Engagement in Practice: The SMU Maker Education Project
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Community Engagement Division
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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7
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--34538
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/34538
- Download Count
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493
Paper Authors
Rob Rouse Southern Methodist University
Rob is a Clinical Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. In addition, Rob is the past Interim Director of the SMU Maker Education Project, a project based out of the Caruth Institute of Engineering Education at SMU's Lyle School of Engineering.
Juan Torralba University of Miami
Juan Torralba is a middle school STEM teacher, PhD candidate in STEM education and educational researcher at the University of Miami. His research focus is on equity in STEM education, with specific interest in access to opportunity for minoritized students.
Kathryn Krummeck
Katie Krummeck is an educational designer and a national thought leader in leveraging the power of design to drive change in the K-12 system. She is also an expert in using the design process and maker-based instruction to create student-centered learning experiences that develop students’ creative confidence, optimism, and problem-solving skills. Katie has led design teams to tackle diverse projects such as reimagining a PreK-12 school schedule, redesigning the substitute teacher program for a district and helping a theater company diversify their patronage. Katie has coached school leaders, educators, non-profit leaders and corporate executives to develop their design mindsets and the capacity to leverage design to drive innovation.
Katie began her career as a secondary teacher and co-founder of a small, experimental independent school, where students collaborated across age groups to engage in project-based, interdisciplinary learning. She has since helped scale a national education non-profit start-up, helped develop the K12 Lab at the Hasso Plattner Institute for Design at Stanford University (“the d.school”), and directed a collegiate makerspace. Katie also founded the Maker Education Project at Southern Methodist University, an initiative dedicated to catalyzing transformational maker-based learning experiences for students in K-12 schools. She is currently working as an independent consultant based in Portland, Oregon.
DiMitri Higginbotham Good Shepherd Episcopal School
Mr. DiMitri Higginbotham
DiMitri Higginbotham is an Educational Innovator and Design Thinker currently working as a faculty member at Good Shepherd Episcopal School (GSES) in Dallas, Texas. He manages the SPARQ (Solving Problems Asking Real-World Questions) Makerspace for the school and helps to incorporate maker education and design thinking into the school curricula.
Previously DiMitri was the Senior Teaching Lab Manager and Program Manager for the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education at Southern Methodist University where he managed the mobile makerspace MakerTruck and helped develop curriculum for the Lyle School Summer Engineering Camps.
DiMitri has a Bachelor's in Music Education from the University of North Texas and a Master's of Arts in Design and Innovation from Southern Methodist University. At SMU DiMitri focused on using design thinking to research Makerspaces in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area.
DiMitri and his wonderful wife Hollie currently live in Rowlett, Texas with their son Mason and daughter Amelia. DiMitri loves spending time at the lake with his family, playing percussion, reading, listening to music and podcasts, and watching documentaries.
Abstract
In this paper, we share three models for partnering with schools to support educators integrating makerspaces and maker-based activities into their instruction. Our motivation for this work is related to a specific need in the community: K-12 educators who attempt to integrate makerspaces into their day-to-day instruction often do not know where to look for support. We adopted the stance that as a university with a thriving makerspace we could serve as a source of inspiration, activities, and best practices for these educators. Thus, we formed a partnership between our university’s school of engineering and school of education to create the SMU Maker Education Project. Operating the SMU Maker Education Project has allowed us to partner with a wide variety of educators across a large geography and tailor support based on the particular needs of disparate schools and districts. We report here on some of those partnerships. We begin the paper by sharing details related to the context of the project and its initial formation. Next, we outline three different event types that represent distinct ways of engaging with schools across time. These event types progress from “brief” to “continued” to “sustained” along a continuum of interaction. For each event type, we present a case illustrating the event type, a list of pros and cons, and an overview of lessons learned. We end by discussing a series of next steps.
Rouse, R., & Torralba, J., & Krummeck, K., & Higginbotham, D. (2020, June), Engagement in Practice: The SMU Maker Education Project Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34538
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