Navigating Standards-Based Making Practices in Elementary Classrooms

• In Event: 66.034 - The Design of Making Environments

Abstract

This study investigates the integration of interdisciplinary, standards-based Maker kits in elementary classrooms to better understand how teachers and students navigate the tensions between traditional academic practices and the playful, imaginative, and collaborative design thinking that characterizes Making. Kits, which included lesson plans linking all activities and materials (e.g., picture books, craft materials, tablets, 3D printers, circuits and other electronic materials) to ELA, science, math, and social studies standards, were introduced into 1st and 3rd grade classrooms over the course of an academic year. Our findings demonstrate that students’ interactions with standards-based Maker kits offered new opportunities for participating in transdisciplinary design thinking and for legitimizing practices valued in informal and formal literacy settings.

Authors

• Robin Jocius, The Citadel

• Jennifer Albert, The Citadel

• Ashley Andrews, The Citadel