Community settings

This project, funded by the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Social Sciences, and related to the MakEY project, examined the possibilities offered by the use of an after-school club that aims to motivate marginalised children and young people towards the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects through the integration of these subjects with arts and humanities – characterised as STEAM.

The objectives of the study are to:

Develop a STEAM programme of education that is delivered through the provision of pop-up makerspaces in an after-school club for children and young people from the community local to Broomhall Community Centre in Sheffield.
Explore the affordances and constraints of running pop-up makerspaces in a community centre.
Develop materials and resources that provide guidance for community groups on planning, resourcing and running makerspaces for marginalised children and young people.

An after-school makerspace for children and young people from the Broomhall community in Sheffield was being offered on one day a week over the course of six months for children aged from 5–11. The programme involved participants in coding, robotics, digital fabrication, digital media production, art and design and literacy/storytelling, through an interdisciplinary, project-based approach.

Sheffield Robotics was involved in the project, sharing with the children some of the exciting work they are undertaking on social robots.

The project closed with a public exhibition on 23 October 2018 and guidance on setting up a makerspace in community settings has been developed.