Research-Based Strategies for Teaching

The Takeaway: In a study of university makerspaces (accessible spaces with the tools that makers need), it was generally found that women and ethnic minorities tended to recommend social change in makerspaces, while men of all ethnicities tended to recommend equipment and technology changes. The authors offer a number of recommendations for creating more inclusive and welcoming environments in makerspaces and other engineering spaces.

Topic

• Makerspaces: accessible spaces with the tools that makers need to build, tinker, and collaborate with others. These spaces have recently become popular in conjunction with engineering programs at academic institutions.
• There has been concern regarding the social implications of makerspace practices, and the possible perpetuation of harmful trends seen in engineering spaces, such as excluding women and marginalized identities from the space through active or passive tactics.
• These trends may serve to drive away students that may otherwise be interested in and benefit from maker culture and engineering.

Method

In this study, Jennings et al. visited and conducted ten observations at seven university-affiliated makerspaces, conducted semi-structured interviews with 67 engineering students, and conducted interviews with seven makerspaces managers, staff, and faculty affiliates. The makerspaces were embedded within universities that included minority serving institutions, doctoral universities, private institutions, and public institutions.

Results

Equipment-focused Recommendations: Diversifying & Repairing Equipment in the Makerspace

This could include fixing broken equipment, introducing new software, or simply adding new equipment to make the space more versatile. Additionally, students without university-provided access to materials may not be able to utilize makerspaces because they are not able to afford their own materials for projects.

Logistical Recommendations: Improving the Physical Space

Logistical recommendations included incorporating housekeeping practices, such as organizational strategies, general cleanliness, improved storage, and machine upkeep, as well as how to improve the makerspace environment. Students recommended improving storage space, as well as including more places to study and collaborate.

Curricular Recommendations: Integrating Makerspaces into Courses

Curricular recommendations referred to suggestions by students to make curriculum changes that would allow for increased student exposure to the makerspace and to leverage making as a way to help students learn engineering concepts while applying them within projects. Both women and men had a near equal tendency to request a more integrated curriculum that incorporates utilizing the makerspace into assignments.

Social Recommendations: Developing a Multidisciplinary and Collaborative Makerspace

The multidisciplinary social recommendations demonstrated student explanations for why they would like to have students from more majors engaged in the makerspaces, as well as presented student considerations of ways to encourage more collaboration within the makerspace.

Women tended to recommend that makerspaces focus on building a more inclusive, collaborative environment. These recommendations could refer to utilizing workshops or classes to specifically create a more inclusive environment for women; however, a bulk of the recommendations from women emphasized the need for improving the culture in engineering spaces. Many women told stories about discriminatory instances they have had in both maker and engineering spaces. Women, and particularly women at the intersection of marginalized identities, tended to tell stories of men from engineering spaces making them feel “othered.”

Conclusions

Generally, recommendations for equipment tended to come from men while recommendations for social improvement came from women. There was no distinction in recommendation trends between ethnicities for men and women. Men and women belonging to underrepresented groups tended to suggest more social changes in maker and engineering spaces.

Does your department have access to or perhaps might consider creating a makerspace for students? How might you design or improve the makerspace based on these recommendations? How might incorporating projects within a makerspace into your own courses engage aspects of your current teaching in new and innovative ways?