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

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.