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by bsder 1208 days ago
> Perhaps maker spaces are born of a similar ethos, though of course very stem driven.

Huh? Most makerspaces are not at all STEM driven.

In the US, most makerspaces are driven by woodworking. Metalworking and 3D printing generally take up the next tier in a makerspace of usage. Electronics and STEM stuff is generally the bottom of utilization, sadly.

It's simply really hard to come up with good electronics projects that don't also need a pretty solid software background nowadays. That's just really a step too far for most people.

By contrast, there are lots of projects that a couple of hours in a woodshop makes something interesting and semi-useful.
1 comments
somewhereoutth 1208 days ago
Anytime you try to make a 3D thing (and many 2D things) you are doing STEM. I feel the distinction between 'blue collar' e.g. woodworking and 'white collar' technology, and indeed 'purple collar' art & design, to be unhelpful - unless of course to segregate out the 'bookish'!
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bsder 1208 days ago
A carpenter, woodworker, roofer, plumber, welder, etc. would be kind of surprised with your definition of STEM, but, okay.

If that's your definition, you do you.

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somewhereoutth 1208 days ago
> you do you

What? Such an asinine statement.

Clearly anything that involves shaping the physical world will have the hard sciences as its foundation. There is a sort of reverse snobbery going on here - 'too cool for school', it is unfortunate to see.

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bsder 1208 days ago
STEM means "science, technology, engineering and math". And, in fact, is almost always about a degree in the aforementioned areas as it was coined by the NSF in 2001.

You can fool yourself and try to appropriate the acronym STEM for whatever definition you please in service of whatever goal you wish; however, the US government is quite clear as to what a STEM job or degree is. I guarantee that welders, woodworkers, etc. will not be granted a STEM visa to the US.

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somewhereoutth 1207 days ago
In the context of this discussion I was using STEM in the most general sense, i.e. maker spaces tend to be more STEM or craft and technology orientated, as opposed to e.g. literature, social sciences, etc. That should be clear to most I feel - informal learning environments don't provide degrees (almost by definition), so the rigorous usage of the term does not apply.
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dsq 1206 days ago
Better defined as occupational tradesmen/tradespersons.
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