Family Makers: Online Engineering Program for Underserved Children and Caregivers at Rural Libraries

The research team from Indiana University and Florida State University—with eight rural libraries and rural engineers—conducted a three-year applied research project to strengthen rural libraries’ capacities for outreach educational programming, online facilitation skill, and culturally-relevant engineering program for underserved children. This research aimed to understand challenges rural library staff experience in facilitating online engineering programs for underserved children and caregivers, identify effective approaches for engaging them in online engineering learning, and develop and disseminate ready-to-use online engineering program that rural libraries can adopt to support underserved children and caregivers. The project goal was to enhance underserved children and caregivers’ engineering interest and practices and rural library staff’s online facilitation skills and understanding of the engineering design process.

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PI: Dr. Soo Hyeon Kim/ Co-PI: Dr. Gi Woong Choi & Dr. Andrea Copeland

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This research is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Learn more by visiting the project website.