Developing Effective Makerspaces Through Research

The Children's Museum's Maker Educator Boot Camp MAKESHOP was developed through years of experience and research. Participants:

Teachers, librarians, and administrators are encouraged to attend MAKESHOP to guide implementations outside of the Museum. The Children's Museum aims to create and sustain effective makerspaces and related programs for learning through its Making+Learning program, a cooperative agreement between the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project is supported by thought partners from the Exploratorium, the Chicago Public Library, North Carolina State University Libraries, and the Maker Education Initiative.

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, in partnership with New York Hall of Science, conducted a three-year design-based study of family participation in museum-based makerspaces with the goal of reliably designing physical, social, and spatial tools to support meaningful family participation in museum-based makerspaces that employ a deep understanding of productive patterns of family participation and their associated learning outcomes in these spaces based on empirical research, learning literature, and practitioner experience.

Future research can expand upon the impact of museum-based makerspaces on formal education spaces and how concepts from museum-based education can be brought into the classroom.