2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering Immunity: A Gamified Approach to Bioengineering for Middle School Students (Resource Exchange)

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Curriculum and Resource Exchange

Gamification offers a promising approach for engaging middle school students in bioengineering. This resource details a one-hour, NGSS-aligned activity that gamifies targeted immunotherapy to make complex cancer concepts accessible. In the game, a blindfolded student acts as an "immune cell," tasked with identifying "cancer cells" by feeling unique textured objects representing cellular receptors. The activity demonstrates a core bioengineering principle as the "immune cell" is "trained" to recognize a specific cancer receptor, modeling how scientists engineer treatments like CAR T-Cell therapy. This approach fosters critical thinking and an appreciation for real-world bioengineering solutions.

Authors

Elizabeth Codamon University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
Rachel Huang
Leah Ju Northwestern University
Varshini Murugesh
Trisha Patnaik University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
Emily Rodriguez University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
Stephanie Dietrich http://orcid.org/0009-0001-1855-6512 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Stephanie Dietrich holds a master's degree in library and information sciences and is a certified K-12 teacher, with experience teaching computer science and engineering design to K-8 students. She currently serves as the Educational Programs Manager at the Cancer Center at Illinois, where she leads K-12 outreach and community engagement initiatives, inspiring young learners through hands-on STEM activities and cancer education.
Dr. Marcia Pool http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-4217 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Dr. Marcia (“Marci”) Pool is the Assistant Director for Education at the Cancer Center at Illinois and a Teaching Associate Professor in Bioengineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, has served for sixteen years as teaching faculty/staff in biomedical/bioengineering and nine years in departmental/institute educational administration, and is an ABET program evaluator for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering. She focuses on identifying and evaluating mechanisms to enhance the educational experience and develop students into engineers and researchers. Her work includes interventions to enhance training for high school students, undergraduate students, and predoctoral (graduate students) and postdoctoral trainees through training programs such as NIH T32s. These programs include curricular, extracurricular, and professional and career development components with required evaluation and tracking of student participants.

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