Hk Maker Lab: An engineering design summer program for high school students

Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education, including the advent and incorporation of NGSS in many curricula, has spurred the need for increased engineering learning opportunities for younger students. This is particularly true for students from underrepresented minority populations or economically disadvantaged schools, who traditionally lag their peers in the pursuit of STEM majors or careers. To address this deficit, we have created the Hk Maker Lab, a summer program for New York City high school students that introduces them to biomedical engineering design. The students learn the design process through a series of interactive workshops and laboratory activities. In coordination with learning the process, students apply the engineering design process to problems of their identification and create testable prototypes. Additionally, the students explore the entrepreneurial aspects of their projects, creating basic business plans. The program has been successful in creating a diverse set of program participants who have been able to learn engineering design and create solutions to open-ended projects. This paper presents the structure of the Hk Maker Lab and preliminary assessments of the program, providing guidelines for those similarly interested in creating design-centric opportunities for high school students.