The Elements of Making: a Social Practice Perspective for Everyday Creators

In contrast to behavioural approaches that attempt to explain creativity, social practice theories commonly emphasize aspects of the material world that shape and reproduce how people engage with them. How might social practice theory clarify how making affects millions of hobbyist creators – and what makes making matter to them? This article examines the theoretical work tying creativity to social practice. It then reports on a project in which small groups of everyday creators in the United Kingdom (n = 95) gathered in workshops to discuss their experiences and opinions regarding the materials, meanings, and competences of making. A model-making research method instigated peer discussion revealing both individual and shared accounts of practice. The data indicated that participants, regardless of practice, experienced creating as an ongoing performance providing many benefits that promote personal and societal transformation. With our graphic iteration of the elements of making, we assert that the meanings these makers attached to their various do-it-yourself practices were underscored by the materials they worked with and the competences they built in creating

I make, therefore I am: Agency, action, affordance, and the path to creative identity

This thesis explores how everyday makers construct creative identities. The literature review charts creativity research from psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Transdisciplinary theories of creativity and identity are discussed, and the emerging theory of circuits of creative affordance is found to be a useful means for considering creative identities. Three research questions are developed: How do the internal and external affordances to creativity influence an individual maker’s evolution toward seeing him or herself as a creative actor? How do people identify and perceive these affordances? How does assuming a creative identity change a person’s life? Participants in the purposive sample (n = 42) were recruited from adult everyday makers in the UK and US who answered yes when asked if they felt creative working in their media. The quantitative segment of the parallel sequential mixed-methods research design consisted of an online creative identity questionnaire. The qualitative segment was comprised of one-on-one ethnographic interviews. The project also introduced craft elicitation, a method in which participants prepare for interviews by making something in the medium that they felt creative in, and thinking about when they first felt that way. Study findings indicate that participants are creative people who recognize affordances in their everyday making. A new Affordances-in-Action model proposes they burnish their identities in psychological, social, and cultural contexts by confronting affordances when they make things, which affects their sense of creative identity and produces the agency that drives further experiences in action. It is concluded that, when considered alongside agency and action, creative affordance theory offers a way to understand how everyday makers create identities

Understanding the Transition between High School and College Mathematics and Science

Mathematics and science education is gaining increasing recognition as key for the well-being of individuals and society. Accordingly, the transition from high school to college is particularly important to ensure that students are prepared for college mathematics and science. The goal of this study was to understand how high school mathematics and science course-taking related to performance in college. Specifically, the study employed a nonparametric regression method to examine the relationship between high school mathematics and science courses, and academic performance in college mathematics and science courses. The results provide some evidence pertaining to the positive benefits from high school course-taking. Namely, students who completed high school trigonometry and lab-based chemistry tended to earn higher grades in college algebra and general chemistry, respectively. However, there was also evidence that high school coursework in biology and physics did not improve course performance in general biology and college physics beyond standardized test scores. Interestingly, students who completed high school calculus earned better grades in general biology. The implications of the findings are discussed for high school curriculum and alignment in standards between high schools and colleges

Enabling Computer Decisions Based on EEG Input

Multilayer neural networks were successfully trained to classify segments of 12-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) data into one of five classes corresponding to five cognitive tasks performed by a subject. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to segregate obvious artifact EEG components from other sources, and a frequency-band representation was used to represent the sources computed by ICA. Examples of results include an 85% accuracy rate on differentiation between two tasks, using a segment of EEG only 0.05 s long and a 95% accuracy rate using a 0.5-s-long segment

A Monte Carlo Model for LET Spectra of 200 MeV Protons Used for Microelectronic Testing

The direct ionization Linear Energy Transfer (LET) for 200 MeV protons in silicon is much smaller than that for higher charged particles since LET increases as the square of the ion charge. However, occasionally the proton interacts with the silicon nuclei and produces a shower of fragments and a recoiling nucleus. When this happens, the LET produced is much greater than the direct ionization LET. Testing the single event effect susceptibility of components using energetic (200 MeV) protons is often the only viable option for system level testing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) avionics that have not been designed for space environments. However, the question of how a system tested with protons will perform in a heavy ion environment arises. Here the concern is not only with prediction of on-orbit upset rate, but also about possibility of on-orbit failures that were not observed during proton testing

Statistical comparisons of non-deterministic IR systems using two dimensional variance

Retrieval systems with non-deterministic output are widely used in information retrieval. Common examples include sampling, approximation algorithms, or interactive user input. The effectiveness of such systems differs not just for different topics, but also for different instances of the system. The inherent variance presents a dilemma - What is the best way to measure the effectiveness of a non-deterministic IR system? Existing approaches to IR evaluation do not consider this problem, or the potential impact on statistical significance. In this paper, we explore how such variance can affect system comparisons, and propose an evaluation framework and methodologies capable of doing this comparison. Using the context of distributed information retrieval as a case study for our investigation, we show that the approaches provide a consistent and reliable methodology to compare the effectiveness of a non-deterministic system with a deterministic or another non-deterministic system. In addition, we present a statistical best-practice that can be used to safely show how a non-deterministic IR system has equivalent effectiveness to another IR system, and how to avoid the common pitfall of misusing a lack of significance as a proof that two systems have equivalent effectiveness

Who Meets Whom: Access and Lobbying During the Coalition Years

In 2010, the incoming Coalition government announced that it would publish details of meetings between ministers and outside interests. We have collated and coded these data and, in this article, describe patterns of access between 2010 and 2015. In some respects, access is notably fragmented. No single organisation attends more than 2.5% of the 6292 meetings held by ministers. On the contrary, business, collectively, attends fully 45% of all meetings: more than twice the share of any other category of organisation. We also find evidence of distinctive policy communities characterised by high levels of access between particular interests and ministers within specific departments

Understanding the drivers for the development of design rules for the synthesis of cylindrical flexures

Cylindrical flexures (CFs), defined as flexures with only one finite radius of curvature loaded normal to the plane of curvature, present an interesting research direction in compliant mechanisms. CFs are constructed out of a cylindrical stock which leads to geometry, manufacturability, and compatibility advantages. Synthesis rules must be developed to design these new systems effectively. Current knowledge in flexure design pertains to straight-beam flexures or curved flexures loaded along the plane of curvature. CFs present a challenge because their mechanics differ from those of straight beams, and although their modelling has been researched thoroughly it has yet to be distilled into element and system creation rules. This paper uses models and finite element analysis to demonstrate that current design rules for straight-beam flexures are insufficient and inadequate for the design of CF systems. The presented discussion will show that CFs differ both at the element and systems levels, and therefore future research will focus on developing the three components of the building block approach: (i) reworking of element mechanics models to reveal the parameters which cause the kinematics of the curved beam to differ from those of the straight beam, (ii) development of a visual stiffness representation, and (iii) formation of system creation rules