VIVID AI (Visualize, Implement, & Validate Intelligent Designs with AI): A Co-Designed Maker Experience Connecting Neurodiverse Middle School Learners to AI-Enabled STEM Pathways

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the American workplace, requiring a workforce that understands what AI systems can do, where they fall short, and how they can be improved. Neurodivergent young people, including those with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia, often possess strengths well suited to technical design careers, such as pattern recognition, systematic reasoning, creativity, and persistence, yet they remain underrepresented in the pathways that lead to those careers, in part because many AI learning experiences are language-heavy and abstract. This project will develop and study VIVID AI (Visualize, Implement, and Validate Intelligent Designs with AI), a hands-on maker program in which neurodiverse middle-school learners ages 10 to 14, both neurodivergent and neurotypical, will design, build, program, and share their own AI-enabled physical inventions at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). Working with sensors, motors, lights, displays, beginner-friendly block coding, and AI tools, learners will discover what AI systems can do, deliberately investigate where and why those systems make mistakes, and learn how technical designers test and improve AI-enabled systems. The project will produce research findings along with free, publicly available activity guides, build instructions, facilitator supports, and accessibility materials that museums, makerspaces, afterschool programs, and career and technical education settings across the country will be able to use. By making AI learning concrete, engaging, and accessible to learners with a wide range of cognitive profiles, the project will broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), strengthen public understanding of AI, and help prepare young people for an AI-driven economy. This three-year project will pursue two intertwined strands of work: the co-design and iterative development of an informal AI maker program, and a mixed-methods study of how tangible AI making supports AI literacy, STEM engagement, and awareness of AI-related technical design pathways among neurodiverse learners. Grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), research on Executive Function (EF), and emerging AI literacy frameworks, the project team will work with neurodivergent learners, informal science educators, technology developers, and researchers to co-design five activity areas spanning machine perception, training data and classification, generative AI limitations, reasoning under uncertainty, and learner-driven invention. In Year 1, design-based research cycles will iteratively test and refine each activity, drawing on observations, learner artifacts, reflections, facilitator notes, and interviews to examine engagement, access barriers, and cognitive load. In Year 2, the integrated program will be piloted as a week-long camp at NYSCI. In Year 3, an early efficacy study will enroll 80 to 100 neurodiverse learners across four week-long camps using a within-subjects, repeated-measures design. Validated instruments, including the AI Literacy Concept Inventory and an adapted Simpson-Troost Attitude Questionnaire, will measure AI literacy, STEM interest, perceptions of STEM, STEM self-efficacy, intentions to persist in STEM, and awareness of AI-related technical design pathways. Quantitative data will be analyzed using repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance. Qualitative analysis will complement the quantitative rests using thematic analysis and case studies examining how learners with different cognitive profiles experience the program. The project will contribute new empirical knowledge about how neurodiverse learners develop AI literacy through tangible making, along with research-based design principles for accessible AI learning, disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and open-access program materials. This project was funded by the STEM K-12 program, which supports fundamental, applied, and translational research on STEM learning in both formal K-12 education and informal learning environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.