About the Convening
The Math in the Making initiative began with an NSF-funded workshop held in May 2016 at the New York Hall of Science. The workshop’s goal was to foster conversations among math educators, both formal and informal, and researchers and developers in the making and tinkering community in order to define next steps toward expanding the potential of making environments to foster mathematical reasoning and identity.
Over a two-day period, the 50 attendees heard keynotes, observed visitors in the science center maker space, and participated in a variety of making activities—which they then mined, with the guidance of math researchers acting as “math eyes,” for mathematical possibilities. They also organized themselves into affinity groups for more in-depth discussions and provided recommendations on next steps for the workshop planners. These in-person discussions were supported and extended through online forums with a broader group of experts and practitioners both before and after the workshop.