Poster 2: Making Justice: Empowering Students Through Justice-centered STEM Makerspace Activities

Justice-centered STEM Making (JCSM) creates classroom opportunities for students to learn data analysis, mathematics, computer programming, and digital fabrication technologies while simultaneously engaging with social justice topics. The scope of this session is two-fold: presenters will share several JCSM lessons that were previously implemented at our institutions and outline the process for creating these lessons at other institutions. Teachers will leave the session with several sample plans for incorporating social justice into their STEM classes and a concrete approach to creating and implementing their own JCSM lesson plans. Three Learning Objectives 1. Participants will be able to explain the core principles of Justice-centered STEM Making (JCSM) and identify its role in integrating STEM skills with social justice topics to foster civic engagement. 2. Participants will be able to recall and describe various ready-to-use JCSM lesson examples that integrate data analysis, algebra, geometry, coding, and technology, such as analyzing college admissions data or using Scratch for food insecurity. 3. Participants will be able to outline and begin applying a practical process for developing and implementing their own JCSM lessons, enabling them to create new opportunities for students to engage with social justice through STEM.