CCSF Fosters Inclusivity Through Cross-Curricular Programming and Conscious Naming Conventions
“Our approach in the beginning was to try and redefine what it means to be a maker, but we don’t have to do that. We just have to make the space welcoming.” — Maura Devlin-Clancy, MakerSphere Coordinator
As the sole community college in the city of San Francisco, CCSF (City College of San Francisco) serves as many as one in nine residents. With this important role comes the responsibility to provide access and equity, to reflect the community they serve, and to help best prepare students to succeed in today’s job market.
When the CCSF team embarked on the two-year CCC Maker makerspace startup process, they set out to meet three main goals: curriculum that directly ties to the makerspace, a campus-wide network of three makerspaces, and a makerspace demographic that is a direct reflection of the student population. With hard work, focus, and dedication, they’ve proudly accomplished all three.
Backstory
In 2015, CCSF, in an effort to prioritize student success, particularly for underrepresented students, held a flex day where faculty could spend time looking at student data for their respective departments. Maura Devlin- Clancy, at the time the department chair of the Computer Networking and Information Technology (CNIT), became increasingly concerned with the student data around gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and success rates. Clearly, the systems already in place were somehow failing to engage students and prepare them for the Bay Area job market. Something needed to change. Career and technical education (CTE) data was showing that even a few CTE units could significantly increase a student’s earning potential and chances of being hired.
Serendipitously, at the same time, Devlin-Clancy was invited by CCSF partner Cisco to visit an Internet of Things (IoT) Boot Camp pilot they were running at a makerspace inside The Exploratorium. She recalls, “I knew about makerspaces, but I had never been in one, and I didn’t really see a connection. They seemed like a niche sort of thing.” The experience was eye-opening, and she began to see the potential.
So in January of 2016, when the CCC Maker project, initiated by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, launched the call for proposals, the CCSF team knew a solution was in sight. Notably, leadership at CCSF also recognized the potential student benefits of a campus makerspace and were on board: Chancellor Mike Rocha and Associate Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development Theresa Rowland were both quite supportive, which made the process much smoother.
Problem Statement and Solution
Their problem statement read:
“Across our large urban college, a network of a main campus and nine centers, we see gaps in connectivity in many areas. Students who are ethnically and gender-diverse or socio-economically disadvantaged connect to STEAM pathways in lower numbers. Our faculty lack space and a platform to connect across programs and to industry resources that support the development of New World of Work skills in the classroom. We see a need to build internal connections, to support and encourage faculty to create interdisciplinary courses and scale evidence-based practices focused on increased student inclusion and 21st century skills.”
Fast-forward three years, and not only are CCSF’s three makerspaces (collectively called the MakerSphere) integrated into curriculum across campus, but they’re embraced by the full spectrum of departments and student population, a testament to the power of intentional inclusivity.
Spaces and Curriculum
The CCSF MakerSphere is a network of three makerspaces on two different CCSF campuses:
1. The Collaboratory (Ocean Campus Library) hosts “clean” equipment (e.g., designing and rapid prototyping) as well as large community events and an entrepreneurship program.
2. The SmartHub (Ocean Campus) hosts an ambient intelligent networked environment, laser and fabrication materials, and midweight equipment for individual and class use.
3. The Industrial Hub (Evans Center, co-located with the Welding, Automotive, Construction, and Fashion/Upholstery departments) is the most recent addition and hosts heavy industrial equipment.
CCSF’s cross-disciplinary curriculum currently includes a general education course called Maker 100, a Maker Studies Certificate of Accomplishment (“a program designed for working professionals, business owners, and students working towards a degree who wish to understand and apply maker concepts and techniques to their existing or future educational pathways”), a capstone Maker 400 course, and a one-unit course for teachers, all hosted in campus makerspaces.
The Maker 100 course, interestingly, is team-taught by three teachers from three different departments: Eugene Young from Visual Media Design, who teaches papercraft and engineering; Suzanne Pugh from Art/Sculpture, who teaches sculpture and jewelry making; and Lea Smith from Computer Networking and Information Technology, who teaches computational tinkering and creative coding. The inclusionary strategy in the design of the class structure is to begin with neutral materials that are familiar to everyone (in this case, papercraft) and add skills and materials from there.
Devlin-Clancy notes, “It’s interesting the impact the makerspaces have had. They’ve created a platform for more innovation and more faculty coming together from different disciplines in a very complementary kind of way versus a competitive sort of way. Just having these spaces on campus has infused a lot of excitement and a lot of rethinking about what our classrooms should look like.”
Naming Conventions and Equity
The three spaces intentionally bear names that exclude the word “makerspace” in an effort to appeal to a wider audience. What’s in a name? Quite a bit, actually. Devlin-Clancy shares, “Who identifies as a maker and what it means to be a maker are some things
that we’re learning about.” For example, as a way to reach underrepresented minority students, the SmartHUB hosted a program called Art and Activism in conjunction with the African American Studies and Philippine Studies programs. In reality, it included the same use of tools and projects as the previously named Freedom School, but the difference was that the makerspace deputized the partner programs (who have strong student voices) to name it. The program has been quite well-received and successful at inviting and welcoming an underrepresented demographic into the space.
The MakerSphere has also made some great gains in regard to gender equity. Going into this work, the CCSF team knew that makerspaces traditionally attracted more men than women, so they laid the foundation by working with the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS) on recruiting and retaining women in makerspaces. The Maker 100 classes have been at least 50% female students every semester it’s been offered. The goal, though, is 55% to mirror the gender breakdown of the school’s overall population.
Devlin-Clancy notes, “We want the spaces to welcome all students: those who are beginning makers to experienced makers who actually have projects that they’re already thinking about. So it was very intentional how we created our spaces to welcome every student from across the campus: male, female, young, old, and across all ethnic groups.” CCSF’s data-driven, student-focused, cross-disciplinary approach is not only inspiring, but quite effective.
Final Thoughts from the Field
From the perspective of an educator who has seen the potential makerspaces have on students and the college, Devlin-Clancy wraps up by sharing, “The last thing I’ll add is that having a space dedicated to innovation gives you a platform for engaging with partners in a way that you might not if you don’t have this spirit of innovation and a space to experiment. Just by having a neutral space where we’re trying new things, we’ve established connections with industry.
I would encourage colleges to find a place that can be an innovation space where everyone can try things. Having a space for innovation brings a lot of things to your partnerships, your students, your faculty, and to how you think about teaching and learning. It can be hard to do, but once you do it, the payoff is really great.”
Be sure to check out the CCSF profile video:
This article first appeared in the CCC Maker publication titled “Makerspace Impact: Implementation Strategies & Stories of Transformation” (2019).
