FUSE Studios: An Alternative Infrastructure for Learning in Schools

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, we examine a unique STEM learning environment that is designed to be interest-driven, learner-centered, and inclusive of many different types of learners. The first paper in this session describes the design of this learning environment and the ways in which we’ve used both qualitative and quantitative evidence to iterate on that design. The next three papers present ethnographic cases, demonstrating the unique features of the learning environment. Respectively, they describe the ways in which the environment allows learners to engage in diverse learning arrangements (Stevens, Satwicz, & McCarthy, 2008), enables them to develop and draw on each other’s relative expertise, and provides them with a toolkit of STEM skills and practices to use in other school contexts.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Learning Environments

Chair

• Reed Stevens, Northwestern University

Papers

• The Crucible of Participant Engagement in Learning Activity Design - Kemi Jona, Northwestern University; Henry Mann, Northwestern University

• Social Variations of Diverse Learning Arrangements in FUSE Classrooms - Lauren Penney, Northwestern University; Dionne N. Champion, Northwestern University

• Developing and Recognizing Relative Expertise - Dionne N. Champion, Northwestern University; Lauren Penney, Northwestern University

• Preparing Children and Adolescents for Future STEM Learning - Kay Ellen Ramey, Northwestern University

Discussant

• William R. Penuel, University of Colorado - Boulder