Reframing “Failure” in Making: The Value of Play, Social Relationships, and Ownership

Building on grit and growth mindset literature, the “maker mindset” celebrates persistence through failure as key to inspiring creativity in making education. Yet, moving beyond examinations of individual persistence and assumptions that all people have the same wealth of resources to persevere, when is it worthwhile to work through challenging projects? What supports are necessary for youth to feel safe working through challenges in science, technology, engineering, math, and computing (STEM+C) activities? Using sociocultural theory as a lens, this ethnographic study analyzed observation field notes, videos, photos, student work, and interviews from an after-school making program for high school girls during the 2014-15 school year. Through a comparison of 2 groups—one that persisted through challenging moments and one that did not—this paper reveals the centrality of playfulness, teamwork, and ownership of projects in order to persist through challenges that arise in inquiry-based projects

Planning Role Model Visits and Field Trips to Inspire Girls in Technology, Science and Engineering

This archived webinar from Linda Kekelis and Jeri Countryman of Techbridge presented "practical strategies and resources that will help teachers, Girl Scout Leaders and after-school program providers to conduct outreach." The main goal of the Techbridge program is to "encourage girls in technology, science and engineering." The webinar may be downloaded for viewing; its running time is 27:00. Java is required to view this material

The impact of input: Language acquisition in the visually impaired

Variation in language development between blind and sighted children may result from a diminution of experience or differences in linguistic input, or it may be a product of other factors. Researchers argue about the relative weighting of these. We examine this argument by reviewing data and findings from our studies of blind children\u27s language and we evaluate the possible impact of input, both environmental and linguistic. We show that variation cannot be uniquely attributed to either of these, but find evidence that experiential input may influence some areas while linguistic input more strongly affects others. Moreover, there is a complex interaction between these. We also find independent adaptive strategies by the children, pointing to a plasticity in the acquisition process itself. © 1993, Sage Publications. All rights reserved

Blind Children’s Language Resolving Some Differences

Although the role of visual perception is central to many theories of language development, researchers have disagreed sharply on the effects of blindness on the acquisition process: some claim major differences between blind and sighted children; others find great similarities. With audio-and video-recorded longitudinal data from six children (with varying degrees of vision) aged o 19-3; 4, we show that there are basic differences in early language, which appear to reflect differences in cognitive development. We focus here on early lexical acquisition and on verbal role-play, demonstrating how previous analyses have failed to observe aspects of the blind child\u27s language system because language was considered out of the context of use. While a comparison of early vocabularies does suggest surface similarities, we found that when sighted peers are actively forming hypotheses about word meanings, totally blind children are acquiring largely unanalysed ‘ labels ’. They are slow to extend words and rarely overextended any. Similarly, although verbal role-play appears early, attempts to incorporate this kind of language into conversations with others reveal clear problems with reversibility - specifically, the ability to understand the role of shifting perspectives in determining word meaning. Examination of language in context suggests that blind children have difficulties in just those areas of language acquisition where visual information can provide input about the world and be a stimulus for forming hypotheses about pertinent aspects of the linguistic system. © 1984, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved