Advancing Alternative Pathways to Science: Community Partnership, Do-It-Yourself (DIY)/Do-It-Together (DIT) Collaboration, and STEM Learning "from Below"

This article examines how makerspace projects can be used as possible sites for creating alternative pathways to science for marginalized and historically underrepresented high school students. A community engagement course focusing on environmental racism and social justice in particular illustrates how key partnerships can develop among college, high school, and community-based organizations. By embracing the ethos of the maker community, students are encouraged to create spaces of skill sharing and cooperation to build a homemade air sensor to chart levels of air pollution at a local high school located less than 100 feet from a busy highway. By appreciating the "funds of knowledge" that every student brings to the project, makerspaces allow for democratic spaces of peer-to-peer learning and the development of culturally relevant modes of scientific learning.