Dr Alison Buxton

Alison specialises in makerspaces and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, maths) education in primary schools and the early years. She has been involved in STEM education and public engagement, including at secondary level since the early 2000s. She has a particular interest in under-represented groups in engineering and has produced publications and guidance on equality and diversity for public engagement for the Centre for Science Education and the Royal Air Force. 

Alison’s main interest is the development of makerspaces and maker education in UK primary schools. She is Programme Director for Maker{Futures}, a university priority project, which includes Maker{Move}, a mobile makerspace for schools, libraries and museums. As part of this work, Alison is currently developing a Maker{School} strand, including writing a maker curriculum for primary schools. 

Alison’s current projects include Make a Maker{School} funded in part by the Garfield Weston Foundation that is developing curriculum, designing clubs and family engagement elements for the Maker{School} programme and WorldBuilders, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation that is supporting professional development for primary teachers linking artistic elements of videogames with literacy.