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Electrifying Engagement in Middle School Science Class: Improving Student Interest Through E-textiles

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Journal of Science Education and Technology
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Colby Tofel-Grehl
Colby Tofel-Grehl
Colby Tofel-Grehl
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Deborah A. Fields at Utah State University
Deborah A. Fields
Kristin Searle at Utah State University
Kristin Searle
Maahs-Fladung Cathy at Utah State University
Maahs-Fladung Cathy
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Abstract

Most interventions with “maker” technologies take place outside of school or out of core area classrooms. However, intervening in schools holds potential for reaching much larger numbers of students and the opportunity to shift instructional dynamics in classrooms. This paper shares one such intervention where electronic textiles (sewable circuits) were introduced into eighth grade science classes with the intent of exploring possible gains in student learning and motivation, particularly for underrepresented minorities. Using a quasi-experimental design, four classes engaged in a traditional circuitry unit while the other four classes undertook a new e-textile unit. Overall, students in both groups demonstrated significant learning gains on standard test items without significant differences between conditions. Significant differences appeared between groups’ attitudes toward science after the units in ways that show increasing interest in science by students in the e-textile unit. In particular, they reported positive identity shifts pertaining to their perceptions of the beliefs of their friends, family, and teacher. Findings and prior research suggest that student-created e-textile designs provide opportunities for connections outside of the classroom with friends and family and may shift students’ perceptions of their teacher’s beliefs about them more positively.
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Electrifying Engagement in Middle School Science Class:
Improving Student Interest Through E-textiles
Colby Tofel-Grehl
1
&Deborah Fields
1
&Kristin Searle
1
&Cathy Maahs-Fladung
1
&
David Feldon
1
&Grace Gu
1
&Chongning Sun
1
Published online: 23 March 2017
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
Abstract Most interventions with Bmaker^technologies take
place outside of school or out of core area classrooms.
However, intervening in schools holds potential for reaching
much larger numbers of students and the opportunity to shift
instructional dynamics in classrooms. This paper shares one
such intervention where electronic textiles (sewable circuits)
were introduced into eighth grade science classes with the
intent of exploring possible gains in student learning and
motivation, particularly for underrepresented minorities.
Using a quasi-experimental design, four classes engaged
in a traditional circuitry unit while the other four classes
undertook a new e-textile unit. Overall, students in both
groups demonstrated significant learning gains on standard
test items without significant differences between conditions.
Significant differences appeared between groups’attitudes
toward science after the units in ways that show increasing
interest in science by students in the e-textile unit. In particular,
they reported positive identity shifts pertaining to their percep-
tions of the beliefs of their friends, family, and teacher. Findings
and prior research suggest that student-created e-textile designs
provide opportunities for connections outside of the classroom
with friends and family and may shift students’perceptions of
their teacher’s beliefs about them more positively.
Keywords Science education .Electronic textiles .Maker
movement .DIY media .Perception of science .Interest
Introduction
The U.S. Department of Commerce projects science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related employment will
increase 7% more than other sectors by 2018, with technology
acting as the major economic driver (Bureau of Labor Statistics
2013; Langdon et al. 2011). Currently, only 16% of U.S. under-
graduates choose a natural science or engineering major
(National Science Board [NSB] 2010), reflecting both a lack
of preparation and interest in STEM fields (PCAST 2010;
Taietal.2006). Further, women (29% of STEM workforce)
and historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities
(11% of STEM workforce) are substantially underrepresented
across STEM disciplines (NSB 2016). According to the
Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women
and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology
Development (2000), diversifying the pipeline of prospective
STEM workers would both permit labor supply to meet
projected demand and engage a greater diversity of perspec-
tives that could increase the rate of innovation.
In addition to a Bparticipation gap^in STEM fields, many
individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM fields expe-
rience an Bidentity gap,^where they struggle to see themselves
*Colby Tofel-Grehl
colby.tg@usu.edu
Deborah Fields
deborah.fields@usu.edu
Kristin Searle
Kristin.Searle@usu.edu
Cathy Maahs-Fladung
cathy.maahs-fladung@usu.edu
David Feldon
David.feldon@usu.edu
Grace Gu
icyringer@gmail.com
Chongning Sun
vincent.sun@aggiemail.usu.edu
1
Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
J Sci Educ Technol (2017) 26:406–417
DOI 10.1007/s10956-017-9688-y
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Similarly, Kafai et al., (2014aKafai et al., ( , 2014b reveal that e-textile activities successfully engage students with diverse computing concepts and practices while broadening their perceptions of computing. Previous research also shows that the e-textile projects empower students' understanding of circuitry (Peppler & Bender, 2013), engineering design (Veety et al., 2018), interest (Tofel-Grehl et al., 2017), and technological self-efficacy (Qiu et al., 2013). ...
... This suggests that the e-textile intervention had a measurable impact on students' learning outcomes throughout the unit. These findings align with the existing research on students' understanding of electrical circuitry (Litts et al., 2017;Nugent et al., 2019;Peppler & Glosson, 2013), yet they contrast with the earlier study by Tofel-Grehl et al. (2017). These findings are significant because they illustrate the potential of innovative tools such as e-textiles to improve students' comprehension of fundamental circuitry concepts, which are essential for establishing a foundation for more advanced topics in science education. ...
... The large effect sizes observed further substantiate the considerable impact of the intervention, e-textile unit, on students' STEAM attitudes. These findings not only corroborate previous research indicating the beneficial effect of e-textiles on students' attitudes toward science (Tofel-Grehl et al., 2017) but also, more uniquely, illuminate their considerable impact on other STEAM fields, including technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Moreover, these findings provide empirical evidence that substantiates the qualitative findings of previous research (Searle et al., 2019), thereby reinforcing the overall understanding of the impact of e-textiles on middle school students' attitudes toward STEAM fields. ...
Investigating the Effects of E-Textiles on Students’ Performance, Attitudes Toward Electric Circuits, and STEAM Attitudes: A Focus on Underrepresented Minorities
Article
Full-text available
A quasi-experimental study with a treatment and control group was conducted to investigate the impact of an e-textile unit on middle school students’ performance on simple electric circuits, attitudes towards simple electric circuits, and overall STEAM attitudes in a female-dominated project public school. Over four weeks, the treatment group (n = 20) received an e-textile unit, while the control group (n = 20) received conventional instruction. A pre- and post-test was administered using the Simple Electrical Circuit Performance Test (SECPT), the Simple Electrical Circuit Attitude Scale (SECAS), and the STEAM Attitude Scale (STEAM). At a broader level, one-way ANOVA results demonstrated that the treatment group significantly outperformed the control group on the SECPT and STEAM attitude measures. However, no significant differences were found for the overall SECAS measure. A more detailed analysis using an independent sample t-test revealed substantial gains for the treatment group on specific SECAS subdimensions, including interest, perceived importance, self-efficacy, and improvements across all STEAM subdimensions, with a large effect size. Overall, the findings indicate that the e-textile unit effectively enhanced students’ performance and attitudes related to circuitry and electricity while fostering positive STEAM dispositions. These promising outcomes hold significant implications for curriculum development, teacher training, and educational policy, highlighting the need for increased investment in e-textiles-based learning resources and pedagogical strategies to bolster student success in STEAM disciplines.
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... The maker movement, a relatively new term established in 2006 by Dale Dougherty (2016), is conceptualized as a vehicle to carry STEM learning into the classroom. Several studies examined the positive impact of the maker movement on STEM subject matter (Tofel-Grehl, Fields, Searle, Maahs-Fladung, Feldon, Gu., & Sun, 2017;Wright, Shaw, Gaidos, Lyman, & Sorey, 2018;Scharon et al., 2024;Tabarés et al., 2023). These studies align the ideals of the maker movement with John Dewey (1929) research, as both Dewey and the supporters of the maker movement see education as a vehicle for the training of students to have full command of their potential capabilities. ...
... International Journal of Instruction, April 2025 • Vol.18, No.2 The possibility of attracting more students to the STEM fields through the maker movement was investigated by Tofel-Grehl et al. (2017). Their research used a quasiexperimental research design to assess eighth-grade students' motivation in their science class. ...
Maker-Centered Learning in STEM: A Case Study of a Chemistry Teacher's Lived Experience
Article
  • Apr 2025
Researchers and educators are exploring approaches to integrate the maker movement in educational spaces such as STEM subjects to explore the importance of artifact creation through physical and digital tools. They are investigating strategies and models of its application in the classroom. However, research is needed to understand the lived experiences of teachers implementing maker-centered learning activities in the classrooms. Addressing this gap, this study employed a phenomenological method to document the struggles and breakthroughs of a chemistry teacher in maker-centered learning. As a qualitative case study, it provided an in-depth understanding of her lived experience, explaining the affordances and constraints of the implementation of a maker-centered learning framework. This study highlights the significance of adopting maker-centered learning in the STEM curriculum. It suggests that maker-centered learning activities can promote engaging opportunities for students in STEM subjects by enabling them to acquire skills to engage in the physical creation of artifacts. It was evident in the study that a teacher's past experiences, education, and professional development can play an important role in shaping their teaching practices and pedagogical dispositions. The purpose of this research is to add empirical qualitative research to further support the benefits of maker-centered learning in educational spaces.
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... Broadening the material and techniques can attract different groups in making while still engaging them in equally challenging technical complexities. In particular, girls' and women's interest in computing (Kafai, Fields, and Searle 2014) and in science and STEM careers (Tofel-Grehl et al. 2017) has been shown to rise after using e-textile activities in the classroom and afterschool settings. ...
... Two of the five teams engaged vigorously in electronic circuitry in their projects. This finding is partly in line with many previous studies, where circuitry has been reported as one of the main learning outcomes of e-textile projects (e.g., Hébert and Jenson 2020;Nugent et al. 2019;Lee and Fields 2017;Litts et al. 2017;Tofel-Grehl et al. 2017;Kafai, Fields, and Searle 2014). In our study, sewing the circuits was identified in the epistemic networks by the connections between engineering and simple crafting, engineering, and hybrid crafting, and simple crafting and hybrid crafting. ...
Technological Competence in Formal Education Collaborative Maker Projects: An Epistemic Network Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2025
  • J COMPUT ASSIST LEAR
Background Implementing maker education in schools is on the rise, fuelled by its potential to move formal education towards a creative, technology‐driven 21st century learning culture. In maker education, collaborative learning takes place through and around various digital and traditional technologies, which provide the means for students' creative activities. However, research is scarce on how maker education promotes students' technological competence and how students develop different features of that competence. Objectives This study investigates the learning of technological competence in formal education collaborative maker projects focusing on designing and making electronic textiles (e‐textiles). Methods The data consisted of student teams' discourse from classroom video data, in which five 7th‐grade student teams (3–6 students/team, 13‐ to 14‐year‐olds) were engaged in designing and making e‐textiles. Their discourse was categorised into five technology dimensions—crafting, designing, engineering, programming, and documenting—and epistemic network analysis was used to model the co‐occurrences of the dimensions. Results and Conclusions All five technology dimensions were present in four of the five teams, but the learning outcomes—that is, the emphasis and connections of the dimensions—varied between the teams. Learning was promoted when technology was used as means for joint construction of knowledge objects but hindered when viewed only as tool for task execution. The results indicate that collaborative maker projects enable the learning of comprehensive technological competence including knowledge and skills related to both digital and traditional technologies. However, implementing a maker project in schools is insufficient to guarantee that all technology dimensions will be addressed.
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... Overall, a growing corpus of studies has provided empirical evidence supporting the promise of e-textiles in STEM, STEAM, and maker education (e.g., Peppler & Glosson, 2013;Tofel-Grehl et al., 2017). These studies typically present extended interventions, despite calls to also investigate whether "significant gains in understanding can be made in a much smaller timescale" (Peppler, 2016, p. 279). ...
... At the same time, we witnessed a significant increase in students' understanding of circuit features, such as matching polarity, as well as a reduction of common errors related to current flow, such as missing connections. These findings provide empirical support for previous research reporting that e-textile making activities structured around microcontrollers can support students' understanding of circuits Kafai & Peppler, 2014;Tofel-Grehl et al., 2017). The findings also provide evidence that such outcomes can be achieved via shorter, introductory workshops. ...
Learning design for short-duration e-textile workshops: outcomes on knowledge and skills
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
E-textiles provide an interesting field of research as they “blend traditional craft with modern science” (Peppler, 2016) and help learners “broaden their own perceptions of computing” (Searle et al., 2016). Despite the promising findings by primarily long-term interventions structured around e-textiles, educational curriculum reform has been slow to materialize. Educators who embrace a STEAM philosophy are more likely to endorse short workshops, integrating them in existing courses or initiatives; this could serve as a steppingstone for longer interventions and bottom-up curriculum reform. This study examines whether shorter e-textile workshops (lasting four hours) can result in significant gains in understanding. We present an investigation of e-textiles with 22 young children who have no prior experience with e-textiles or working with microprocessors. We present details of our learning design, as well as findings related to circuitry knowledge and computational making skills. We find that the children advanced their circuitry knowledge and practice a range of computational making skills. We further document a series of emerging challenges, including the children’s unwillingness to engage or lack of adeptness with software, a tension between aesthetics and construction, creativity limited by samples of previous e-textile projects, and the difficulty in grasping the materiality of e-textiles. We propose that some direct instruction and facilitation is not incompatible with the making ethos; the approach can help address these challenges, allowing young children to benefit from their participation in short-duration e-textile workshops.
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... Relatedly, Tofel-Grehl et al's. [97] findings showed that personalization promotes positive attitudes toward science and serves to foster positive STEM outcomes. Furthermore, participants' knowledge of what AI is improved following sessions. ...
AI MyData: Fostering Middle School Students’ Engagement with Machine Learning through an Ethics-Infused AI Curriculum
Article
  • Nov 2024
As initiatives on artificial intelligence (AI) education in K-12 learning contexts continues to evolve, researchers have developed curricula among other resources to promote AI across grade levels. Yet, there is a need for more effort regarding curriculum, tools, and pedagogy, as well as assessment techniques to popularize AI at the middle school level. Drawing on prior work, we created original curriculum activities with innovative use of existing technology, a new computational teaching tool, and a series of approaches and assessments to evaluate students’ engagement with the learning resources. Our curriculum called AI MyData comprises elements of ML and data science infused with ethical orientation. In this paper, we describe the novel AI curriculum and further discuss how we engaged students in learning and critiquing AI ethical dilemmas. We gathered data from two pilot studies conducted in the Northeast United States, one Artificial Intelligence Afterschool (AIA) program, and one virtual AI summer camp. The AIA program was carried out in a local public school with four middle school students aged 12 to 13; the program consisted of eleven two-hour sessions. The summer camp consisted of two-hour sessions over four consecutive days, with eighteen students aged 12 to 15. We facilitated both pilot programs with hands-on plugged and unplugged activities. The method of capturing data included artifact collection, structured interviews, written assessments, and a pre- to post-questionnaire tapping participants’ dispositions about AI and its societal implication. Participant artifacts, written assessments, survey, observation, and analysis of tasks completed revealed that the children improved in their knowledge of AI. In addition, the AI curriculum units and accompanying approaches developed for this study successfully engaged the participants, even without prior knowledge of related concepts. We also found an indication that introducing ethics of AI to adolescents will help their development as ethically responsive citizens. Our study results also indicate that lessons establishing links with students’ personal lives (e.g., letting students choose personally meaningful datasets) and societal implications using unplugged activities and interactive tools were particularly valuable for promoting AI and the integration of AI in middle school education across the subject domains and settings. Based on these results, we discuss our findings, identify their limitations, and propose future work.
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... Through this disruption of formalized and exclusive STEM practices, youth have repositioned themselves from "struggling" or "disengaged" STEM students into leaders within their STEM classrooms (Howell et al., 2016). For example, Tofel-Grehl et al. (2017) found that minoritized students previously disengaged from a middle school science class not only expressed high levels of enthusiasm for e-textiles during a circuitry unit but also brought those projects home to share with their families. Subsequently, they reported significantly stronger perceptions of their families valuing STEM achievement and interest for them (i.e., recognition, per Carlone & Johnson, 2007). ...
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... Fruitful cooperation of Fab Labs and makerspaces with schools could possibly help reaching especially those who usually do not get in touch with making (Tofel-Grehl et al., 2017). Therefore, teachers can be essential adult stakeholders and promoters in igniting young people's enthusiasm for maker activities (Pijls et al., 2022). ...
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Secondary science teachers' conceptualizations and modifications to support equitable participation in a co-designed computational thinking lesson
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  • Nov 2024
  • J RES SCI TEACH
Increasing access to computational ideas and practices is one important reason to integrate computational thinking (CT) in science classrooms. While integrating CT into science classrooms broadens exposure to computing, it may not be enough to ensure equitable participation in the science classroom. Equitable participation is crucial because providing students with an environment in which they are able to fully engage and participate in science and computing practices empowers students to learn and continue pursuing CT and science. To foreground equitable participation in CT-integrated curricula, we undertook a research project in which researchers and teachers examined teacher conceptualizations of equitable participation and how teachers design for equitable participation by modifying a lesson that introduces computational modeling in science. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What are
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Boys' Needlework: Understanding Gendered and Indigenous Perspectives on Computing and Crafting with Electronic Textiles
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Full-text available
  • Aug 2015
We draw attention to the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender in computing education by examining the experiences of ten American Indian boys (12-14 years old) who participated in introductory computing activities with electronic textiles. To date, the use of electronic textiles (e-textiles) materials in introductory computing activities have been shown to be particularly appealing to girls and women because they combine craft, circuitry, and computing. We hypothesized that e-textiles would be appealing to American Indian boys because of a strong community-based craft tradition linked to heritage cultural practices. In order to understand boys' perspectives on learning computing through making culturally-relevant e-textiles artifacts, we analyzed boys' completed artifacts as documented in photographs and code screenshots, their design practices as documented in daily field notes and video logs of classroom sessions, and their reflections from interviews guided by the following research questions: (1) How did American Indian boys initially engage with e-textiles materials? (2) How did boys' computational perspectives develop through the process of making and programming their own e-textiles artifacts? Our findings highlight the importance of connecting to larger community value systems as a context for doing computing, the importance of allowing space for youth to make decisions within the constraints of the design task, and the value of tangible e-textiles artifacts in providing linkages between home and school spaces. We connect our work to other efforts to engage racial and ethnic minority students in computing and discuss the implications of our work for computer science educators designing computing curricula for increasingly diverse groups of students, especially as pertains to the emerging field of culturally responsive computing.
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Culturally Responsive Making with American Indian Girls: Bridging the Identity Gap in Crafting and Computing with Electronic Textiles
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  • Apr 2015
The Maker Movement has been successful in refocusing attention on the value of hand work, but heritage craft practices remain noticeably absent. We argue that combining heritage craft practices, like those found in many American Indian communities throughout the United States, with maker practices presents an opportunity to examine a rich, if contentious space, where different cultural systems come together. Further, we argue that the combination of heritage crafts, maker practices, and computing provides an opportunity to address the "identity gap" experienced by many girls and individuals from non-dominant communities, who struggle with taking on the identity of a "scientist." In this paper, we focus on the experiences of twenty-six American Indian girls (12--14 years-old) who participated in a three week, culturally responsive e-textiles unit as part of their Native Studies class at a tribally-controlled charter school located just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. In order to understand if the combination of a tangible design element with computing and cultural knowledge would be a promising activity for attracting American Indian girls to computing, our analysis focused on students' initial engagement with e-textiles materials and activities, their agency in designing and making e-textiles artifacts, and the ways in which e-textile artifacts fostered connections across home and school spaces.
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Deconstruction Kits for Learning: Students' Collaborative Debugging of Electronic Textile Designs
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  • Oct 2016
Learning to use a construction kit to design, make, and program electronic textiles (e-textiles) has been found to be a rich context for students' learning of crafting, engineering and programming. We propose the development of what we call a 'deconstruction' kit---the design of faulty e-textile artifacts that students need to de- and reconstruct---as an alternative to gain insights into students' learning. We designed e-textile projects with strategically poor crafting, non-functional circuitry, and insufficient coding to investigate high school students' understanding of coding, circuit design and creation (through sewing) with the LilyPad Arduino. We videotaped and analyzed ten students collaborating in pairs as they engaged in debugging, or fixing, various problems in provided e-textile artifacts. Our findings indicate that these deconstruction kit projects are not only promising tools for evaluating students' understanding of e-textiles but can also become valuable learning tools on their own, especially when peer collaboration is taken into account.
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