Making, innovation, and science education: Considering two layers of analysis

Abstract

This study aims to document two layers of analysis concerning the educative benefits of making in makerspaces. While makerspaces are often closely associated with particular digital fabrication technologies in the public imagination, this study takes an expanded definition to include any sort of making that involves modifying materials according to one’s own plans, and not simply following instructions for assembly. While this would include conventional Design and Technology, Fabric work, and even Food and Nutrition, I have chosen to focus on the production of new scientific knowledge, especially through investigations that deal with electronic instrumentation and the imbuing of programmed behaviour through the use of simple electrical operations, or complicated micro-controller based designs. In Part 1 (reported here), I ask the question: what are the reasoning processes of students as they engage in creative problem solving tasks involving the making of an artefact?