Kathrin Smolarczyk, M.A.
Research associate in the project "EnvironMINT"

Since 2022, I have been working at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Communication and Environment with Prof. Rolf Becker as a research associate in the third-party funded project "EnvironMINT". Before that, I completed a Master's degree in Empirical Educational Research at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and then worked there for more than four years at the Chair of Empirical Educational Research as a research associate in various third-party funded projects and lecturing.
The project "EnvironMINT" ( running period 09/2022 - 08/2025) is part of the BMBF funding guideline on conditions for success of STEM education and investigates the conditions for a successful collaboration of schools and Fab Labs with children, parents and peers for self-determined, sustainable and creative making as a form of holistic STEM education using a participatory and iterative research approach.
Publications
Smolarczyk, Kathrin; Virgo, Magdalena; Abed, Omed; Becker, Rolf (2024): Handbuch Freizeitliches Making. Design Thinking zur Umsetzung eigener Ideen als Basis für langfristige aktive Beteiligung von Kindern und Jugendlichen in FabLabs und Makerspaces. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/C3W25
Journal Articles (peer-reviewed)
Smolarczyk, Kathrin; Mouratidis, Marios; Uhing, Sophie; Becker, Rolf; Kröner, Stephan (2024): Let’s get them on board: Focus group discussions with adolescents on empowering leisure engagement in Fab Labs and makerspaces. In: International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 41, S. 100669. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100669.
Smolarczyk, K., Birnbaum, L., Christ, A., & Kröner, S. (2024). Children’s and adolescents’ engagement with music and the potential for (digital) empowerment processes: A text-mining-supported scoping review. Psychology of Music, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356241241535
Smolarczyk, K., & Kröner, S. (2023): Two decades in the making: A scoping review on research on digital making and its potential for digital empowerment in non-formal settings. Journal of Research on Technology in Education.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1974987
Smolarczyk, K., Wießnet, V., Birnbaum, L., & Kröner, S. (2022). The effects of setting and music on the intention to participate in out-of-school music classes: An experimental video vignette study. Psychology of Music. 50(2), 345-364.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F03057356211000124
Christ, A., Smolarczyk, K. & Kröner, S. Schwerpunktthemen der quantitativ-empirischen Forschung mit Bezug zur Digitalisierung in der kulturellen Bildung: Eine kartierende Forschungssynthese. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-023-01210-7
Bookchapters
Birnbaum, L., Flasche, V., Hasselhorn, J., Jörissen, B., Kröner, S., Lehmann, A.C., Lill, F., Smolarczyk, K. & Wießnet, V. (2020). Kondensiertes Glück? Komplexe Forschungsdesigns zur Entwicklung musikpädagogischer Interventionen. In: Timm, S., Costa, J., Kühn, C. & Scheunpflug, A. Kulturelle Bildung. Theoretische Perspektiven, methodologische Herausforderungen und empirische Befunde (pp. 317-334). Münster: Waxmann.
Christ, A., Birnbaum, L., Smolarczyk, K., Kröner, S. (2023). Verortung des Förderschwerpunkts DiKuBi und seiner Vorhaben im Kontext der internationalen Forschung zur Digitalisierung in der kulturellen Bildung. In: Jörissen, Benjamin [Hrsg.]; Kröner, Stephan [Hrsg.]; Birnbaum, Lisa [Hrsg.]; Krämer, Franz [Hrsg.]; Schmiedl, Friederike [Hrsg.]: Digitalisierung in der kulturellen Bildung. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven für ein Feld im Aufbruch (pp. 177-194). München:kopaed.