Assessing Impact of Maker Space on Student Learning

In today’s global market, advances in manufacturing processes and technology in general have transformed innovation and allow industries to prototype new product ideas more rapidly and less expensively than ever before. As a result, product development processes are changing drastically; engineering graduates will benefit by further developing their skills for innovation and project/process development. At the national level, The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University Report1 states that while the United States remains the global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, there is increasing global competition. To address this, literature 2-7 shows that universities across the country have recognized the need for maker spaces and have invested resources to develop such facilities in order to provide engineering undergraduates with opportunities for experiential and project-based learning to better promote creativity and innovative skills. Maker spaces vary in size, resources, programs, and targeted population and they represent a significant development in engineering education. Some are located in places such as libraries7 with a focus to attract partnerships form the local community. In this large public institution, the college of engineering established a 20,000 square-foot makerspace in 2013 solely dedicated to engineering undergraduates. The facility offers students access to: 1) fabrication equipment such as 3D Printers, CNC and manual lathes and mills, and electronic circuit board fabrication; 2) microcontrollers and sensors; 3) collaborative spaces which include studio, conference and meeting rooms; 4) wide range of software tools to support engineering analysis, and 5) experienced professional staff able to guide student’s use of equipment and tools. Students utilize facility resources for curricular activities such as capstone design projects, multidisciplinary project based elective courses, and extra-curricular programs such as design competitions. Since 2013, the number of students requesting access to the facility has increased significantly, with more than 1500 students registered for 2015 fall. To provide students with specific skills and knowledge, often related to the capacities of the makerspace, the college launched a series of pop up classes in fall 2015. The pop up class program has been very successful with more than 750 students registered for 2015 fall semester. This study will assess how utilization of the facility influences student development. While anecdotal evidence suggests facility resources empower participants to pursue more innovative designs, this study is the first systematic assessment on campus of student self-reported confidence and motivation to pursue certain tasks such as engineering design. Findings will contribute to the growing body of knowledge about maker spaces and their influences on engineering education. Introduction In today’s global market, advances in manufacturing processes and technology in general have transformed innovation and allow industries to test new product ideas more rapidly and less expensively than ever before. As a result, traditional processes of developing and testing new products are changing drastically and engineering graduates entering the workforce will benefit by possessing skills in creativity and innovation. At the national level, The Innovative and Entrepreneurial University Report1 states that while the United States remains the global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, there is increasing global competition. One approach to maintain our leadership position is to establish maker spaces as physical learning environments where students can generate and fabricate design ideas rapidly. The assumption is that creation of maker spaces will support student development with respect to engineering design, innovation, and entrepreneurship. As an example of the trend toward educational maker spaces, a recent review on university maker spaces3 investigated maker spaces at 127 institutions ranked as the top 100 (multiple institutions for same ranking) in the 2014 US News and World’s Report. In this report, 35 of these schools offer 40 significantly different makerspaces. Some are offered within colleges while others are open to students across campus or even the community. In addition, the management of the facilities varies since some are faculty or staff run while others are student-run. Finally, there is a wide range of resources offered at these facilities but in general many offer 3D printers, laser cutters, wood and metal shops, and collaborative spaces. While many universities are considering offering makerspaces, influences of makerspaces with respect to professional growth of students is still not well understood. In an attempt to partially fill this gap, the study reported in this paper will address the following research questions: • RQ1: How frequently do students use the facility and what types of resources do they use? • RQ2: What is the perceived impact on their professional and personal growth because of them having access to the facility? • RQ3: What is the level of self-confidence of students who use the facility in the skills that facility was developed to support? • RQ4: Are there any differences based on gender and ethnicity? In this study, we utilize an assessment instrument4 used by another institution to collect data and compare findings. While the two maker spaces have many similarities and are housed within large public engineering schools, a professional staff runs one while the other is student run. The authors of this study believe the comparison and findings will add to the broader knowledge of the impact of maker spaces. Facility Description The facility is a 20,000-square-foot makerspace, which opened in 2013 to primarily support senior capstone design and multidisciplinary teams across engineering departments in the college of engineering. The facility includes collaborative spaces to support team projects, access to fabrication resources and materials, and programs to promote effective use of facility resources to support college goals for innovative and entrepreneurial minded engineering graduates. The facility consists of three main areas: design studio, fabrication center, and technology center. The Design Studio is the main collaborative space to support students working on team projects. This area contains workbenches, both reserved for team long-term use and open access, lockers, and stations. Lockers, lockable tubs and storage rooms are available for teams to store their projects. Stations are dispersed throughout the Design Studio with tools or equipment most often used to make them more accessible to a large number of students. Stations have weights and measures, electronic measurement equipment, soldering, hand tools, sewing, and 3D printers (Fig 1.). In addition, the Design Studio offers a large open area to accommodate up to 75 students for presentations. The Fabrication Center, Fig 2, is a 4,500 ft2 space that includes equipment for metalworking, machining, welding, paint booth, woodworking, commercial 3D printers, CNC mill & lathe, laser cutting, foam cutting, PCB milling and composite manufacturing capabilities. Access to this area is strictly controlled for safety. Only students with proper safety training have access. The Technology Center area consists of the computing center which maintains 12 highend computer workstations, a digital media room for video and audio production, 3D scanning capabilities, two conference rooms with video conferencing equipment to support interactions with industry sponsors, and the Checkout Equipment and Help Center which is open sixteen hours a day Monday thru Friday. To promote effective student use of these facilities and offer opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills, the college has launched several programs. These include signature programs such as pop up classes, a 48-hour design challenge, a video contest, hosting seven student organizations, six competition teams, and four summer camps. Two full time professional staff maintain and manage the facility while twenty-five student technicians are available extended hours and over the weekend to support students. The facility is open Monday thru Friday 8 AM – 12 AM. On the weekends, it is open 2 PM– 12 AM. Figure 13D Printer Stations Figure 2Fabrication Center Survey Methodology The authors used a modified version of the survey described in [4]. Modifications were made because some of the questions in the original survey were specific to the facility presented in [4]. Based on records kept by the staff of the maker space, the most frequent users of the space were students enrolled in capstone design courses. Therefore, the authors decided to focus on students enrolled in the capstone design courses in the departments of electrical (ECEN) and mechanical (MEEN) engineering because they are the ones who most heavily use the facility. During 2016 spring semester, 260 students in these two courses were invited to participate in this study. 46.7% of electrical and 41% of mechanical engineering students enrolled in capstone design completed the survey. Survey participants include 78 ECEN students (10% females and 16% Hispanic/Black) enrolled in ECEN 403 & 404 and 45 MEEN seniors (18% female and 13% Hispanic/Black) enrolled in MEEN 402. This paper will present the data collected from students enrolled in the capstone design courses. Research Findings Survey Respondent Demographics Survey participants include 78 ECEN students (10% females and 16% Hispanic/Black) enrolled in ECEN 403 & 404 and 45 MEEN seniors (18% female and 13% Hispanic/Black) enrolled in MEEN 402. Facility Utilization RQ1: How frequently do students use the facility and what resources to they use? As shown in Fig. 3, about 25% of MEEN capstone students use the facility between 5-10 hours compared to 55% of ECEN students. It is wor