Building STEM and Community Identity Through Design Thinking (2025-2026)

Background

Durham ranks in the top ten in cities in the U.S. for emerging STEM innovation, but many North Carolina K-12 students lag nationally in science and math, hindering their access to local STEM jobs. This trend is particularly evident in engineering among underrepresented racial and gender groups. Although Black and Hispanic individuals make up more than 70% of students in Durham Public Schools, they hold only 14% of engineering positions. In addition, while females make up 50% of all STEM jobs, they only hold 15% of jobs in engineering fields. 

The intersection of these groups is disproportionately impacted by the lack of identity development in hands-on learning. Addressing this requires culturally responsive K-12 environments that foster STEM interest and strengthen community identity.  

Advancing Excellence in P- 12 Engineering Education (AE3) standards have been proven effective in engaging underrepresented racial and gender groups in STEM and identity development. When successful, such programs can engage students in societal issues and ethical inquiry, yet research on optimizing these pre-college experiences remains limited, and integrating AE3 standards in formal education has been challenging.  

Informal education partnerships between science-rich institutions and communities can more swiftly incorporate AE3 principles into K-12 student experiences, allowing for engineering outreach programs to serve as test beds to enhance STEM learning and widen participation. 

Project Description

This project team will evaluate the components of a middle- and high-school engineering experience called Ignite, where over 60 undergraduates have taught more than 200 Durham-area students with the aim of increasing STEM knowledge and retention while bolstering community identity.  

Building on the work of previous teams, this team will seek to quantify and evaluate the value of place-based engineering design. Team members will work to develop hands-on engineering design experiences tied to Durham-specific topics, by dividing into three subteams.  

The Evaluation and Education subteams will focus on Ignite “Gen3” curricula iteration and implementation, by including ethics modules and expanding course offerings beyond the current subjects of Light, Water and Health. Team members will implement their findings during an eight-week hybrid program for Durham students, including trips to the Museum of Life and Science and a Duke conference in Spring 2026.  

The Research subteam will focus on Ignite’s new Human-Centered Design (HCD) Sprint implementation, studying how family-inclusive engineering experiences impact student identity and resilience. This subteam will also assess trial locations and evaluate pilots at places such as the Duke Community Affairs building and Durham Tech’s facilities. 

Data collected by this project will include pre-and post-surveys, engagement measurements, field notes, informal reflection interviews and student artifacts. Each will assist in quantifying community and engineering identity and resilience to generate insights that impact Ignite’s future programs and the broader field of engineering education. 

Anticipated Outputs

Research framework; new curricula; outreach programs; data repository; research publication and/or conference proceedings; preliminary work for research grants 

Student Opportunities 

Ideally, this project team will include 3 graduate students and 12 undergraduate students. Interested students can come from a variety of disciplines, including STEM, education, psychology, human-subject research, or philosophy, but all should have experience or interest in teaching.  

Team members will have the opportunity to perform researched based on education methods, design curricula, and developmental metrics. They will also be able to work directly with middle- and high-school participants in Ignite Gen3 and HCD Sprints.  

Students will be able to apply skills gained, such as citation management, IRB protocols, data management plans and using standard metrics, to future graduate-level research. They will also gain experience in community-based research.  

Graduate students will hone leadership, project management and mentorship skills in overseeing subteams. 

In Fall 2025, the team will meet on Mondays from 3:05-4:20 p.m.

See the related Data+ project for Summer 2025; there is a separate application process for students who are interested in this optional component.