This study investigated the impact of participating in a year-long digital-fabrication course on high-school seniors' problem-solving skills, with a focus on problems involving mechanistic systems. The research questions centered on whether working in a makerspace impacted students' abilities to solve such problems and whether the process data…

Background: We investigate the factors that shape teachers' implementation of a school STEM reform--the creation of a high-school makerspace. Educational reformers have increasing interest in making and makerspaces in schools. Prior research shows how factors shape reform at the classroom, school (organizational), and institutional levels, as well…

Over the past decade, makerspaces have increased in popularity all over the globe (Lou & Peek, 2016) and their addition continues to be a popular trend in the K-12 educational space. In the K-12 environment, the decision to implement a makerspace frequently consists of finding, repurposing, or building a suitable space, and outfitting it with…

This descriptive, qualitative case study investigated how three high school teachers in non-STEM subject areas developed integrated STEM (iSTEM) pedagogies for conventional classroom lessons in a high-technology makerspace. The school in focus adopted a STEM teaching policy that required all teachers to implement iSTEM teaching in the school's…

Below the surface of the ocean, currents, eddies, and other physical processes redistribute energy and biologically important elements. Measuring this transport can be challenging, and scientists must address a wide spectrum of oceanographic and engineering concepts when designing instruments to observe these processes. In this activity,…

Colleges and universities spend billions of dollars each year to enroll a shrinking population of college-bound students. However, relatively little is known about the high-ability, high achieving students whose enrollment decisions can have positive effects on retention, graduation, faculty satisfaction, alumni giving, and overall institutional…

Most vocational high school (SMK) graduates do not have high financial competitiveness and are still unemployed, even contributing to the highest unemployment rate compared to graduates from other schools. This study aims to identify resource sharing between schools, vocational training agencies, and industry in preparing vocational high school…

The integration of making activities in classrooms provides a crucial opportunity for all students to gain equitable participation access to learning activities. However, for making to be incorporated into more classrooms, teachers must be adequately prepared with relevant knowledge and skills. This study is the first to compare the science…

Online educational marketplaces such as TeachersPayTeachers.com (TPT) have become popular among teachers, but the quality of materials offered is inconsistent. This descriptive study explored quality indicators for site materials. Examining a sample of TPT's 100 best-selling 11th-grade U.S. history activities, we compared overall quality scores…

Purpose: In contrast to traditional portfolio practices that focus on the individual, this paper aims to reenvision portfolio practices to encompass sociocultural aspects of learning by considering how young makers, both in- and out-of-school, imbue digital cultural practices into the documenting and showcasing of their work, as well as observe…

Learning spaces, the practices in which people engage, and the representations they use are ideological. Ideologies are coherent constellations of values, beliefs, and practices that impose order on how disciplines like engineering operate. Historically, engineering spaces have been dominated by a relatively technocratic, rationalistic, and…

As the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) grows to the world's economy grows, structural and educational barriers prevent people of color from having an equitable presence in STEM fields. STEM education for Black and Brown students remains often basic and teacher-directed, despite efforts over the last decade…

Adoption of Maker programs entails deep cultural and structural changes within schools. In this case study, we interviewed a principal and seven faculty members in a high school in the United States, after the first year of implementing making-centered curricula. We report how faculty members responded to the reform, their motivations and beliefs,…

In this dissertation I explore the fugitive technology practices of Black high-schoolers in a tech-rich after-school makerspace. To do so, I invoke ontologies from two cyborgs to make sense of these Black teens' practices. First, James and Costa Vargas (2012) offer the Black Cyborg-- the rebel intellectual rejecting victimization through…

Purpose: Building on the growing interest in school-based "making" and "makerspaces," this paper aims to map the emergence of a literacy-oriented makerspace in a non-selective urban public high school. It examines how competing conceptions of literacy came to be negotiated as students and teachers shaped this new space for…