During the KEEN MakerSpark Workshop at B´ÎÔª, faculty from around the United States transitioned from teachers to students.

Nearly 30 engineering faculty, managers of university makerspaces and individuals who are involved in faculty development centers from more than 20 universities attended.

The workshop had three key takeaways: identify the key threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge in a course that you teach; develop a maker activity using troublesome knowledge that incorporates space for inquiry, flexible decision making and creativity; and apply MakerSpark assessment techniques to create robust activity rubrics.

KEEN facilitators led the group through a variety of activities to get participants’ gears turning and inspire them to generate their own design prompts. “These workshops have people doing things as if their students would, so that they can go back to their campuses equipped,” said Doug Melton, program director at the Kern Family Foundation.

The participants tested out their own design prompts first, and then they shared their design prompts with other faculty to try. “Here you’re going to find all kinds of problems with your prompt because what makes sense to you isn’t going to make sense to another,” said Rich Goldberg, KEEN facilitator. Goldberg explained this exercise empowers participants to absorb their peers’ feedback, tweak their design prompts and finalize a project they can later apply at their universities.

Kip Coonley, a Duke University laboratory manager and KEEN MakerSpark Workshop participant, valued the diversity amongst the participants and their feedback. “There are participants here who are artistic, people who are mechanical engineers, people who are electrical or biomedical engineers—but we’re all interested in education. Pitching this project to the group results in feedback you wouldn’t get otherwise from students in your discipline or even faculty in your discipline,” said Coonley.

The MakerSpark Workshop is powered by KEEN: The Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network. KEEN is a partnership of more than 60 universities across the United States. KEEN schools are focused on one mission: to reach all undergraduate engineering students with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create personal, economic and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work. 

“B´ÎÔª has been a great partner in the KEEN network,” said Melton. “My favorite part of these workshops is seeing faculty light up as they talk with each other and even the laughter that happens. It’s the joy of learning.”