Community-Centered Design Thinking as a Scalable STEM Learning Intervention

Abstract

Background: Through the human-centered design process (HCD), students, referred to as learners, can use a personal lens to contextualize engineering concepts and solve real-world problems (Goldman and Kabayadondo 2016). The Ignite program, created by the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies (GWHT) at Duke University, integrates the HCD process into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to advance social justice through an iterative research-topractice methodology. Ignite fosters secondary school students' ability to engineer viable solutions to pressing global issues outlined by the United Nations as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Purpose: This work evaluates the efficacy of the Ignite Water curriculum as a scalable and sustainable intervention for STEM opportunity gaps, SDG #4, and clean water, SDG #6. Ultimately, this work