Advancing Alternative Pathways to Science: Community Partnership, Do-It-Yourself (DIY)/Do-It-Together (DIT) Collaboration, and STEM Learning "from Below"
Todd Honma · Transformations The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy · 2017
This article examines how makerspace projects can be used as possible sites for creating alternative pathways to science for marginalized and historically underrepresented high school students. A community engagement course focusing on environmental racism and social justice in particular illustrates how key partnerships can develop among college, high school, and community-based organizations. By embracing the ethos of the maker community, students are encouraged to create spaces of skill sharing and cooperation to build a homemade air sensor to chart levels of air pollution at a local high school located less than 100 feet from a busy highway. By appreciating the "funds of knowledge" that every student brings to the project, makerspaces allow for democratic spaces of peer-to-peer learning and the development of culturally relevant modes of scientific learning.