Although research has touted the value of making in educational settings, scant work has been done in formal school contexts utilizing quantitative methods. This could be attributed to the various challenges in integrating making in school settings. To fill in the gap, this study presents an approach to integrate making into science classes at the 3rd to 5th grade levels in a U.S. public school for four consecutive years (2015–2019). We examined the effect of the program on students’ self-beliefs (self-efficacy, motivation, and self-concept) using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design. We also examined the effect of making on students’ knowledge and skills using state testing data. Results suggest that when averaged across post school year surveys, students in maker classes (vs. control) reported higher self-efficacy beliefs in science and making as well as more interests in STEM-related careers. Moreover, over two school years, we observed that students in the control group experienced declines on some of our variables while our maker students did not. Data thereby speaks to the potential value and promise of integrating making into formal school settings. Practical implications are discussed.

尽管研究已经宣扬了教育环境中创造的价值，但在正规学校环境中利用定量方法进行的工作却很少。这可能归因于将创造融入学校环境的各种挑战。为了填补这一空白，本研究提出了一种连续四年（2015-2019）将创客融入美国公立学校三至五年级科学课程的方法。我们使用纵向准实验设计研究了该计划对学生自我信念（自我效能、动机和自我概念）的影响。我们还使用状态测试数据检查了制作对学生知识和技能的影响。结果表明，学年后调查的平均结果显示，创客班的学生（与对照班的学生相比）对科学和创造的自我效能感更高，对 STEM 相关职业也更感兴趣。此外，在两个学年中，我们观察到对照组的学生在我们的一些变量上经历了下降，而我们的创客学生则没有。因此，数据说明了将创客融入正规学校环境的潜在价值和前景。讨论了实际意义。