MakerPlaces in Community Centers: Igniting STEM workshops (May 29-31, 2024)
In late May the school year has just ended across many schools in the Navajo Nation, and two local community centers—Tse’ii’ahi’ Community Center in Standing Rock, NM, and Tooh Haltsooi Community Center in Sheep Springs, NM—offer a unique enrichment opportunity for children, families, and any member of the community: learning engineering. The two day workshop titled “Igniting STEM” is a collaboration between these community centers and Key’ah Rural Manufacturing Alliance, KARMA for short, intended to spark interest in engineering and technology through culturally relevant engineering education. Partner organization Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) assists with the design and implementation of the workshops, which are co-run by Robert Hayes (CEEO), Keanu Jones (KARMA).
Day 1 — Computer Aided Design and 3D Printing
The first day centers engineering design practices and digital design technologies, including Computer Aided Design (CAD) with TinkerCAD and 3D printing using MakerBot Replicator. Participants learn engineering design through a lens of the Diné Engineering Design Process, a tool co-developed by Tom Tomas and Wilphena Bicenti of Little Singer Community School and Dr. Shawn Jordan of Arizona State University, which reframes a western engineern design process in terms of Navajo cultural knowledge (using the Navajo language). They plan, build, test, and reflect on designs of a water catchment system, made for a model 3D printed hogan.
After a lunch break students turn to computers to learn how to use TinkerCAD, a free design software. They plan and model their own unique jewelry, which is printed on 3D printers provided to the community centers by KARMA. While their jewelry prints the group explores a new CAD technology, Gravity Sketch, on a virtual reality headset. GravitySketch enables free-hand creation of 3D models in a virtual space, opening up opportunities for participation from students who think spatially and physically but not geometrically.
Across day 1 we observed participants leveraging funds of knowledge in their problem scoping, particularly around the water catchment activity. On its surface students were asked simply to design something that captured the most water, and to consider features such as size, cost, and aesthetic. In addition to these considerations, they attended to how and for whom water was to be used, and when it was to be collected and stored, which mattered for where it would be stored or transported (e.g. indoors or outdoors), and how it would be treated (heated, filtered, etc…). We also noticed that many participants, upon completing their CAD jewelry for printing, continued to explore the technology and to create their own goals, some of which they also sought to have printed.
Day 2 — Robotics and Coding with LEGO SPIKE Prime
Day two focuses on robotics and programming, explored through LEGO SPIKE Prime technology. Participants learn how to use, and code, motors and sensors through a sequence of activities. The first challenge embraces the power of play in promoting creativity, through making a robot that can move like an animal, in an activity called Silly Walks, one of many Placemat activities developed by Tufts CEEO. As students acclimate to the technology, they begin to explore the importance of language for communicating in robotics and in engineering; they learn a new Navajo word for robot, Dinésh Chįįn, coined by the KARMA cultural committee, and then use a programming language to teach their robots to say Navajo words. Finally, they extend this activity by creating a robot that can count up to 10 in Navajo when it sense inputs using a sensor.
In day 2 we saw how empathy played a role in engaging learners of all ages during the Silly Walks task. Students as young as 5 years old up through adulthood found enjoyment in creating a robot animal, and many continued to use their animal friend throughout later tasks, even inventing new goals for their robots and games they could play with them. We also observed the power of collaboration in learning, as older participants took on an expert mentor role in teaching younger members the Navajo words they would use with their robots. This spanned a wide range of relationships, from a mother teaching her son, a brother teaching his younger brother, or peers who had not met prior to the workshop teaching one another. Coding is where we saw the greatest variability in complexity – younger participants simply had their robot recite numbers in sequence when the program started, while one pair of middle school aged boys used variables and conditionals to teach their robot to incrementally count each time it sensed a new input.
Lessons learned from MakerPlaces in the community
Across this relatively short workshop we saw a very promising level of interest and engagement across a wide range of ages. We noted the role of community and collaboration in growing interest, supporting the development of goals, and helping participants to achieve those goals. Finally, we noted opportunities for the use of technologies in the space beyond the workshop format; one such example came from a community member who dropped in looking to 3D print a component he had designed for a tractor. With access to materials in not one but two nearby community centers, managed by knowledgeable community members, he was able to improve his own work while learning a skill and a resource for future projects.
We see opportunity for the MakerPlace to serve a wide variety of needs for communities in the Navajo and neighboring reservations. Just in two days we saw it ignite STEM for a broad range of learners, and promote entrepreneurship for community members. We also view this pilot as a learning opportunity, illustrating how culture and community can be centered in the design an implementation of programs for MakerPlaces.
