doing": Assessment of Maker-based Learning Experiences Remotely.

During the pandemic, teachers whose practice depends on maker-based learning have had the added challenge of translating their hands-on lessons for remote teaching. Yet with students making remotely, how can a teacher monitor the students’ progress, offer timely feedback, or infer what the students understood? In short, how are teachers assessing this work? Working with a learning community of teachers who center hands-on making in their instruction regardless of academic discipline, this study was conducted to examine how teachers are supporting and assessing maker-based learning. Our study draws on observational field notes taken during the community’s meetings, interviews with four focal teachers, and artifacts from the teachers’ maker projects. Taking a values-based assessment approach, our findings reveal interesting shifts in teaching practice. Specifically, teachers incorporated social-emotional goals into the activities they design and monitor, students documented their artifacts and process, and teachers adapted to using low-tech materials to ensure accessibility while engaging remote students in their learning goals. These findings imply that not only can remote maker-based experiences can influence the role of students as assessors and the tools and materials they use for making but also how these practices revealed in remote settings could inform in-person settings.

A Study of the Effectiveness of PBL and MAKER Classes Based on Flipped Learning

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find whether a team assignment in a Flipped Learning class using Project Based Learning PBL or MAKER has a greater effect on improving interest and class satisfaction than in the existing class.Methods: As an alternative to increasing the level of interest in the existing Flipped Learning class, the team project activity was operated as a PBL or MAKER project. The activityrest andtiveness was investigated through the results of pre- and post-interest surveys and a satisfaction survey.Results: The study participants in the Flipped-based PBL and MAKER classes, showed much greater interest and satisfaction than those in the existing Flipped Learning classes.Conclusion: The study results indicated that the selection of a class application offering a wider variety of teaching methods suitable to the subject and the combined application of several teaching methods complemented the shortcomings of existing teaching methods and maximized their strengths.

Crafting, connecting, and commoning in everyday maker projects

Makerspaces have spread to schools, museums, and libraries around the world. These are spaces that make technology construction more accessible and afford practices that situate makers as everyday designers. In this paper, the connection between makerspaces and makers' everyday lives is examined. For this study, thirteen makers were interviewed about the process of their everyday maker projects, and the data material was analyzed for practices, reflections on agency, and relations to places like the makerspace, the home, and beyond. Three distinct practices have been discovered and are described. Crafting is an individual, recreative, skillful, and immersive practice that connects to an individual workspace aside from the makerspace. Connecting is a creative, object-oriented, and interventionist practice that connects to everyday life situations open for inventions. Commoning is a social and communal practice that connects to the makerspace community. The makers' practices inform a discussion of the agency the makerspace enables, and the spatial practices that both enable and constrain actions. Also, because makerspaces are places that intend to make technology construction accessible and inclusive, diversity in maker communities, barriers to inclusion, and strategies to overcome these are discussed.

Making progress: Engaging maker education in science classrooms to develop a novel instructional metaphor for teaching electric potential

Physics educators often struggle with how to tackle complex content such as electric potential. As a result, high school students are typically not engaged in developing a deep understanding of this concept. Historically, such engagement has been perceived as too challenging and abstract. To date no process exists for engaging students in a meaningful way around such content. However, Making provides a new way to engage students in learning about electric potential that has not yet been done. Drawing upon observations and interviews, this article shares the instructional opportunities afforded one high school physics teacher in teaching electric potential through the construction and coding of electronic textiles (e-textiles) maker projects. The study furthers current research in physics education by examining both the instructional methods and outcomes of instruction for high school physics students when e-textiles is used as a model for teaching electric potential.

Frugal innovation in a crisis: the digital fabrication maker response to COVID‐19

The rapid spread of COVID‐19 has led to a global shortfall in essential items, turning many countries into resource‐constrained environments. In response, an unprecedented number of do‐it‐yourself hobbyists (i.e. makers) have started to use digital fabrication tools to produce critical items. These bottom‐up communities are mobilising as part of a global movement to produce innovative solutions to much‐needed items, such as face masks, face shields and ventilators. As these individuals tackle widespread resource constraints, the conceptual lens of frugal innovation becomes highly relevant to study how these solutions developed. Frugal innovation is a type of resource‐constrained innovation that refers to the practice of doing more with less, for more people. In this study, we present two instrumental case studies of maker projects that use digital fabrication to tackle COVID‐19. The first case study is from Italy (a High Income Country) and the second is from India (a Lower Middle Income Country). We analyse the frugality of these cases and highlight their similar approaches. In doing so, we suggest that current theories of frugal innovation can be expanded to new geographical and technological contexts. We put forward that frugal innovation is an important strategy in crisis response beyond emerging markets and that digital fabrication can be considered as an important frugal innovation enabler, both in its ability to produce frugal solutions and to support distributed networks of innovation actors. This study advances knowledge on how frugal innovation unfolds in the Maker movement. It is among one of the first studies to connect the domains of makers and frugal innovation, and the paper concludes by identifying several promising areas for further research.

Implementing a maker culture in elementary school – students’ perspectives

ABSTRACT This study investigated students’ perspectives on working and studying within a maker culture context. Participants were fifth-grade students (n = 18) in a Finnish elementary school who worked on a fabrication project for five days. The data consisted of student questionnaires (n = 18), group presentations (n = 5) and the final fabrication products (n = 5). The findings indicate that students were satisfied with their maker projects in terms of their own contribution as well as their group’s work. Students reported that they learnt various skills, including technical skills, English language and study skills. Although digital fabrication was emphasised in the project, students mostly fabricated the elements for their final product using traditional fabrication methods. The findings from this study can be helpful for designing effective maker projects in primary education settings.

On the relational autonomy of materials: entanglements in maker literacies research

AbstractThis article addresses key components of posthumanism and maker literacies by reporting on empirical data from two makerspace research sites. Using posthuman methodologies, we suggest practical considerations of the relational autonomy of materials through entanglements between humans, non‐humans and more‐than‐humans in makerspace classroom settings. We propose answers to the following research questions: How do materials manifest their relational autonomy in makerspaces? How could the relational autonomy of materials impact maker literacies pedagogy? With this article, our contribution warrants researchers to think about the unpredictability of maker work through posthuman methodologies and how maker projects can help speak against the failing student rhetoric in literacy education.

STEAM Maker Education: Conceal/Reveal of Personal, Artistic and Computational Dimensions in High School Student Projects

Much of maker education’s expansion has focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning, leaving out equally promising opportunities for integrating arts learning. In this paper we share findings from a project in which high school students created electronic-textiles-based art representing features of a community important to them as a part of an elective high school computer science class. We addressed the following research questions: 1) What kinds of personal and community meanings did students convey through their maker projects? 2) How did students engage with artistic dimensions in their projects? 3) How did coding interactive features support students’ artwork? Drawing on daily observations, pre/post interviews, and documentation of students’ artifacts (photographs of in-process designs, design notebooks, and artist statements), we developed four case studies of students as they made art representing their communities using electronic-textiles as their primary medium. Our findings reveal how making became a means of personal, artistic expression with quite literal layering of coded meanings, and how maker activities can integrate art. In the discussion we consider the opportunities for authentic artistic expression in maker education by distinguishing the difference between craft and art in a maker education context. We consider the ways in which these ideas have implications for equity, pedagogy, and future research.

Responding to maternal, neonatal and child health equipment needs in Kenya: a model for an innovation ecosystem leveraging on collaborations and partnerships

BackgroundUp to 70% of medical devices in low-income and middle-income countries are partially or completely non-functional, impairing service provision and patient outcomes. In Sub-Saharan Africa, medical devices not designed for...

Informing Makerspace Outcomes Through a Linguistic Analysis of Written and Video-Recorded Project Assessments

A growing body of research focuses on what outcomes to assess in makerspaces, and appropriate formats for capturing those outcomes (e.g. reflections, surveys, and portfolios). Linguistic analysis as a data mining technique holds promise for revealing different dimensions of learning exhibited by students in makerspaces. In this study, student reflections on makerspace projects were gathered in 2 formats over 2 years: private written assessments captured in the 3D GameLab gamification platform, and semi-public video-recorded assessments posted in the more social FlipGrid platform. Transcripts of student assessments were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) to generate 4 summary variables thought to inform makerspace outcomes of interest (i.e. analytical thinking, authenticity, clout, and emotional tone). Comparative findings indicate that written assessments may elicit more analytical thinking about maker projects compared with less analytical conversation in videos, while video assessments may elicit somewhat higher clout scores as evidence of social scaffolding along with a much more positive emotional tone. Recommendations are provided for layering assessment approaches to maximize the potential benefits of each format, including reflective writing for social spaces, in social groups, and about design processes and procedures.

Redesign of Core Courses for Product Design Majors： Practice-oriented and Application-oriented

This article briefly explains the training objectives of product design professionals and the restructuring plan of the core curriculum group. It focuses on the construction of an interdisciplinary core curriculum system, the introduction of a phased teaching organization model, the innovative use of maker project teaching methods, and the use of information technology to assist teaching. At this level, the specific ideas of redesigning the core courses of product design majors based on practice and application orientation were discussed, with a view to providing a reference for the teaching reform of industrial design and product design majors.

Tetraalkyl-substituted zinc phthalocyanines used as anode buffer layers for organic light-emitting diodes**Project supported by the Shenzhen Personal Maker Project, China (Grant No. GRCK2017082316173208), the Shenzhen Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Plan of Technical Innovation, China (Grant No. KQJSCX20180323140712012), and the Special Funds for the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries in Shenzhen, China (Grant No. JCJY20170818154457845).

Two soluble tetraalkyl-substituted zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPcs) for use as anode buffer layer materials in tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq3)-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are presented in this work. The hole-blocking properties of these ZnPc layers slowed the hole injection process into the Alq3 emissive layer greatly and thus reduced the production of unstable cationic Alq3 () species. This led to the enhanced brightness and efficiency when compared with the corresponding properties of OLEDs based on the popular poly-(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) buffer layer. Furthermore, because of the high thermal and chemical stabilities of these ZnPcs, a nonaqueous film fabrication process was realized together with improved charge balance in the OLEDs and enhanced OLED lifetimes.

Home is where the heart is: Latinx youth expression and identity in a critical maker project

ABSTRACTMaking has been touted for its potential to democratize STEM yet could be replicating issues of limited participation of persons from educationally underserved populations. This version of making could be problematic for young women of color, limiting participation and aspirations for STEM careers. We present a counterexample with Critical Making, an approach of action, reflection, and community dialog to promote social change. We examine a multimedia design and implementation project as an expression of seven young Latinx1 women’s experiences. Participants were tasked with creating a maker artifact to display data from a community survey and produced an interactive (touch capacitive) heart-shaped word cloud capturing positive qualities of their community. We utilized cultural-historical activity theory to focus on relations of the teen participants, meanings conveyed by the word cloud, and how digital tools interacted with norms, division of labor, and community relationships to mediate understanding. We report tensions between group versus community values and between possible design features and tool limitations. We also report how participants authored intersecting identities as makers, group members, and contributors to their community. Our results document the dynamics of a Critical Maker program and expand understanding of how young Latinx women experience making and STEM learning.