TY - CHAP
T1 - Exploring design trade-offs in incorporating making activities into high school science curriculums
AU - Flanagan-Hall, Grace Ann
AU - Wu, Jue
AU - Atit, Kinnari
AU - Ramey, Kay E.
AU - Vondracek, Mark
AU - Jona, Kemi
AU - Uttal, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© ISLS.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - This study seeks to explore design tensions in introducing making activities into high school physics classrooms by examining making in semi-informal settings. Through participation in an after-school program and/or summer internship, high school students used Arduino-compatible hardware and software to develop their own scientific instruments for use in classroom physics laboratories. Here we present findings on students’ roles as co-designers and how that influenced their learning and engagement. Furthermore, we discuss issues of accessibility in designing activities in terms of physical and computational affordances. Regardless of prior experience, students were more engaged using pre-assembled robots with defined projects compared with materials and methods traditionally utilized in makerspaces. Additionally, the graphical programming language associated with these robots was more accessible than script-based languages generally used to program Arduinos. This suggests, that to provide equitable access to--and engagement with--electronic making, more material and computational scaffolding are required than what is generally provided in conventional makerspaces for implementation in high school classes.
AB - This study seeks to explore design tensions in introducing making activities into high school physics classrooms by examining making in semi-informal settings. Through participation in an after-school program and/or summer internship, high school students used Arduino-compatible hardware and software to develop their own scientific instruments for use in classroom physics laboratories. Here we present findings on students’ roles as co-designers and how that influenced their learning and engagement. Furthermore, we discuss issues of accessibility in designing activities in terms of physical and computational affordances. Regardless of prior experience, students were more engaged using pre-assembled robots with defined projects compared with materials and methods traditionally utilized in makerspaces. Additionally, the graphical programming language associated with these robots was more accessible than script-based languages generally used to program Arduinos. This suggests, that to provide equitable access to--and engagement with--electronic making, more material and computational scaffolding are required than what is generally provided in conventional makerspaces for implementation in high school classes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053897316&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.isls.org/icls/2018/icls2018.com/index.html
M3 - Other chapter contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85053897316
SN - 9781732467224
VL - 2
T3 - Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS
SP - 961
EP - 964
BT - Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age: Making the Learning Sciences Count
A2 - Kay, Judy
A2 - Luckin, Rosemary
CY - United Kingdom
T2 - 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS 2018: Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age: Making the Learning Sciences Count
Y2 - 23 June 2018 through 27 June 2018
ER -