Research

Research Overview

The Build a Better Book (BBB) team engages in research to better understand the factors that effectively engage and support youth in STEM, motivate them to pursue educational pathways in STEM, and increase their awareness of and interest in STEM careers. The project addresses a significant need to build and expand the future science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce by motivating and preparing students to pursue and persist in these fields. The project's research has spanned two phases: Phase 1 (2016-2021), during which the project engaged youth and community members in informal makerspace workshops focused on accessible design, and Phase 2 (2021-2026), during which teens participated in more extended, in-depth engineering design internship experiences, working in small teams to design and fabricate accessible products with and for community clients.Ìý

Phase 2. Empathy-Based Teen Internship Program (2021-2026)

The goal of this phase of the project is to iteratively develop and implement an empathy-driven engineering internship program for teens, and to research the internship model across four varied learning settings – a university, public library, high school, and science center. The project aims to advance the field’s understanding of how to design and run effective engineering internship experiences that influence teens’ identity-related perceptions that relate to persistence in engineering.ÌýÌý

Research Questions

Phase 2 is guided by three primary research questions:

  1. To what extent, and in what ways, does the BBB Internship model impact teen interns’ perceptions of engineering, personal engineering identities, transferrable STEM workforce skills, and vision of their career trajectory?
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  2. What structures and implementations of a BBB Internship program prove most critical to success in teens’ cognitive and social-emotional gains, regardless of context?Ìý Do particular principles (e.g., focus on empathic design; opportunity for completion; professional accountability; authentic design experience) appear to have particularly strong influence on teens’ shifting perceptions and gains?
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  3. In what ways do differences in site context (formal/informal; semester/summer; etc.) require unique variations in implementation in order to most effectively engage and activate persistence of interest in teens?
Data Collection & Analysis

To answer the research questions above, the research team is utilizing a design-based research approach, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures, including:

  • Pre / Post Survey: This instrument measures participants’ perceptions of engineering and their own engineering self-efficacy. This survey is comprised of the following validated survey instruments: STEM Professional Identity Overlap Measure (STEM-PIO-1; McDonald et al., 2019), Engineering Design Self-Efficacy (Carberry, 2009), & the Short Instrument for Measuring Students’ Confidence with Key Skills (SICKS; Bray et al., 2020).Ìý
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  • Pre / Post Audio Reflections: Audio-recorded intern reflections focus on participants' perceptions of engineering, perceptions of their own greatest strengths, current career thoughts, and why they pursued the Teen Internship experience.Ìý
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  • Focus GroupDiscussions: These audio-recorded discussions, facilitated by a member of the research team near the end of participants' Internship experience, focus more on their reflections about the structural elements of the program, exploring which elements of implementation (and the underlying design theory) were most resonant for teens and that they most attribute to their personal growth.Ìý
Alumni Study

In the project's final year, the research team developed and conducted a follow-up survey with program alumni to assess the longer-term impacts of the program. The alumni study aims to understand the program’s impact(s) on interns’ continued interest in empathy-based engineering/STEM, as well as their thoughts on how the program impacted (or not) their STEM interest and skills and their career trajectories, 1-3 years after their BBB internship experience.

Results (Phase 2)

Over the course of the project, 184 teens participated in at least one Build a Better Book Teen Internship program and of these, 152 unique interns participated in the IRB-approved research study. Results reported below are from the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected during the first three iterations of the teen internship program at the CU and Mountain Lakes Library sites, and the first iteration of the program at the Ma’ayanot High School and Explora Science Center sites (8 internship programs over three years, 2022-2024).ÌýÌý

Analyses of the quantitative and qualitative data collected from these participants, via a pre-/post- survey, pre-/post- audio reflections, and a culminating focus group discussion, indicate that the program’s human-centered, authentic engineering design experience effectively attracts diverse participants and broadens their perceptions of engineering. As interns collaborate to design and fabricate an accessible product for a real-world client, they develop technical and workplace skills, grow in their confidence, self-efficacy, and engineering identities, and deepen their awareness and understanding of accessibility issues. The model is adaptable to different settings, including formal and informal learning environments, though effective mentoring is crucial.Ìý

Analysis of alumni survey data is ongoing, as data collection recently concluded in July 2025. But initial review of responses suggests that for a large majority of participants (> 90%), the program was a positive and impactful experience, with 72% responding that the program ‘was a very good experience for me’ and 20% of respondents describing the program as ‘one of the most important experiences I’ve had.’Ìý

For more detailed project findings, please see Publications and Presentations listed on this page.

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Phase 1. Tactile Picture Books Project Makerspace Workshops (2016-2021)

The Build a Better Book (BBB) team engages in research to better understand the factors that effectively engage underrepresented students in STEM, motivate them to pursue educational pathways in STEM and increase their awareness of and interest in STEM careers. Our interdisciplinary research team possesses expertise in K-12 STEM education and informal learning, universal design for learning, and multimodal literacy.ÌýThe theoretical framework guiding this work is grounded in four key principles from the STEM learning literature: constructionism, critical making, universal design for learning, and studio-based instruction.

Phased 1 research questions included:

  1. What aspects of the BBB curriculum and informal learning environment most effectively support students’ STEM competencies and dispositions, including: a) multimodal literacy and 3D design for diverse learners; b) fabrication skills; c) collaboration and innovation; d) self-efficacy and persistence?Ìý
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  2. What aspects of the BBB design and fabrication experience most effectively engage and support underrepresented learners, including girls, minorities and students with visual impairments, in 3D design and fabrication activities, and in developing STEM attitudes and interests?

The Research Team

Our interdisciplinary research team possesses expertise in formal and informal K-12 STEM education, universal design for learning, and multimodal literacy.Ìý

Jessica Sickler (Principal, ) leads the project's research activities, including instrument development, data collection and analysis, and production of research briefs. Ms. Sickler has more than 15 years of experience conducting STEM education research and evaluation, with a focus on museums, science centers, and other informal learning environments.

Angie Ong (Evaluation & Research Associate, ) plays a key role in analyzing data collected by the project, including coding and analyzing a substantial amount of qualitative data. Ms. Ong is an experienced researcher with many years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods, as well as university-museum partnerships.

Stacey Forsyth (Director, CU Science Discovery) collaborates with other members of the research team in interpreting data analyses and communicating the project's research findings via publications and conference presentations. She has more than 20 years of experience working in informal STEM education, including 15 years at the ³Ô¹ÏÍø of Colorado Boulder.Ìý

Tim Ogino (School & Teacher Programs Manager, CU Science Discovery) leads the Teen Internship program at CU Boulder, supports data collection and analysis efforts, and communicates research findings via publications and conference presentations. He is a former engineer and high school math teacher who currently oversees School & Teachers Programs at CU Science Discovery.

Bridget Dalton (Professor Emerita, CU Boulder ) helped develop the early research foundation for the Tactile Picture Books Project / Build a Better Book project. Her research expertise is in multimodal literacy and universal design for learning.

Tom Yeh (Associate Professor, CU Boulder Dept of Computer Science) oversees the project's research efforts. He serves as Associate Professor in the College of Engineering & Applied Science's Department of Computer Science as well as the university's ATLAS Institute. His cutting-edge research interests focus on human-computer interaction.