This pathways project will design, develop and test Do-It-Yourself, (DIY), hands-on workshops to introduce and teach middle school females in underserved Latino communities computing and design by customizing and repurposing e-waste media technology, such as old cell phones or appliances -- items found in the students homes or neighborhoods. The major outcome of the project will be the creation of a workshop kit that covers the processes of DIY electronics learning taking place in the workshops for distribution of the curriculum to after school programs and other informal science venues.
The PIs have implemented three pilot projects over the last three years that demonstrate the ability of hands-on DIY electronics curricula to motivate and encourage students and to enable them to acquire a deeper understanding of core engineering, mathematics and science concepts. This project would extend the approach to underserved Latino youth, particular girls of middle school age. This audience was identified because of the historically low rate of participation in STEM fields by people in this group and the particular challenges that females have in acquiring knowledge in technical STEM areas. The proposal suggests that the approach of using hands-on workshops that rely on low technical requirements -- essentially obsolete or discarded electronic equipment, primarily from homes of participants -- will encourage the target audience to experiment with items they are familiar with and that are culturally relevant.
The hypothesis of the project is that this approach will lower barriers to experimenting with "circuit bending" - the hand-modifying of battery-powered children's toys to build custom electronic instruments and lead to greater participation and success of females in the target group. The project will provide free workshops in two neighborhood locations and be supported by undergraduate student mentors and volunteers and staff of two community groups that are part of the project, Machine Project and Girls, Inc. Participants will demonstrate the finished projects to the workshop group, mentors and parents. Each participant will receive a copy of the workshop handbook in both English and Spanish to take home so that parents, members of the community and caregivers can supervise and participate in future projects.
This project studies the use of electronics workshops in engaging underprivileged Latino middle and high school students in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The project focuses on the practice of circuit bending – taking apart and creatively manipulating the circuits of children's toys to produce novel sound output. The main goal of the project was to design, develop and test curricula and materials that inspire learning in adolescents. Second hand, discarded or low cost electronics were used in the workshops as a low cost platform for informal science education. We implemented creativity and music to engage youth in STEM, and believe artistic-based approaches are effective in informal science education. Our research shows that these workshops can help raise confidence, interest and engagment in STEM. The mentorship component of our program was particularly succesful. Our mentorship program recruited high school students from workshops they attended as participants to train under undergraduate students to then mentor middle school students in future workshops. Results fromt this mentorship program demonstrated that the use of slightly older peer mentors is particularly effective in engaging youth in STEM. This project and results also demonstrate that creativity and open-endedness are important components to fostering engagement in STEM. When allowed to tinker with toys under supervision and within the guidelines of the workshop and educational curricula, adolescents find themselves more creative and more able to engage in STEM. For more information and/or to view, download and distribute our results and curriculum, please visit www.conceptlab.com/circuitbending.
