Identity Exploration Processes in Maker Activities: Constructing Meaning in Environmental Education

• In Event: Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning in STEM

Abstract

This paper reports findings from Invent with Environment, a maker-based after-school program which sought to develop and test maker courses for supporting high school and middle school students’ identity exploration in environmental science. Specifically, the paper presents the identity exploration trajectories of three participating in-service environmental educators who were seeking to integrate maker-based activities into their instruction. Projective Reflection (PR) served as the theoretical model to establish the extent to which participants’ current practice involved facilitating learning as identity exploration and change in environmental science. We conclude with implications for supporting educators’ cognitive skills and motivational attributes that can inform the use of making for a nuanced form of learning such as identity exploration in domains like environmental science.

Authors

• Mark Eugene Petrovich, Drexel University

• Amanda Barany, Drexel University

• Mamta Shah, Elsevier

• Aroutis Nathaniel Foster, Drexel University