While engineering classroom and makerspace environments cultivate opportunities to design, build, and iterate, the two spaces espouse very unique cultures that elicit different levels of engagement across underrepresented populations. Makerspaces foster innovation, creativity, and curiosity through projects which are hands-on, realistic, collaborative and impactful. Engineering academic makerspaces are great opportunities for enhancing engagement with current engineering material, as well as introducing new engineering pedagogies, i.e., learning through failure, so long as they do not propagate the same culture that is often found in traditional engineering education settings and interventions. The culture of engineering, which is inherently rigid and competitive, is counter to the culture of making, which encourages collaboration, innovation and critical thinking. Makerspaces utilized in engineering academic environments have been found to foster engineering agency in allowing participants complete project autonomy, collaborative idea exchange, and access to cutting-edge technologies, tools, and networks. The communities of practice formed in these engineering academic makerspaces help to promote a sense of belonging in engineering, which leads to better engagement, and more impactful experiences for the participants. Retrofitting traditional engineering interventions will not be sufficient to utilize the full potential that makerspaces espouse, so we seek to further explore the connection between engineering and making, and how making can be utilized to facilitate a more inclusive culture around engineering. This session will engage participants while introducing what have been promising practices identified across engineering academic makerspaces nationally, and specifically, where students form underrepresented groups in engineering have found their engagement to be effective. In this session we will address how antiracist and inclusive spaces in the making have been cultivated while leveraging the breadth of diversity in background and experience of the participants to ideate new approaches moving forward, and specifically, those that can advance the field of electrical engineering.
Michael Greene, Ph.D.
Student in Engineering Education Systems and Design
Arizona State University
Michael Greene is a Doctoral student in the Engineering Educations Systems and Design program at Arizona Sate University, Polytechnic Campus. Primary interests include Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Engineering & culturally relevant pedagogies.
Brooke Coley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Engineering Education
Arizona State University
Dr. Brooke C. Coley, is an Assistant Professor in Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She is also Principal Investigator of the Shifting Perceptions, Attitudes and Cultures in Engineering (SPACE) Lab, which aspires to elevate the experiences of marginalized populations, dismantle systemic injustices and transform the way inclusion is cultivated in engineering through the implementation of novel technologies and methodologies in engineering education.