| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 21, 2011 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 25, 2013 |
| Award Number: | 1104199 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Gul Kremer
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EHR Direct For Education and Human Resources |
| Start Date: | July 15, 2011 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $897,766.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $897,766.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2012 = $286,159.00 FY 2013 = $295,396.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1825 North Bluemound Drive Appleton WI US 54913-2277 (920)735-5600 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1825 North Bluemound Drive Appleton WI US 54913-2277 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
0412 NSF Education & Human Resource 0413 NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The project teaches next generation manufacturing strategies to students by building on the successful Fab Lab concept. Fab Labs are off-the-shelf, industrial-grade fabrication and electronics tools combined with open source software. Fab Labs allow students to create or invent, then build their creations.
The act of creation and building motivates students to study STEM. To measure this effect, the project is assessing how well the Fab Labs develop deep and long term connections between students and STEM study. The project is then using these assessments to formulate a model for attracting and sustaining students in the study of STEM fields.
Using Fab Labs, the project is developing a Learning Community to help drive technician education nation-wide. The project builds the Learning Community by collaborating with four ATE Centers spanning 20 schools and organizations. The collaboration is implementing Fab Labs as they share problems, solutions and expertise and further integrates existing resources into new course offerings.
Using webinars, workshops, mentoring, web portals and a national symposium, the program's materials and resources are being widely disseminated to encourage others to use the resources being developed.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Summary
The Digital Fabrication Learning (DFLC) Community (NSF Project #1104199) project successfully completed all major project goals, objectives, activities and deliverables planned for the project. The DFLC Project successfully achieved its mission to establish a pilot learning community that leverages digital and personal fabrication’s proven enrichment of STEM competencies and attitudes with learners and educators, while driving Next Generation Manufacturing technician development throughout the USA.
To accomplish this mission, the DFLC Project Team integrated multiple networks of Community College and Educational Fab Labs, Digital Fabrication Experts, STEM Learning Specialists, and Next-Generation Manufacturing (NSF ATE) Centers and practitioners into a pilot USA Digital Fabrication Learning Community.
The DFLC project fulfilled the following goals to achieve its mission:
•Establish the infrastructure and offerings for a pilot Digital Fabrication Learning Community that integrates Next Generation Manufacturing technician development.
•Develop a technology blueprint and test portal for a Digital Fabrication Learning Community to share digital fabrication curriculum and resources.
•Define a Digital Fabrication STEM Learning Model and evaluate ongoing impacts of digital and personal fabrication experiences on STEM learners in the pilot Digital Fabrication Learning Community.
Over the course of the project, the DFLC sponsored 116 major activities reaching over 8,950 individuals. These activities included informational activities, training and development activities, outreach, symposiums, a mentoring program, partnership development, publications/products and portal development (www.dflc-usa.org). From a broad perspective, all of these activities strengthened the learning community, and exposed new individuals and institutions to the power of digital and personal fabrication.
Intellectual Merit- Planned & Realized
The fundamental driver of Fab Lab experiences is the high level of personalization and rapid translation of an idea or design into physical reality. This model translates to deeper learning, motivation, and commitment of both technical and non-technical learners. The assessments of fab lab students and their instructors confirmed the merit of these experiences. Students valued their personal fabrication experiences and believed their understanding of key concepts and interests in STEM disciplines were enhanced. Teachers observed enrichment of visualization, mathematical and engineering skills. They also valued the unique, experiential (“hands-on, minds-on”) learning and observed enhanced soft skills such as collaboration, creativity, innovation and critical thinking.
Broader Impact
The transition to Digital Fabrication (defined as a the process of making or forming based on binary data) being driven largely by DFLC Partner MIT CBA, Is analogous to when computers and phones switched to digital except the same thing Is happening with fabrication equipment. This digital conversion simplifies the fabrication process because interfacing or programming isn't necessary and essentially all fab equipment looks like a printer to the user. This simplification, in conjunction with much less expensive fabrication equipment, is driving a global personal fabrication revolution throughout education, business, industry and even homes, with the Fab Lab Community clearly at the forefront.
Commun...
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