Diane Michelfelder, Macalester College
Louis L. Bucciarelli, MIT
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Moving through and settling in all sectors of higher education at a rapid clip, the “makering” movement supports many values of a liberal education, including creative inquiry, self-motivated learning, learning about how one learns, the joy of constructing tangible objects. But along with these creative, cognitive, and meta-cognitive benefits come a number of questions, especially the question: What is fundamental? How can the learning that occurs in makerspaces inform what a student must know, and the capabilities that he or she must possess, to function as an engineer? How can identifying as a “maker” translate into identifying as an “engineer”? These are the questions that should be addressed when planning makering activities for engineering students to do, even when what they do is done informally and not for credit. We argue that it is not enough to attend to the technology alone – how to make it accessible to students, open to manipulation and sculpting to their purpose – while ignoring the social as well as instrumental ingredients and fundamentals of engineering makering in practice.
Optimally, the makering experience should be an occasion for “critical making,” an opportunity for reflection on the value systems inherent in entrepreneurial design. Critical reflection is another hallmark characteristic of learning in liberal arts. The authors will describe how the liberal arts can provide a home for a pre-professional degree program Liberal Studies in Engineering. In particular, they will explore how the so-called 3-2 or dual degree option offered by so many liberal arts colleges might be revitalized via Liberal Studies in Engineering with makering as a key ingredient.