Evaluating the Benefit of the Maker Movement in K-12 STEM Education

Bart Taylor

Abstract


The Maker Movement is a community of enthusiasts who personify a do-it-yourself mentality and who embody the model of lifelong learning.  The community is comprised of hobbyists, tinkerers, engineers and artists who think critically to design, and engage in hand-on projects for learning and leisure.  There is a growing interest to incorporate this model of learning into K-12 education as a way to increase engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, education through the use of Makerspace modeled laboratories.  This article will investigate three criteria in determining whether there is value in integrating the Maker Movement into classroom instruction: 1) perceptions of Makerspaces; 2) comparison of the Maker Movement to 21st Century Learning skills; and 3) the viability of school district implementation. 


Keywords


STEM; Maker; Maker Movement

Full Text:

PDF

References


Avery, Z. K., & Reeve, E. M. (2013). Developing effective STEM professional development programs. Journal for Technology Education, 25, 1.

Burke, J. (2015). Making sense: Can makerspaces work in academic libraries?. Computer Workstations, 73, 67.

Charter, M., & Keiller, S. (2014). Grassroots innovation and the circular economy: a global survey of repair cafés and hackerspaces. The Centre for Sustainable Design.

Dougherty, D. (2012). The maker movement. Innovations, 7(3), 11-14.

Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 495-504.

How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01panel.h04.html

Making in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://makermedia.com/about-us/making-in-education/

Martin, L. (2015). The promise of the maker movement for education. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), 5(1), 4.

National Science and Technology Council. (2013). A Report from the Committee on STEM Education National Science and Technology Council. Federal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education 5-Year Strategic Plan.

Peppler, K., & Bender, S. (2013). Maker movement spreads innovation one project at a time. The Phi Delta Kappan, (3), 22.

Peppler, K., Maltese, A., Keune, A., Chang, S., Regalla, L., & Initiative, M. E. (2015). Survey of makerspaces, part I. Open Portfolios Maker Education Initiative.

Peppler, K., Maltese, A., Keune, A., Chang, S., Regalla, L., & Initiative, M. E. (2015). Survey of makerspaces, part II. Open Portfolios Maker Education Initiative.

Peppler, K., Maltese, A., Keune, A., Chang, S., Regalla, L., & Initiative, M. E. (2015). Survey of makerspaces, part III. Open Portfolios Maker Education Initiative.

Pines, E., Sullivan, P., & Nogales, L. (2015). Broadening participation through engagement in the maker space movement. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings.

Santo, R., Peppler, K., Ching, D., & Hoadley, C. (2015) Maybe a maker space? Organizational learning about maker education within a regional out-of-school network. HRL Makerspace Expansive Learning Fablearn Submission.

Wan, G., & Gut, D. M. (2011). Bringing schools into the 21st century. Dordrecht; Springer.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2016 Electronic International Journal of Education, Arts, and Science (EIJEAS)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.