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Creating Social Value via Undergraduate Design Thinking Course with K-12 STEM Education Outreach in Various Community Settings

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Abstract

BME HealthReach is an educational outreach program where undergraduate BME students participate in an out-of-class design thinking course to create and teach interactive STEM activities to K-12 students, where children with chronic illnesses are the primary clients. We detail research that seeks to answer the following: (1) what impact does this out-of-class design course have? (2) how does this course contribute to the entrepreneurial mindset, including promoting connection-making and creating social value/relationships? and (3) do the STEM activities achieve the educational learning objectives? BME students completed anonymous surveys pre/post-semester and descriptive statistics were used to report their viewpoints. Pediatric patients answered post-activity questions to assess the educational objectives. 98% of the BME students completed the surveys. In the pre-surveys, 49% of participants listed “teaching” as their primary goal for taking the course. In the post-surveys, 68% selected “teaching skills” as the value the course provided. Post-course reflections revealed that out-of-class opportunities positively impacted the BME students by fulfilling their desires to teach, fostering social values, and providing a creative outlet. 132 pediatric patients completed 3 STEM activities, 68% of 6th graders and above demonstrated thorough understanding of the STEM topics. 189 BME students have participated in BME HealthReach (80% participating for multiple semesters), teaching ~1500 pediatric patients and ~2500 K-12 students. The BME students enjoyed exploring connections between their course work and designing STEM activities, while building community social value/relationships. We summarize how our unique educational outreach program fosters social value within BME education and provides innovative K-12 educational programming.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mr. Christopher Harden and Ms. Brenda Williams for their dedication to patient education, Ms. Meredith Fay, the team of BME undergraduate students for their never-ending time and dedication, Mr. Schuyler van Montfrans, Dr. Jordan Ciciliano, and Dr. Wendy Newstetter, and to the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation and School Program for their support.

Funding

Supported by funding from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation and internally the 1998 Society. Financial support for this work was provided by National Institutes of Health Grant R35HL145000 (W.A.L.) and National Science Foundation grant 1711259 (W.A.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Elaissa T. Hardy, Sara Ivey Fulmer, Joseph M. Le Doux & Wilbur A. Lam

  2. Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, 2015 Uppergate Dr NE, Room 448, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Elaissa T. Hardy & Wilbur A. Lam

  3. Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Elaissa T. Hardy & Wilbur A. Lam

Authors
  1. Elaissa T. Hardy
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  2. Sara Ivey Fulmer
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  3. Joseph M. Le Doux
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  4. Wilbur A. Lam
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Contributions

Dr. ETH, Ms. SIF, and Dr. WAL conceptualized and designed the work, as well as co wrote, reviewed, and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Correspondence to Wilbur A. Lam.

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All authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Human Participants—Emory University IRB—IRB00114382, Georgia Institute of Technology IRB—H20186.

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Human Participants—Emory University IRB—IRB00114382, Georgia Institute of Technology IRB—H20186.

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Human Participants—Emory University IRB—IRB00114382, Georgia Institute of Technology IRB—H20186.

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Hardy, E.T., Fulmer, S.I., Le Doux, J.M. et al. Creating Social Value via Undergraduate Design Thinking Course with K-12 STEM Education Outreach in Various Community Settings. Biomed Eng Education 2, 253–263 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43683-022-00064-5

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