Make-to-Learn: Broadening Participation and Deepening Learning Through Making

Incorporating novel, cross-disciplinary technologies, such as e-textiles, in science education can broaden participation, particularly by women, and improve learning outcomes. Despite several national initiatives to diversify participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the underlying culture of STEM education remains relatively stagnant, with a curriculum that continues to emphasize areas historically aligned more closely with male interests than women’s. Fortunately, contemporary culture is rife with new tools and materials that are spurring shifts in the ways we interact with technology. One example that has gained international prominence over the past five years is electronic textiles (or "e-textiles"): fabric artifacts that include embedded computers and other electronics. Instead of focusing on practices such as soldering and desoldering, this computing genre involves sewing, quilting, crocheting, knitting, and other techniques that have traditionally been the domain of seamstresses, knitters, and crafters. Perhaps because of these ties, women make up a resounding majority (65 percent) of this burgeoning informal community. Our efforts at Indiana University to broaden STEM participation in youth communities leverage e-textiles as an alternative approach to STEM education. Recent findings indicate that introducing such novel, cross-disciplinary technologies can broaden participation, particularly by women. This approach to STEM through hands-on making also additionally improves learning outcomes for all students and thus has ramifications that extend beyond the issue of gender in computing