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The impact of centering elements of engineering professional practice using art in a physical computing workshop for 9 to 13 years-old students in an under-served community | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

The impact of centering elements of engineering professional practice using art in a physical computing workshop for 9 to 13 years-old students in an under-served community


Abstract:

This Innovative Practice Paper describes the results from the 2019 Work-in-Progress (WIP) [1] proposal for a pre-college physical computing workshop aimed at under-served...Show More

Abstract:

This Innovative Practice Paper describes the results from the 2019 Work-in-Progress (WIP) [1] proposal for a pre-college physical computing workshop aimed at under-served students. Recruiting under-served students into engineering and computer science activities can pose a challenge, as such activities are often viewed as complicated, boring, or exclusionary. We designed the workshop to mitigate these notions. Since students enroll in the workshop to create a collaborative digital art display versus enrolling in a strictly "coding" workshop, we sought to alleviate their unfamiliar or intimidating feelings towards engineering. Placing the workshop in a familiar location within the community was another strategy to create a reassuring environment designed to increase students’ feelings of belonging. Additionally, integrating elements of software engineering professional practice (EPP) gave students a glimpse of the "real world" vocation to increase their affinity for engineering practices. We incorporate physical computing because it can increase motivation and self-efficacy in primary school students [2], and it pairs well with art to use custom-coded light, movement, and interaction as different media for creativity. Our goal in providing this workshop was to explore the following question: What is the impact of exposure to engineering design and professional practice through a collaborative workshop, which centers on art and physical computing, on increasing affinity toward engineering among 5th-8th graders in an under-served community? Twenty-eight students, ages 9 through 13 participated in a novel collaborative art-based engineering design workshop. Students were taught techniques in arts and crafts and coding Arduino and Circuit Playground Express micro-controllers utilizing sensors and LEDs. After the instructional phase, we teamed students to design, code, apply electronic fundamentals, and craft designs to create the final art display. The cumulative, result...
Date of Conference: 08-11 October 2022
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 29 November 2022
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ISSN Information:

Conference Location: Uppsala, Sweden

References

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