Making as a Pathway to Engineering and Design

Abstract

This chapter considers the potential of making as a set of activities that can set the stage for work within the discipline of engineering. It considers how making aligns with this view of engineering and presents the theoretical framework of adaptive expertise to guide thinking. It presents vignettes of two brothers participating in an out-of-school maker club, comparing and contrasting their experiences. The chapter considers how our data may inform efforts to integrate making into K-12 engineering education. There are obvious connections to be made here: engineers design and build things, often with the use of technological tools, and makers do the same. While making and the Maker Movement have developed and flourished primarily in out-of-school and informal spaces. There is substantial and growing interest in the education community for bringing making and elements of the Maker Movement into K-12 schools to reinvigorate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula.