Using human-centered design to drive project-based learning in a high school summer stem course (evaluation)

Abstract

This paper presents a case study describing improvements made to an existing makerspace high school summer outreach course, by using survey data to evaluate the effectiveness of adding Human Centered Design (HCD) into a project-based inventorship curriculum. An existing high school summer Makerspace course was adapted to emphasize HCD as a driving force for real-world engineering educational experiences for students. Makerspace students were enrolled for 120 hours over six weeks, where they learned about design and prototyping through workshops and a creative invention process. Teams of three to four students identified a problem statement, created a working prototype, collected user feedback, and refined their invention to achieve a minimum viable product. Student teams used HCD and customer validation in order to develop a product with specific customers in mind and acquired feedback by interviewing users. The teaching team used a combination of inquiry, problem, and project-based learning pedagogies to reinforce student learning, often on a case-by-case basis in order to meet the demands of each project. The Makerspace was one of ten sections in the overall summer STEM program and concluded with demonstrations and a formal presentation to all other sections of the program. Entry and exit surveys were administered to the students to collect their demographic information, self-assessments of their skills and interest in engineering. The effectiveness of the Makerspace teaching model to the spur student learning of engineering skills was validated by student growth and confidence in manufacturing, electronics, entrepreneurship, and design skills.