Making the Makers

How Increased Agency and Social Impact-Driven Makerspaces Grow Engineering Identity and Self-Efficacy in Marginalized Students

Synopsis of project aims:

  1. Baseline evaluation of past, informal non-social impact makerspace training, which includes a survey of past participants in an extracurricular maker training program at MIT (Makerlodge) that offers high student agency, but no social impact projects.
  2. A 4-year, longitudinal study of cohorts of undergraduates engaged in informal makerspace learning at MIT and UM, comparing groups that engage in social impact projects and those that do not.
  3. A 4-year, longitudinal study of formal, maker-oriented classes at MIT and UM, comparing cohorts that have social impact in student maker-oriented projects.

Project Team:

  • Win Win Tjong
  • Eileen Zhang
  • Alayah W Hines
  • Vera G McCoy
  • Layal Barakat
  • Susan Silbey
  • Marty Culpepper
  • Tolga Durak