Giving Compass' Take:

• Various teachers and STEM educators offer their insights as to how to recruit more students in makerspaces in an effort to increase inclusion within STEM education. 

• How can educators work to shift perspectives about science and technology? Why it is important for more students to be interested in STEM with regard to the future workforce? 

• Read about the research that found prevalent gender bias within maker spaces. 

Laser cutters, robots, 3D printers: when people talk about educational makerspaces, images of expensive, high-tech gadgetry comes to mind. In Colleen Graves’ library, they make use of a much cheaper resource.

While the term “makerspace” is broad – any space where you make things can qualify – it’s usually thought of as a place where students interested in engineering and science can experiment freely with advanced tools to build physical objects or practice coding.

The school librarian from Leander, Texas, was speaking on a panel about how to make makerspaces affordable and accessible in low-income and rural schools. To get her kids interested in building and engineering, Graves uses lots of recycled goods or material found in nature. While she does have access to some gadgets, any invention her students make starts off with a prototype made from cardboard.

Rafranz Davis is a technology coach in rural Lufkin, Texas. Her school district is majority black and Hispanic. As a black woman, she hoped her presence at the makerspace would encourage more students of color to join. But that did not happen automatically. To recruit more students of color, Davis worked with local community groups like Concerned Black Men of Lufkin. She also got teachers invested in the project, so they’d develop enough passion to pass on to the students. To do that, Davis asked teachers, “What have you made lately?” Some cooked, some sewed or quilted, and one teacher even made jewelry to sell at flea markets.

Makerspaces often encourage students to feel they are part of a community of “makers.” That can be empowering for some, but if students don’t see being a “maker” as part of their core identity, they may assume that the makerspace is not for them.

Read the full article about makerspace by Sharon Lurye at The Hechinger Report