“Making-in-Place,” Flexible STEM/STEAM Learning, and Flow During the Covid-19 Pandemic

As schools shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents frequently tuned out of their schoolwork, stopped participating in organized sports and extracurriculars, and filled the void with passive leisure like binge watching TV and movies. Lack of meaning and relevance were in full force during the shut down, exacerbating widespread student disengagement. Some youth, however, were able to make creative and productive use of that time. During the pandemic, The Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education held a series of webinars and started new courses in maker education and design challenges that students completed at home. Because instruction was remote, participants were provided with tools and materials to “make in place.” Designing and making solutions to real-life problems is an active, collaborative, and project-based process. As illustrated with colorful examples, the opportunity to “make in place” showed how people could use the time afforded by the pandemic for energetic and innovative activity greatly enriching their education and enhancing their lives. Like a glimpse of light in the darkness, this chapter illustrates that meaningful learning could thrive even under conditions of a shut down, as long as it was real-life learning.