2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Student-Led Makerspace Workshop Platform

Presented at Student Division (STDT) Technical Session 3: Student Innovative Practice

Makerspaces often introduce educational workshops that demonstrate available tools to build users' skills, while fostering collaboration and creativity in the space. A notable challenge in developing workshops in educational makerspace environments stems from finding instructors who are skillful, passionate, and available to teach frequent workshops; with student-run workshops almost completely depending on the pre-established experiences of the instructors and to operate around their individual availabilities. This paper introduces a framework that uses student employees, robust training programs, and workshop documentation to train student instructors on technical and teaching skills. By following this framework, a safe and effective learning space can be created for staff and attendees that build a diverse and welcoming community within the makerspace, while also providing standardization to workshops, ensuring quality, accessibility, and a rolling training platform so every year new employees can be onboarded. This peer-to-peer learning system encourages communication, understanding, and a balance of power between the students and instructors, understood through quantitative and qualitative data from attendee feedback and employee review.

Authors

Adam J Murrison Worcester Polytechnic Institute [biography]

Adam Murrison is a graduate student studying at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to receive his Masters in Materials Science. The research he has done has covered various additive manufacturing technologies, including Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of metals, studying the surfaces of parts fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion using multi-scale analysis techniques, and Fused Deposition Modeling of common and flexible plastics. He co-leads a student group responsible for creating documentation and training for all workshops held at WPI's Makerspace and Prototyping Lab, while collaborating with clubs and organizations on campus to bring new workshops into the space.
Cameron Wian Worcester Polytechnic Institute [biography]

Robotics Engineering and Computer Science Student
Makerspace Workshop Coordinator
Sydney Kerivan Worcester Polytechnic Institute [biography]

Sydney Kerivan is an Environmental Engineering student at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester MA. Her position as Workshop Coordinator at the WPI Innovation Studio focuses on leading a team of facilitators to develop and teach educational workshops for the WPI community. She is currently focusing on the training systems for the workshop team and is responsible for weekly events and future development of the team.
Jakob Sperry Worcester Polytechnic Institute [biography]

Jakob Sperry is a robotics and mechanical engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute(WPI). His experience and skills lie primarily in engineering design, rapid prototyping and mechatronic systems. He is a manager on the workshop team at the WPI Makerspace and focuses on the weekly operation and creation of the workshops.

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