Engineering the Insulin Pump: Teaching Intentional Engineering Concepts through Socially Relevant Contexts

This Engineering in Action article presents a socially relevant lesson designed to intentionally teach secondary students core engineering concepts related to the practices of Engineering Design and Quantitative Analysis as well as knowledge related to Engineering Sciences (presented in the "Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning" [2020]). This lesson also situates learning in the context of medical and health-related technologies as described in "Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy" and addresses the standard focused on human-centered design. The lesson example includes (a) class discussions to engage students in a socially relevant problem (diabetes treatment options) within a culturally situated context (whether insulin pumps meet the needs of their user) and (b) a design activity to help students learn and apply two core concepts of Engineering Practice (Modeling and Simulation and Ideation) as well as the Engineering Science concept of Chemical Reactions and Catalysis. At the end of this lesson, students are expected to (1) calculate the amount of insulin a person would need given a range of variables, (2) ideate several designs that meet the needs of their identified user, and (3) create a low-fidelity prototype of their chosen design. Additionally, students should be able to showcase their engineering practices as well as how knowledge of their user and engineering sciences informed their design.