# Hk Maker Lab 2.0: Inspiring Engineering Design Thinking in Grades 6 - 12 Students and Teacher

> **NIH NIH R25** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $246,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Disparities persist in STEM fields for underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged students
despite the emergence of many formal and informal interventions. STEM identity – one’s view of themself as a
scientist or engineer – plays a crucial role in students’ motivations to pursue STEM education and careers.
Identity is particularly important for minorities and girls in middle school (Grades 6 – 8). Providing middle
school students with project-based experiences that challenge them to employ STEM thinking and practices
are essential in STEM identity development. The burden for creating these opportunities falls largely on
teachers, who often feel ill-equipped to impart these concepts, especially in teaching engineering and
engineering design, areas of emphasis in the widely-adopted Next Generation Science Standards. This is
unfortunate because engineering design is an exciting entry point for STEM that involves inquiry, project-based
learning, and the application of technical skills and knowledge to real-world problems.
 The Hk Maker Lab has provided engineering design-centric education to hundreds of high school students
throughout New York City and has prepared teachers to teach engineering design and incorporate design
thinking into their practice. We are now ready to extend our efforts to middle school students and teachers to
further propel underrepresented minority students towards STEM opportunities at a crucial juncture in their
educational journeys. The Specific Aims of the proposed program are to:
I. Provide early engineering education opportunities to middle school students via Design Hackathons
 that will take place throughout the academic year in addition to continuing the annual Hk Maker Lab
 Summer Design Camp for high school students.
II. Expand the Hk Maker Lab teacher training to middle school teachers to develop their engineering
 design knowledge and self-efficacy such that they can integrate design into their instruction.
III. Cultivate a cohort of master ‘Teachineers’ who are highly adept in engineering design thinking and
 instruction, and can teach design thinking to other teachers via professional development workshops.
The Hk Maker Lab will give both teachers and students hands-on design experiences. The student participants
will have the opportunity to engineer solutions to problems. Working with middle school students will create a
positive STEM trajectory that will result in increased diversity in the field. The participating teachers will receive
an innovative training experience, which they can subsequently use to integrate engineering design into their
school curricula. Finally, by empowering teachers to teach their colleagues, we will be able to scale these
efforts to a wider range of students and teachers, increasing the impact of our engineering design training and
supporting the creation of a diverse STEM education and professional community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10662087
- **Project number:** 7R25GM142072-03
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Aaron Matthew Kyle
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $246,500
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2022-07-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10662087

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10662087, Hk Maker Lab 2.0: Inspiring Engineering Design Thinking in Grades 6 - 12 Students and Teacher (7R25GM142072-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10662087. Licensed CC0.

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