Help-Seeking as a Form of Agency in a High School Maker Class (Poster 4)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Curricular and Pedagogical Designs for STEM+C Learning (San Diego)

Abstract

This paper examines how participation in a weekly “maker” class shaped students’ sense of themselves and their capabilities. Considerable attention has been paid to the potential for maker activities to open up new possibilities for more authentic, community-oriented, and agentic forms of STEM learning for K12-aged youth. Data for this paper come from 29 interviews with 24 distinct high school students across two years of data collection in a high school maker class that we co-designed and ran in collaboration with a high school teacher. We discuss three emergent themes: technical skills (e.g., sewing, electronics), general problem solving skills (e.g., brainstorming, making sense of information online), and asking for help (which saw interesting and unexpected gender dynamics in answers).

Author

• Lee Michael Martin, University of California - Davis