“…As BorgfordParnell et al (2010) emphasized, design often involves working on complex and ill-structured problems that feature ambiguity, multiple solutions, and few, if any, defined rules. The importance of middle school students working on challenging and motivating learning experiences with high cognitive demand has been stressed repeatedly in the literature (e.g., Brophy et al, 2008;Lambert & Stylianou, 2013;Silver, Mesa, Morris, Star & Benken, 2009;Stoner, et al, 2013), with such experiences contributing to the development of creative, flexible, and innovative thinking skills. Students are thus better placed to deal with the complex issues that arise in their present and future lives, including those that involve mathematical and scientific situations (e.g., Borgford et al, 2010;English, Dawes, Hudson, & Byers, 2009;National Research Council, 2009a).…”