positively, and over half were
interested in continuing to explore
the field of human-centered design [ 5].
Teachers also found the workshops
overall to be highly valuable to their
students [ 5]. They cited the value to
their students of interacting with
college students, the technology
design process that they could use
for other projects, and being able
to ask questions about college that
undergraduates are best suited for
answering. They often invite us to
come back, and some have requested
the use of our materials to apply
human-centered design for their
students who are prototyping apps for
their own course projects.
Neah Bay principal Jennifer
Sikes highlighted the value of the
close one-on-one interactions
between their students and the U W
undergraduates during the workshops
there: “Because there are so many
U W students matched with our kids…
they are getting that kind of closer
relationship. I know that goes a long
way with learning.”
CONCLUSION
Using a framework for outreach
that embraces principles of hands-
on engagement in a discipline and
a co-design approach to creating
the curriculum—and that offers
service-learning opportunities
for undergraduate students—is a
strategy that can result in effective
K– 12 outreach. Critical to this
endeavor is having college educators
who are committed to the notion
of outreach. Beyond that, a lot of
institutional support is required, both
administrative and financial. The
HCDE department offers seminars
that enable undergraduates to receive
credit for outreach work and funds
graduate students to support outreach
work. K– 12 teachers welcome us into
their classrooms and advocate for
their students’ interests. To reach
underrepresented students, we
partner with other university groups,
such as the Pipeline Project [ 2].
Our efforts are most successful
when the stakeholders involved
(students, faculty, graduate students,
departmental leadership, campus
and national organizations, school
teachers, and principals) can
collaborate and provide support
for enabling K– 12 students to have
hands-on exposure to STEM fields.
We envision that educators
in other fields can also engage
undergraduate students in creating
and teaching curricula for younger
students. This type of initiative can
empower undergraduate students
to serve as role models to younger
students, to better understand
their own field, and to learn how to
communicate to all audiences.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank our colleagues
Christine Stickler, Emma Rose,
Jennifer Turns, Jason Yip, Kiley
Sobel, and Catie Baker for their
collaboration, and the many HCDE
students who have so passionately
contributed to our outreach work.
Immense thanks are also due to
the HCDE department, especially
David McDonald, for supporting
this initiative.
CONTACT US
The HCDE team is in the process of
developing a toolkit for conducting
Human Centered Design Charrette
workshops for K– 12 students. The
goal of the toolkit is to enable other
educators to adapt this outreach
effort to their own needs, using our
framework. Please see our website [ 1]
for further information or contact us
directly at hcdek12@uw.edu.
Endnotes
1. Human Centered Design and Engineering
K– 12 Outreach Program; http://hcde.
uw.edu/about/k12
2. University of Washington Pipeline Project;
http://expd.uw.edu/pipeline
3. Alternative Spring Break; http://hcde.
uw.edu/videos/asb
4. Makah Tribe; http://makah.com/
5. Rose, E., Davidson, A., Agapie, E., and
Sobel, K. Designing our future students:
Introducing User Experience to teens
through a UCD charette. Proc. of
SIGDOC ’ 16. ACM, 2016, 22.
Elena Agapie is a Ph.D. student in
human-centered design and engineering at
the University of Washington. She studies,
designs, and evaluates technologies that help
people implement positive behaviors in their
everyday life. She is the student coordinator
for the department’s K– 12 Outreach Program.
→ eagapie@uw.edu
Andrew Davidson is a senior lecturer in
human-centered design and engineering at the
University of Washington, specializing in physical
computing and HCI. He directs the department’s
K– 12 outreach program, and is also a former
high school computer science teacher.
→ adavid7@uw.edu
DOI: 10.1145/3278152 COPYRIGHT HELD BY AUTHORS. PUBLICATION RIGH TS LICENSED TO ACM. $15.00
Figure 3. Undergraduate students use examples to help engage middle school students in the design process. These examples mirror the
activities the students are doing: identifying a user (Harry Potter), a user need (remembering spells), creating a storyboard (Harry Potter using
an app to remember spells), creating wireframes (a prototype of an app to remember spells).