The STEMfluidics Platform: Inspiring STEM Learning and Career Exploration with Microfluidics

Project Summary: Modern educators struggle to maintain student interest and participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine (STEMM), partially due to lack of truly transformative, hands-on laboratory experiences that build real-world STEMM skills. Microfluidics, with its extensive interdisciplinary applications in medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical development, academic research, energy, electronics, and nutrition, represents a valuable and underutilized opportunity to teach relevant 21st-century STEMM techniques that are essential for the future high-tech workforce. Despite its growing role in our daily lives, particularly through rapid point-of-care medical devices, environmental remediation, and consumer electronics, microfluidics lacks resources for the educational laboratory. Market research shows that existing microfluidic systems are too expensive and fragile for teaching laboratories, while homemade solutions lack the rigor and reproducibility necessary to be effective interventions. To address these issues, we propose the STEMfluidics platform, a classroom-focused microfluidics system that will revolutionize STEMM education. This innovative device features an integrated hardware platform with fluid pumps, interchangeable sensors, and touchscreen controls, enabling students to perform safe and easy microfluidics experiments in the classroom. Students conduct experiments by placing a custom microfluidic chip onto the platform and connecting the sensors. STEMfluidic chips will feature a combination of microchannels, mixing chambers, and fluid ports tailored to the concepts being taught. The prefabricated chips simplify setup, ensure reproducibility between student groups, and reduce costs to the school, enabling educators to teach microfluidics effectively. The hands-on experimentation allows students to develop a practical understanding of microfluidic concepts and their utility in our daily lives. The platform is enhanced through hands-on microfluidic experiments featuring topics relevant to students, including fluid dynamics, medical disparities within communities, and the importance of point-of-care microfluidics for rapid disease diagnosis. Comprehensive educational materials will train students in data collection and statistical analysis, enabling them to expand the knowledge gained from the STEMfluidics experiments into their daily lives. These resources will include print, video, and interactive digital materials that relate the importance of microfluidics in human health and consumer technology. To evaluate the practicality of these resources and the STEMfluidics platform, we will convene a focus group comprising STEMM educators at K-12 and university levels to provide feedback on the prototype progress and classroom implementation. Taken together, the STEMfluidics platform, experiments and associated materials will provide educators with an inexpensive and accessible pathway to introduce innovative, quantitative biotechnology to students.