A Sharable Wearable Maker Community IoT Application

If we are to engage a younger generation to become future engineering and science innovators, we need to widen participation and interaction with technology and science. Maker movements have the potential to do this by making tools, materials, and processes more readily available to people in a more informal learning setting who may not initially self-identify as makers. We address a chief limitation of such maker communities, where it can be difficult for participants to develop and continue an application outside the inherent limited time and space of the maker event. We ran a series of 6 maker events aimed at groups of six 14-15 year olds that focused on learning through making the BBC micro:bit device interact as part of an Internet of Things (IoT) application. We report on one event and a challenge to develop a sharable wearable IoT application to address the aim for participants that could sustain interest outside the event. This application was a club badge to send secret messages to members. The evaluation revealed a keen engagement and commitment to social wearable design, as seen through the students building and participating in the successful use of the application through authenticity. This authentic engagement to problem solving at a technical level to motivate personal goals was inspired through a sharable wearable design that participants deemed to be beneficial.