Title
A Revaluation of How We Think about Making: Examining Assembly Practices and Artifact Imagination in Biomaking
Abstract
While much research focused on making emphasizes digital and tangible media, few studies have explored making with biology, or biomaking, where people use cells as fabrication units to grow or "make" desired materials for designing real world applications. This lack is especially glaring considering how biomaking and related industries are often aligned with a growing push toward sustainable production as a way of addressing the pressing environmental issues of the day. In order address how maker frameworks could be used as a productive way of bringing biomaking into K-12 contexts, we report on the design and implementation of a biomaking workshop where teams of high school students both assembled a physical biosensor and imagined applications for this technology to address real world issues. Using classroom observations, analysis of classroom projects, and focus group interviews, we examined student experiences and perceptions of these activities in order to ask: What the affordances and challenges of biomaking in supporting maker learning, especially with regard to the less common practices of assembly and imagining? In the discussion, we review what we learned about facilitating biomaking in K-12 setting, as well how our analysis led us to a revaluation of the often crucial but neglected role assembly plays in more 'typical' maker activities, and the possibilities for enriching maker activities by including design prototyping and imagination.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1145/3311890.3311895
Proceedings of FabLearn 2019
Keywords
DocType
ISBN
DIY, assembly, design biology, fabrication, imagination, making, synthetic biology, tinkering
Conference
978-1-4503-6244-3
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Debora Lui1614.67
Yasmin B. Kafai256174.54
Justice T. Walker302.03
Sheri Hanna400.34
Karen Hogan500.34
Orkan Telhan600.34