فرصتهایی برای زنان برای ایجاد حرفه
Abstract
Graphical abstract
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical perspective
3. Methodological approach
4. Findings
5. Results and discussion
6. Conclusion
Funding
Acknowledgements
References
Abstract
Making is a playful exploration of tools and materials to design personally meaningful artifacts, providing a particularly impactful entry point for traditionally underrepresented youth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, it remains unclear how these constructionist explorations translate to eventual professional and educational STEM opportunities, especially for women. This paper tracks an exemplary case in a makerspace to theorize, describe, and analyze the behavioral patterns of young women as they engage in making and move toward expertise in STEM. Building on a material-based and constructionist notion of making, we use mediated discourse analysis to examine how recognition (materialized in artifacts as displaying, legitimizing, and circulating emergent STEM expertise) leads to transformational development over time. We introduce the notion of tinkering with development, which conceptualizes playful project design, spatial project placements, and emergent online project sharing as drivers of human developmental trajectories. Implications of this work include a set of design principles to support makerspaces and other constructionist learning environments to foster participation in STEM. Further, implications for constructionist theory and STEM gender representation are discussed.
Among the hustle and bustle of a digital filmmaking course, a few youth crowded around an artifact that was pushed against a wall in the urban youth-serving makerspace: a digital jukebox piano, a technologyaugmented player piano that played pop songs and lit up an LED light strip when users pressed keys. The artifact was constructed out of an upright piano similar to those commonly found in schools and was covered in black chalkboard paint that featured drawings of the White House and the US flag. Other emerging technologies were layered on the jukebox piano (see graphical abstract). Most centrally, a Makey Makey computational breakout board adorned the top center and an LED strip was taped along the piano’s fallboard. The Makey Makey board and the LED strip were connected to the copper tape-covered piano keys by the visible wires and alligator clips typically used in prototyping. Inside the piano box, copper tape was precariously soldered to the alligator clips, and a bunched up white shirt was placed on top of unused keys to prevent them from sounding notes. When turned on, the screen that was mounted onto the piano’s musical board displayed songs that anyone could play by pressing individual piano keys. Once selected, the LED strip lit up to the rhythm of the music. A small, neatly written card on the upper-left corner read the artifact’s name and the name of its maker: Sierra,1 a 15-year-old aspiring photographer who was one of the first female participants at the makerspace who had little interest in electronic tinkering when first joining the program. This lack of interest shifted into a desire to study electronic engineering in college. In what ways did the construction and placement of the digital jukebox piano change in impact Sierra’s developmental trajectory?