Sheltered-in-Place Considerations for Science Teacher Educators Interested in Educative Making
Abstract: This descriptive brief paper is an abbreviated report about a larger autoethnographic study written by the first author as a post-doctoral research associate working in educative making as part of an NSF grant for which the goal is to attract a diverse population to the career path of mechatronics. Teleworking from home under shelter-in-place orders, she employed the methodology of reflexive embodied autoethnography with applied sensibilities to investigate the cultural experience of her two semesters as a participant observer who built a new university Makerspace in the USA and supported its use by undergraduate science education preservice teachers. Sans the underlying personal experience narrative of the larger study, this account encapsulates its findings with regards to conceptual, physical, and cultural characteristics of the Makerspace and the teaching and learning therein. This report concludes with considerations for the design, utility, and culture of fabrication laboratories which support deep engagement. This account may inform the work of informal and formal science education and educative making learning communities which strive for transformative learning. (Funding - NSF Grant 1842342.)