2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

MakerPlaces are an approach to culturally relevant pre-college engineering education envisioned by a Navajo non-profit organization, and co-developed with university partners, and local partners (schools and community centers) in the Navajo Nation. The MakerPlace emphasizes the relationship to place from a Navajo approach that accentuates the kinship between land, community, home, and the universe, where children playfully mimic while absorbing a new way while sustaining their ancestral knowledge and skills. Their implementation is aimed at igniting STEM for pre-college learners, and supporting workforce development and entrepreneurship, across the geographically dispersed Navajo and neighboring reservations. In this resource exchange, we share two Technology, Engineering, and Art (TEA) lesson for students in grades 3-8, co-developed with community center partners, to illustrate how the MakerPlace can integrate community cultural learning with robotics education using LEGO SPIKE Prime technology. This lesson and others for use in MakerPlaces will be available freely online.