Objects-to-design-with:Educational Design for Creating Equitable Engineering Learning

To address the imperative need to expand participation in engineering from an early age, this project highlights the unexplored terrain of approaches and tools for designing for future designers. Operating at the intersection of learning sciences and design, the initiative brings together the materiality of STEM learning and research-through-design. The planned activities encompass publicly open online talks, a puppetry workshop designed to comprehend opportunities for designing for designers, and collaboration with a puppetry expert. The choice of puppetry as a focal point is informed by prior research in the area and the potential it holds for fostering empathic engineering. The project's aim is to contribute to effective educational design technologies by producing proof-of-concepts. These concepts, tailored for both designers and educators, aim to create tangible opportunities for broadening participation in engineering, thus laying the foundation for a more diverse and inclusive future in the field.

Project co-PIs 

• Prof. Dr. Anna Keune, Assistant Professorship of Learning Sciences and Educational Design Technologies, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich
• Prof. Dr. Teemu Leinonen (Cooperation Partner), Aalto Media Lab, Department of Media, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University

LS Design Research Staff

• Santiago Hurtado, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich
• Verena Kappes, TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich

Funding: TUM Global Incentive Fund
Duration: 2022 - 2023