â¦
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Confucius, 6th century BC
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1
As an educator you might wonder how to foster sustainability awareness among your students. This chapter focuses on one of the many areas of sustainability: waste. Specifically, âHow do we stimulate the Maker Mindset and Circular Thinking using e-wasteâ?
Making creates knowledge, builds environments, and transforms lives (Ingold, 2013). The resources for making are not always renewable resources. In this chapter we will explore how Circular Thinking requires a Maker mindset and Makers benefit from Circular Thinking in a Mexican context.
The Circular Economy thinking is based on the principles of design, repair, and reuse to keep products and materials in use, thus demanding less resources and energy (Korhone, Honkasalo, & Seppälä, 2018). âNow we have entered the Age of Anthropocene, the geological epoch signifying that human activity has become the dominant driver of change for the Earthâs climate and ecosystems. Discarded garbage, plastics and e-waste have risen to unheard-of heightsâ (Wackman & Knight, 2020, p. 57).
E-waste following a linear economical model, that hasnât been designed to be recycled, is known as planned obsolescence (Bolow, 1986; Guiltinan, 2009; Waldman, 1993). The constant growth of obsolete electronic products generates a problem worldwide due to the lack of processes to reincorporate raw materials to a Circular Economy model, thus causing the overexploitation of virgin natural resources (Böni, 2005). Today, in the complex Covid 19 pandemic situation, there has been a rise in the purchase and the waste of electronic equipment since people have been forced to acquire or renew their electronic devices to meet the needs of work, school, family, and friends.
Meeting the contemporary social needs involves environmental and human health impacts (Kiddee, Naidu, & Wong, 2013); which could be addressed in a more sustainable way through Circular Thinking.
2 Maker Mindset Connecting with Circular Thinking
We are all makers; Dougherty (2016, p. 143) defined making as âthe process of realizing an idea and making it tangibleâ. Therefore, with the global challenge we are facing with e-waste and realizing that this linear economic system is no longer sustainable, the maker society is already present in the creative process of solving the problem. Makers are doing this by coming up with tangible solutions and alternatives to this linear economy and integrating more Circular Thinking into the development of new, more sustainable products. Later in
But as educators, how do we prepare the new generations to learn about the principles of design, repair and reuse that characterize the Circular Thinking? How can we link circular thinking to Maker education by democratizing technology into a more sustainable living environment? Paul Blikstein (2018) suggests that the best way to foster curiosity and guide students to explore and construct their own knowledge is by letting them become makers.
The Maker Education mindset is based on skills, attitudes and knowledge that fosters active learning, curiosity, engagement, playfulness, and resourcefulness (Dougherty, 2016, p. 144). These attributes help the maker to transform their ideas into tangible artifacts using the tools and technology available. So, what if the technology available is based on Circular Thinking principles?
Andrews (2015) suggests that Circular Economy should also be embedded when designing the curriculum, so that it also becomes integral to the educational practice. It would enable sustainability issues to be addressed implicitly. For example, students would learn to design for longevity (creating products that can be repaired, upgraded and remanufactured, and have a high perceived value) and to design for reduced environmental impact and increased efficiency (via dematerialization, designs using waste/discarded products/parts, closed materials loops and service design; Andrews, 2015, p. 313).
In this chapter we explore how sustainability and especially the Circular Thinking approach can be added to STEAM. This term has been used regularly in Maker education. Martinez & Stager (2019) define it as a way to explore, tinker, imagine and create solutions to problems while developing skills in science, technology, engineering, art, design, and/or mathematics (STEAM). By adding Sustainability with the Circular Thinking approach, the term used in this chapter is STEAMS.
STEAMS is a project-based approach to create artifacts made out of reused, repurposed or repaired objects. It gives young children the opportunity to wonder and explore technological skills like electric circuits, multimedia, tinkering and engineering among others. Furthermore, 21st century skills like computational thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking are fostered while taking action to reuse, repair and repurpose objects. The aim of STEAMS is to make the new generations curious about the Circular Thinking and encourage educators and children to foster creative ways to solve problems using reused, repaired or repurposed materials.
This chapter recounts the connection between the principles of Circular Thinking and the Maker Mindset in a Mexican educational context.
2.1
In 2006, in Queretaro, Mexico, Alvaro Nuñez, the CEO of âRecicla Electrónicos México S.A de C.Vâ. started the adventure of putting together a company to recycle e-waste, they call themselves âEco Makersâ. Ever since, his company has been working with different partners and putting together a framework to address the local and national problem of electronic obsolete products. This framework provides a management system to reuse and recycle obsolete products. The framework has six sections represented in Figure 5.1.
Management system to reuse and recycle obsolete products
The mechanism of the framework is human based design. By using Maker Mindset elements such as tinkering, engineering and problem solving, the Eco Maker team has come up with different strategies that make it accessible to the community by collecting their e-waste and creating a culture to recycle it and turn it into profitable products.
The company has developed an easy way to collect the e-waste from the community by using an app. They have developed an app in English and Spanish
To share knowledge the company has created different channels. For example, the âCircular Economy podcastâ,2 their blog3 and Maker workshops.
2.1.1 Reusing E-Waste to Design âEcoMakerKitsâ
The Eco Makers put special effort on the educational part of their framework. They developed an âInnovation Labâ based on the maker principles of engagement and resourcefulness. Its members are a team of engineers and mechatronic students working collaboratively to reuse different parts of the e-waste and turn it into upcycled new products to support Circular Economy education. After several design cycles they have created many innovative prototypes, and some of them make it into the Maker Store as innovative products. For example, in Figure 5.2 you can see how at the front a mechatronic student is developing a 3D printer using the e-waste of an old printer. The idea is that some of the parts of the old printer will be used for other 3D printers.
The Eco-Maker store reincorporates e-waste to new cycles and products and make these accessible to the society. For example, they have refurbished laptops and desktops. They also have put together âEcoMakerKitsâ, each kit contains e-waste parts to build products like a Bluetooth loudspeaker and an electric Fan. These EcoMakerKitsâ provide users with the opportunity to develop technical skills while using electronic waste, highlighting the importance of reusing, repairing and repurposing.4 In Figure 5.3 you can see some
The philosophy of the company shares the Maker Education principle of âinvention literacyâ. Silver (2016) advocates to foster âinvention literacyâ as part of the contemporary education. He suggests that people should learn, understand and name how things are made. He implies that there is a âhidden literacyâ in the man-made world, and when putting apart objects, this gives the opportunity explore and name the parts of what it is made of and hopefully give insights and inspiration to build new things.
There are many products being developed by the Eco Maker team, but with the inventorâs mindset, the technical and understanding skills using e-waste, we will focus on the Bluetooth loudspeaker and the Fan, where we have documented information from educators and students using them.
2.2 Hands-on Learning with the âEcoMakerKitsâ
The Eco Maker team has come up with two ways to share their âEcoMakerKitsâ to the educational community. One is focusing on educators through donations campaigns, and the other is focused on students and extended community through trainings and access to the products in the web shop.
2.2.1 Educational Campaigns to Share âEcoMakerKitsâ
In Mexico every May 15th is the Teachers National Day. In 2021, the Eco-Makers team came up with the idea of making a âFan Maker Kitâ based on what they had on storage (Figure 5.4). They donated the Fan Maker Kits to teachers interested in STEAMS education. The campaign reached 147 schools, with 219 kits
This example shows how part of the Maker Education principles goes beyond the profit purpose and embraces the sharing knowledge values. Through the âEcoMakerKitsâ, Maker Education and Circular Thinking principles accessible to an extended community as well as linking it to the Global Goal from the United Nations of âQuality Educationâ.
2.2.2 Hands-on Learning Using the âEcoMakerKitsâ
The educational perspective of Circular Thinking focuses on extending the life of a product and valuing the materials coming from nature. This concept is not easy to grasp for primary students. Therefore, the Eco Maker team developed a pilot workshop to stimulate curiosity for Circular Thinking, especially assembling artifacts with electronic circuits by making a Bluetooth loudspeaker and an electric Fan.
The pilot of the workshop took place in July 2021 in Querétaro, México, at a âSummer Courseâ that lasted four hours. The participants were fourchildren between 10 and 13 years old, the 13 years old participants having just finished primary school. The facilitator was a retired engineer that volunteered to facilitate the workshop and gave special input on the technical part of the activities.
The learning activities were based on the constructivist approach from Roger Bybee (Walia, 2012) called the â5E Modelâ: Engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. The learning goal was to practice the following 21st century skills: Creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
The learning objectives were:
- âIntroduce the Circular Economy concept
- âExplore digital tools to create a melody inspired on Circular Economy
- âFollow a sequence of steps to build a Bluetooth loudspeaker and an electric Fan using e-waste
- âTest the Bluetooth loudspeaker and the electric Fan
- âReflect on their learning
The first activity was to engage the students with the topic by asking them about what they already know about Circular Economy and documenting their answers using a self-assessment worksheet. The participants self-assessed the following learning goals based on their previous knowledge:
- âI can explain what the Circular Economy is.
- âI am able to create a melody with digital media.
- âI am able to plan a sequence of steps to build a Bluetooth loudspeaker.
- âI am able to play the melody on the Bluetooth loudspeaker.
They had to choose between three different answers:
- âI can do it with support.
- âI can do it by myself.
- âI can do it and explain it to others.
The second activity was to explore the concept of Circular Economy. The participants watched a video6 made for children by the Eco-Maker team. Afterwards the facilitator helped them discuss the global challenge that every year, tons of obsolete electronic products are discarded in the world, causing environmental pollution and damage to the health of living beings on the planet. After the discussion they had to come up with keywords that represent the Circular Economy, then present it to the group and finally write a sentence with their own definition of Circular Economy.
Music and melodies are an important part of humanity (Martinez & Stager, 2019) and a great way to explain how humans interpret their world. Therefore, the third activity was to explain how to create an original melody that would represent the concept of Circular Economy using an open-source website.7
Both the speaker and the electric Fan âEcoMakerKitsâ come in a box with all the parts to build it, including the case, engines, and wires to connect it.
The participants had to put them together using a set of instructions and video tutorials. The electric Fan had a hard copy with instructions represented in Figure 5.7, as well as a video tutorial.8 The Bluetooth loudspeaker had a digital version of the instructions9 and a video tutorial.10
Finally, the fifth activity was to evaluate and self-assess their understanding and knowledge based on the rubrics from the first self-assessment activity and to reflect on their learning by answering the questions:
- âWhat did you learn?
- âWhat made you curious?
- âWhat worked well?
- âWhat did not work?
- âWhat else would you like to learn?
In the next section we describe the results of the pilot workshop as an example of STEAMS hands-on learning activities.
3 Findings and Insights Using the âEcoMakerKitsâ
The two âEcoMakerKitsâ help to showcase how hands-on learning can impact the vision and understanding of Circular Thinking and Maker Mindset. As a result, we share some findings and insights based on two questions:
- â
What enables or hinders the understanding of Circular Thinking using âEcoMakerKitsâ? - âWhat enables or hinders the Maker Mindset using âEcoMakerKitsâ?
3.1 The Enablers and Disablers of Understanding of Circular Thinking Using âEcoMakerKitsâ
The teacherâs campaign to share the âEcoMakerKitsâ was a great initiative for educators to have access to STEAMS resources, but it didnât include a lesson plan to explain what Circular Economy is. Therefore, a pilot was organized to showcase how educators and students could use these resources and to document their understanding of âCircular Economyâ while using these resources.
In the next paragraphs the finding and insights of the five different activities of the workshop can be found. The participants were two boys and two girls, the facilitator, and the researcher. The two boys decided to work together, and the two girls worked as a team as well.
The first, second and fifth activities were done individually, they focused on grasping the conceptual understanding of what âCircular Economyâ is. The participants practiced their critical thinking and communication skills. The third activity focused on their creative and tinkering skills to create an original melody that would represent the concept of âCircular Economyâ.
The original melody of the girls represents the disassembly process of e-waste and turning it into reusable electronics.11 The boys decided to write the word âeconomyâ using Morse Code.12
During the first activity and the self-assessment, the participants acknowledge that they needed support to explain what âCircular Economyâ is but after the video and the discussion they were able to give their own definitions. It is interesting to see that three out of four definitions focused on electronics, except for âParticipant 1â. We believe that the influence of the video made by the Eco Maker team and the discussion around e-waste impacted on this narrowed vision of what âCircular Economyâ is. During the group discussion the facilitator did mention that Circular Economy goes beyond electronics. It can also take place with fabrics, metal, and other types of materials. Thus, even though there is a broader definition to it, the participants came up with their own definition based on the experience from the first and second activities.
The positive effect is that the participants were able to develop technical skills, a limitation, considering that the learning goal is about âCircular Economyâ using resources based on e-waste, but it seems that they needed support to grasp the âCircular Thinkingâ skills.
3.2
The students that participated in the workshop were able to benefit from the lesson plan that guide them through the technical skills and Maker Mindset, like resourcefulness, playfulness and especially focused on the technical skills to assemble the artefact and to connect the electric circuit practicing engineering, tinkering and critical thinking skills.
They put together the Bluetooth loudspeaker and an electric fan in pairs. The girls chose to build an electric fan represented in Figure 5.8 with the facilitatorâs assistance. The boys chose to build the loudspeaker represented in Figure 5.9.
Assembling the electric fan with the facilitatorâs assistance
Boys assembling the bluetooth loudspeaker
They followed the video tutorial and the steps to build it. The resources provided by the Eco Maker team were very useful to guide them step by step to put it together.
The participants found it challenging to put together the electronic circuits and had to go back to the video and the instructions many times to do it correctly. Their curiosity went beyond the novelty of the product and went deeper into scientific curiosity (Jirout et al., 2012). The participants were able to express it in the reflection activity. For example, in the last reflection activity they shared that they were curious to know how the electric Fan works, where energy comes from, realized how small the Bluetooth hardware is, and how wires work. These insights that might encourage them to find out more about technical skills related to assembling and electronic circuits.
The educators that participated in the teachersâ campaign with âEcoMakerKitsâ have also access to the video tutorials and manuals made by the Eco Maker team. Hopefully these resources make it easier for them to integrate the technical skills into their educational environment and share the Maker Mindset with their students. Unfortunately, this has not been documented yet.
The workshop helped to document how in using âEcoMakerKitsâ the participants can actively learn how it is not acceptable that the society continues to send products to the trash when there is a high probability that many of their parts and/or components still work or can be repaired.
The limitation of this workshop is that is the educational part focuses on e-waste, leaving aside other industries such as fashion and plastic packaging that are part of the linear model of take-make-waste.
Another limitation is that the âEcoMakerKitsâ are part of a well-defined business model that provides the infrastructure to make it sustainable to provide to the society this type of maker education. As a result, there is limited access to this type of educational resources.
4 Conclusions
We can conclude that in the workshop the âEcoMakerKitsâ resulted in growing curiosity of âCircular Thinkingâ and technical skills to ensemble artifacts made out of e-waste, especially with the older participants.
In the workshop, the participants received practical experience in a country with a lack of resources for materials in education. They learned to follow a
It was possible for the participants to develop a certain understanding of Maker Mindset and the technical skills to build their âEcoMakerKitsâ. It would be advisable to have a facilitator with technical knowledge to explain how electrical circuits work, how to essemble them, and to help solve technical questions from the participants.
The instructional design focused on the Bluetooth loudspeaker âEcoMakerKitâ. It gave specific learning goals and steps that were used in the workshop to give more emphasis on concepts like âCircular Economyâ and âElectronic Circuitsâ to build the loudspeaker and a website to make the melodies to be played using the Bluetooth loudspeaker. The participants might also benefit from a lesson plan that could give a functional context to use the electric Fan.
For further research, it would be interesting to consider adding to the Eco Makers educational campaigns the educational resources that go beyond teaching technical skills as a strategy to approach the âMaker Mindsetâ, but also help to grasp the concept of âCircular Thinkingâ. This could help other educators locally and globally to have inspiration on how to approach these concepts using hands-on learning activities.
It would also be interesting to dig deeper into the business model of the Eco Maker company who supplies these kits, especially to see if this business model can be adopted by others in order to increase the amount of e-waste recycling and increasing the supply for educational kits like this. Further research could take the lessons learned from the company and package it as a template for others, perhaps other areas within or even outside Mexico could get up and running quickly, managing a sustainable business model with an important environmental/educational purpose.
The current environmental crisis calls us to carry out actions that mitigate the effects of Climate Change. It is through the Circular Thinking and the type of educational resources used in this chapter, that we may also demonstrate the importance to incorporate e-waste in education.
Educators could consider using components with a useful life for the creation of new maker educational resources as alternatives to reduce the environmental impact; As well as helping to accomplish the following Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Action (Morton, Pencheon, & Squires, 2017).
We also find a positive impact on the education of young generations to foster the curiosity and to expand their Maker Mindset. This can be done through STEAMS activities like the two presented in this chapter with the âEcoMakerKitsâ. These activities provided hands-on learning that helped the participants to raise awareness of Circular Thinking, grasp the concept of
It might be interesting for other educators to have next to their âMaker Spaceâ a âBreaker Spaceâ designated to dismantle e-waste and help to make the connection on how things work and are made, and how they can be reused or repaired to extend their usable life.
Hopefully the children participating in this type of maker education are inspired to become professionals that can develop new products with the knowledge and methodology of the Circular Thinking and Maker Mindset.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the participants, the facilitator, and the Eco Maker team for their support.
Notes
A slide deck in Spanish was used to support the workshop and is available following this link: bit.ly/planeacioneconomiacircular
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