ENGR2160 DREAM Designing Resources for Empowerment
DREAM is a studio for students to examine inequalities in places where hands-on making is encouraged and to understand what it means to develop empowering experiences. The class features hands-on projects that allow students to expand their skills as makers with media of their choosing, from computing to craft material and from CAD to CAM. Students will attend at least one of approximately four interactions with off-campus entities such as community technology centers, maker faires, and innovation spaces in schools or libraries. A group project will provide opportunities for students to grapple with the realities of facilitating hands-on making in scenarios where participants have a history of being marginalized. Weekly class meetings mix making time with studying cases of both effective and ineffective empowering interventions in a variety of settings. Students will draw from lessons learned from each case as they design their experiences pragmatically.