Making sense of making: bringing a design and making project to school

This study focuses on a design and making project carried out in a Finnish school and situated within the schedules of a multidisciplinary learning module and English as a foreign language. A group of technology students led the project as part of their university studies. Design and making are a recent development at school that allows the ideals of maker culture and school to converge. In this study, we analyse the sense making that emerged from this convergence during the project. The school participants were ninth graders, approx. 15 years old, working in teams. During the project, the teams ideated, planned, and produced artefacts envisioned to promote entrepreneurial goals for their professional future. The primary research materials include video recordings gathered from students' work in the classroom and the digital fabrication lab (Fab Lab) as well as group interviews. Field notes provided additional support for the analysis. The research advanced through the cycles of engaging, navigating and changing the nexus of practice. Nexus analysis shed light on how participants' pasts, interactions and discourses in place were shaping design and making at school. The study provides implications for guiding the design and making projects at school and inquiry-driven collaboration more generally.