Fidgeting with Fabrication: Students with ADHD Making Tools to Focus

This paper describes the design process of 5 middle school students diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Students were tasked with designing and fabricating a personalized fidget---a small hand-held object to use in a classroom with the goal of increasing focus---by following the process of engineering design described in the Next Generation Science Standards. Students teamed with a local science museum to access tools and expertise. Analysis of student interviews and recorded design sessions revealed that students accurately defined the problem and design constraints. Further, despite issues in measurement precision, students successfully optimized their design solution over time through multiple rounds of revision.