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1. Lost in Translation: Examining the Complex Relationship Between Prototyping and Communication

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049885  

   Krishnakumar, Sandeep; Berdanier, Catherine; McComb, Christopher; Menold, Jessica (September 2021, Journal of Mechanical Design)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Prototyping plays a pivotal role in the engineering design process. Prototypes represent physical or digital manifestations of design ideas, and as such act as effective communication tools for designers. While the benefits of prototyping are well-documented in research, the fundamental ways in which the construction of a prototype affects designers' reflection on and evaluation of their design outcomes and processes are not well understood. The relationships between prototypes, designers' communication strategies, and recollection of design processes is of particular interest in this work, as preliminary research suggests that novice designers tend to struggle to clearly articulate the decisions made during the design process. This work serves to extend prior work and build foundational knowledge by exploring the evaluation of design outcomes and decisions, and communication strategies used by novice designers during prototyping tasks. A controlled in situ study was conducted with 45 undergraduate engineering students. Results from qualitative analyses suggest that a number of rhetorical patterns emerged in students' communications, suggesting that a complicated relationship exists between prototyping and communication. 

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2. Biologically Inspired Design For High School Engineering Students (Work in Progress)

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42371  

   Alemdar, Meltem; Baptiste_Porter, Dyanne; Rehmat, Abeera; Helms, Michael; Towner, Alexandra; Moore, Roxanne; Rosen, Jeffrey; Varnedoe, Julia; Weissburg, Marc (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   NA (Ed.)

   Biologically inspired design (BID) has gained attention in undergraduate and graduate engineering programs throughout the United States, and more post-secondary institutions are beginning to implement it into their engineering curriculum [1], [2]. However, little has been done to introduce BID concepts more formally into the K-12 curriculum. Consequently, a research study funded by the National Science Foundation focused on developing a BID integrated engineering curriculum for high school students. The curriculum is designed to integrate BID into the engineering design process (EDP) by leveraging analogical design tools that facilitate a transfer of biological strategies to design challenges. This enables students to understand both the engineering problem and the biological system that could be used to inspire design solutions. In this paper, we describe students’ application of BID integration in the engineering design process and their experiences utilizing BID as they solve design challenges. The curriculum was pilot tested in two 9th grade engineering classrooms across two schools during Spring 2022. Data was collected from four groups of students (n=12) enrolled in the engineering courses across two schools. The study includes classroom observations, student artifacts, and student focus groups. We utilized qualitative content analysis, a descriptive approach to analyzing student data [3], [4], to uncover the meaning and presence of text, messages, images, and transcriptions of dialogues [4]. In this study, we aim to capture the evidence of students’ experiences and engagement with BID concepts. The preliminarily findings illustrate that student groups enjoyed BID activities presented in the curriculum as they promoted students’ exploration of biological systems. BID integration allowed students to view nature differently, which some students indicated they had not previously employed for their design solutions. Although some students mentioned BID activities that helped them during the brainstorming phase of the design process, they were unable to explain BID integration in their final design solutions, unless prompted by the teacher. Furthermore, across the student groups, students indicated that prototype and test was the most engaging stage of the EDP since during this stage they were able to test their designs. This research is novel in its focus on understanding high school students’ experiences with the integration of BID in engineering and has important implications for diversifying engineering in K-12 education. 

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3. PrototypAR: Prototyping and Simulating Complex Systems with Paper Craft and Augmented Reality

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3323135  

   Kang, Seokbin; Norooz, Leyla; Bonsignore, Elizabeth; Byrne, Virginia; Clegg, Tamara; Froehlich, Jon E. (January 2019, Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children)

   We introduce PrototypAR, an Augmented Reality (AR) system that allows children to rapidly build complex systems using paper crafts and to test their designs in a digital environment. PrototypAR combines lo-fidelity prototyping to facilitate iterative design, real-time AR feedback to scaffold learning, and a virtual simulation environment to support personalized experiments. Informed by three participatory design sessions, we developed three PrototypAR applications: build-a-bike, build-a-camera, and build-an-aquarium---each highlights different aspects of our system. To evaluate PrototypAR, we conducted four single-session qualitative evaluations with 21 children working in teams. Our findings show how children build and explore complex systems models, how they use AR scaffolds, and the challenges they face when conducting experiments with their own prototypes. 

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4. NOVICE DESIGNERS' USE OF PROTOTYPES AS COMMUNICATION TOOLS

   https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2021.489  

   Krishnakumar, Sandeep; Lauff, Carlye; McComb, Christopher; Berdanier, Catherine; Menold, Jessica (August 2021, Proceedings of the Design Society)

   Abstract Prototypes are critical design artifacts, and recent studies have established the ability of prototypes to facilitate communication. However, prior work suggests that novice designers often fail to perceive prototypes as effective communication tools, and struggle to rationalize design decisions made during prototyping tasks. To understand the interactions between communication and prototypes, design pitches from 40 undergraduate engineering design teams were collected and qualitatively analysed. Our findings suggest that students used prototypes to explain and persuade, aligning with prior studies of design practitioners. The results also suggest that students tend to use prototypes to justify design decisions and adverse outcomes. Future work will seek to understand novice designers’ use of prototypes as communication tools in further depth. Ultimately, this work will inform the creation of pedagogical strategies to provide students with the skills needed to effectively communicate design solutions and intent. 

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5. BUILDERS: A Project-Based Learning Experience to Foster STEM Interest in Students from Underserved High Schools

   Escobar, Martha; Qazi, Mohammed (December 2020, Journal of STEM education)

   Banu, Eliza A. (Ed.)

   Access to enriching science programs is not equitable, with students from affluent districts having more opportunities to develop their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills than students from underserved districts. The Building Unique Inventions to Launch Discovery, Engagement, and Reasoning in STEM (BUILDERS) program was started in 2017 with support from the National Science Foundation’s ITEST program to provide students from the Alabama Black Belt with STEM opportunities to which they would otherwise have no access. This project-based learning (PBL) program uses the concept of a makerspace to allow students to explore how science and technology can be used to solve the problems that affect their own communities. During an intensive, 3-week summer experience (the BUILDERS Academy), teams of students enthusiastically use the makerspace to design, build, and test prototypes of technology-based solutions to their community problems. During this immersive PBL process, they acquire and apply STEM concepts, learn about STEM careers, and acquire valuable 21st century skills. An extension of the summer Academy into the academic year was moderately successful. Overall, these results highlight the need to make extracurricular STEM interventions available to underserved students in order to increase equitable access to practical and enriching educational experiences in STEM. 

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