2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Bioadhesives are an important class of biomaterials for tissue repair. Clinically, bioadhesives are used to heal surgical wounds, stop internal fluid leaks, and seal soft tissue defects. In order to meet the increasing demands of bioadhesives for tissue repair, there is a need to educate diverse students about them. However, there are no published modules to teach trainees about bioadhesives. This lack of published educational modules limits early exposure to the field of bioadhesives for tissue repair and ultimately may limit advances in this field. To address this limitation of bioadhesives education, we designed, implemented and evaluated an inquiry-based learning (IBL) module to teach middle school students from underserved communities about bioadhesives. Specifically, this hands-on module taught students how bioadhesives are used for tissue repair, how to engineer bioadhesives for different biomedical applications, and how to assess the efficacy of bioadhesives. We anticipate that exposing students to engineering bioadhesives at the K-12 level will make them excited about engineering and galvanize them to pursue careers in STEM.

Instructors deployed this hands-on IBL bioadhesives module on middle school students from [OUTREACH ORGANIZATION], an organization that empowers students from underserved communities. All students received the following safe materials: chamois leather strips, plastic safety ties, 5% (w/v) gelatin, cyanoacrylate, gloves, and goggles. Additionally, students had access to the following equipment: a hairdryer, a ring stand, and a digital luggage scale. The module was designed with an IBL approach; whereby, students worked in small teams to explore how different variables (e.g., drying time) impact bioadhesive strength. Students were instructed to apply bioadhesives (i.e., gelatin and cyanoacrylate) to adhere two chamois strips together, then quantitatively test their adhesion strength using a simplified lap-shear configuration (ASTM 2255-05). American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards were emphasized in this module to teach students about internationally-recognized methods of testing materials in engineering. For our simplified testing apparatus, students placed the digital luggage scale on top of the ring stand, then looped the top chamois around the bottom hook of the luggage scale using safety ties. Next, one student pulled the bottom chamois in a slow, steady, vertical motion until failure, while a teammate recorded the force reading from the scale. After collecting their data, teams worked with instructors to analyze their data in Excel using basic descriptive statistics and discussed how their results could be used for clinical applications of bioadhesives.

To assess the activity, students were given pre/post-tests and pre/post-surveys to evaluate their learning gains and changes in attitudes towards science, respectively. We hypothesize that completing this hands-on IBL module will result in positive learning outcomes and enhance student perception of STEM. In doing so, this module would be a useful tool to teach diverse students about bioadhesives, or this module could more broadly serve as a template to develop engaging hands-on activities for K-12 students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM.