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The integration of making activities in classrooms provides a crucial opportunity for all students to gain equitable participation access to learning activities. However, for making to be incorporated into more classrooms, teachers must be adequately prepared with relevant knowledge and skills. This study is the first to compare the science learning outcomes associated with making to those stemming from standard learning curricula and experiences within a classroom setting. We examine the learning outcomes of 219 students across multiple sections of one teacher's 9th-grade science classes. While five sections of students were taught using the school's standard learning curriculum, four sections of students engaged in an integrated maker curriculum. A mixed methods approach offers a comprehensive look at the affordances and limitations of maker-based classroom science instruction by coupling student science learning outcomes with student and teacher reflections on instruction and learning. Findings indicate that students had better learning outcomes in science class when learning occurred through maker technologies than the school's standard learning curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to understand the daily violence endured by queer youth. We use Queer Battle Fatigue, Ahmed's cultural politics of emotion, and STEM identity theories to make meaning of youth's experience. We draw from audio recordings and transcriptions of 15 queer youth over the course of a summer and fall LGBTQ + maker camp in a rural town in the Intermountain Western part of the United States. Findings show that the maker camp environment provided queer campers casual conversations about microaggressions and violence endured at school. In this context, STEM served as a cover (concealed goals) in three ways: emotion, validation/advice, and safety. This particular environment provided them recognition and validation of both their STEM and queer identities, allowing the group to be able to casually mention these instances of violence they had endured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's literature provides elementary teachers and students the opportunity to critically engage in the world around them. However, too often teachers choose not to engage students in discussions of complex social issues out of a sense of fear or discomfort. In this paper, we explore the reflections of 11 teachers who chose to engage their students in discussions of three complex social issues: immigration, migration, and forced relocation. Specifically, we highlight the successes, challenges, and surprises teachers reported after completing a three-week long unit that integrated discussions of complex social issues with computer science and science. Findings suggest that despite teacher reservations, students are interested in talking about complex social issues and through engagement with children's literature are able to engage in thoughtful, personal, and critical conversation about these issues. Further, through discussing critical social issues, teachers and students were able to build the culturally responsive social-emotional skills essential for effective participation in a diverse democratic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics educators often struggle with how to tackle complex content such as electric potential. As a result, high school students are typically not engaged in developing a deep understanding of this concept. Historically, such engagement has been perceived as too challenging and abstract. To date no process exists for engaging students in a meaningful way around such content. However, Making provides a new way to engage students in learning about electric potential that has not yet been done. Drawing upon observations and interviews, this article shares the instructional opportunities afforded one high school physics teacher in teaching electric potential through the construction and coding of electronic textiles (e-textiles) maker projects. The study furthers current research in physics education by examining both the instructional methods and outcomes of instruction for high school physics students when e-textiles is used as a model for teaching electric potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades online technology and digital media have provided space for students to participate and express their voices. This paper further explores how new digital technologies, such as humanoid robots and wearable electronics, can be used to offer additional spaces where students' voices are heard. In these spaces, young students are invited to shape the design of digital tools and artifacts through the inclusion of their unique perspectives. The authors argue that involving youth in the design and use of tools contributes not only to the creation of meaningful learning experiences but also to the future potential of youth as producers of digital learning technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]