An Investigation of Relevance from Curriculum-Aligned Making in the Elementary School Science Classroom

Little research addresses Making as an approach that may impact the relevance of science to students. This paper investigates whether and how students make connections to their everyday life during curriculum-aligned Making activities. We argue that Making, with its focus on hands-on construction and technology, can act a possible bridge between 'school science', which tends to focus on formal models of science concepts, and 'everyday science', that addresses directly the application of science concepts. We analyzed videos from an ongoing longitudinal Maker program where Making is integrated into third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classes at public elementary and intermediate schools. Our qualitative analysis revealed eight different ways in which elementary students found relevance in curriculum-aligned science Making activities. The most frequent types of 'relevance' were the use of analogies and the application of everyday knowledge to aspects of the Making activity. In the Making activities, students drew relevance with six aspects of Making. The Making product or physical design triggered relevance connections most often. We conclude that despite its focus on learning objectives of formal science curricula, curriculum-aligned Making allows students to make connections with their everyday life, and may potentially be used as an approach to make school science more personally relevant for students.