HI Brian,

I'm a member of the Build a Better Book  (BBB) Team. One of the growing edges for us is to learn from the wide ranging contexts and participants that we have been collaborating with  over the last three years so that we can refine our BBB workshop framework and modules so that the core principles and practices are available, as well as more specialized enactments.  Our hope is that BBB is both robust and flexible, so that folks can customize to fit their goals and setting. In addition to our collaboration with librarians, we have also been working with a museum maker space, a university outreach program with engineering and pre-service education students, and with bilingual high school students in a STEM high school, among others.  We are learning so much from these collaborations and will be writing up some of our findings over the next few months.

Would love to hear more from others doing these kind of inclusive design projects!

Best,

Bridget 

Thanks so much, Joni, for suggesting these other videos! It's great to see how other projects are tackling these challenges.

Hi Ginger,

Great questions! When we were initially deciding where we wanted to focus our programming for this project, I think several factors influenced our decision to work with libraries. We wanted to work in an informal setting, both for the flexibility provided by informal spaces, as well as the ability to assess whether the purpose of Build a Better Book provides a sufficient hook for teens to 'opt in' to (and persist in!) a Maker/tech experience. As a STEM education outreach organization, we (CU Science Discovery) had also heard from multiple librarians who had acquired 3D printers - but weren't sure how to use them effectively in a Makerspace. I had recently participated in STARNet's Libraries and STEM Conference and had connected with numerous librarians who were excited about bringing more STEM programming to their libraries but weren't sure where to start or how to support the programming. And because books, stories and access to information are at the heart of this project, it seemed like libraries were an excellent fit for the project. Plus, as most of us know, librarians are pretty awesome and we love to work with them!  : )

The project has recently expanded a bit, by inviting community teams of two collaborating individuals (e.g., 2 librarians in a region, or an educator-librarian team, etc.) to participate. We're excited to see how the project unfolds in this new mix of formal and informal learning environments.

And yes - STAR Net is an amazing resource for those interested in connecting with librarians! They have helped spread the word about our project through their e-newsletter, and helped us recruit an amazing cohort of librarians this past year!

Thanks, Ginger - I just watched this video and was coming to comment and say that we should connect. It looks like we have already! 

Stacey - your project (and video) looks fantastic! It's always great to see other institutions in the STEM community (and in Boulder) partnering with the library community. It sounds like you've likely worked with my colleagues Keliann LaConte and/or Paul Dusenbery in the past; I also noticed a few familiar library staff faces in your video. Would love to chat sometime about your work in the library field!  

Hi Brooks-

Thanks for your comment. And yes - we've worked with both Keliann and Paul, so it'd be great to connect sometime! Are you based here in Boulder? Let me know if you'd like to swing by sometime during our summer camp season - we can check out some of the programs in action, and talk more about libraries!

Thanks for your comments, Victor! And yes, the program was initially focused on books. Build a Better Book grew out of an earlier project started by our partner Tom Yeh, called the Tactile Picture Books Project, which aimed to create 3D-printed tactile picture books for children who are blind or low vision. Although we still work on designing picture books with 3D-printed elements, we realized fairly early on that we needed to expand our ideas about what a 'book' could be. (Tactile books with multiple 3D printed pages get very unwieldy very fast!) We also broadened the scope of the project to incorporate a variety of different Maker tools, including those that allowed us to add audio (e.g., Makey Makey, Bare boards, SpecDrums rings, etc.). Along with opening up a whole new world of possibility for what these projects could be, this has also helped make the project more accessible for different organizations (ie, there is no one maker tool or technology you need in your Makerspace to participate in a meaningful way). Some of the most effective projects have been designed with simple, low-tech materials (Wikki Stix, fabrics, etc.).

The shift to include games came from two directions, right around the same time. A teen participant in a summer program decided to create an original board game with tactile and audio features to share information about a local creek environment. It was an impressive project that helped us realize the potential of games to both engage teens in making and to communicate a lot of valuable information in an interactive way. Around the same time, we held a focus group/Makerspace workshop with families who had children/teens who were blind/low vision. They expressed a lot of interest in having more games that they could play together, and we found that teens were drawn to this challenge of making more accessible games.

Wow, Shelly - thanks so much for sharing this! We had no idea that one of your participants had developed a program inspired by BBB - that's exciting to hear! They definitely took on an ambitious project - including having the kids create original stories related to viruses and bacteria, and then develop multimodal elements. It's great to see how they integrated BBB into a science lesson!

My organization (CU Science Discovery) has worked a lot with our CU Boulder UTeach program - we've had many UTeach students participate as Instructors and Teaching Assistants in our summer camp program over the years. I hadn't realized, though, that there was a new UTeach Maker program - that's exciting! We should definitely brainstorm and think about how we might connect our networks - seems like there is a lot of potential there!

Dear Momo,

Thanks for your comment.  It's interesting to see how youth take up this notion of universal design in their projects. Their initial motivation is to design a book or game that is accessible to children with visual impairments, but as they work and prototype their designs, they become more aware of general issues of access to books, and what counts as a book.  I love this aspect of the work -- developing an appreciation for human diversity and learning how to design with a broad range of users in mind.

Best,

Bridget

Thanks for the note, Momo - I loved seeing your video, too - what a cool project!

And yes, we've heard from many people interested in using the books not just with blind/low vision students, but with ELL students, students with autism, or students with other learning or physical challenges, etc. In fact, this year we partnered with the Technology Student Association so that students developing books for the TSA Children's Stories event created original books, each designed for a child with a disability.

We've also had a good experience involving ELL students as Makers. Many of the ELL students who have participated as Makers have designed bilingual books and/or games featuring English, Spanish and Braille that they have then shared with younger students in their schools or libraries.

Hi Joan,

Thanks so much for offering to connect us with the Pacer staff -- I looked at their website (a terrific resource, as you mention). Given our shared interests, it would be great to connect.

I also watched your project video - what a wonderful project!  I know you are in the midst of data analysis and have preliminary findings at this point.  Our team will be very interested in your findings, once they are finalized.  We're also working on finalizing data analysis and writing, and would be happy to share with your team, as well.

Thanks again for reaching out!

Bridget