The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) has named Robert Dumas recipient of the 2026 Conrad Toepfer Award for the Civic Engagement of Middle Grades Students. This prestigious award, named after Dr. Conrad Toepfer, a pioneer of the middle school movement, recognizes initiatives that engage young adolescents in authentic problem-solving, meaningful reflection, and opportunities to connect their skills and interests with real-world issues. Dumas, a STEM teacher in Oklahoma’s Broken Arrow Public School District, will be honored at AMLE26: The 53rd Annual Conference for Middle Level Education in November 2026, where he will present his award-winning project and the impact it is making on his students and community to a nationwide audience.
Project Summary: Inclusive Design for Community Connection
Dumas’ award-winning project, the “BA Friend” initiative, began in STEM elective courses serving sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Broken Arrow Public Schools. Middle school students partnered with the Alexander Burn Center to design practical tools for patients participating in occupational therapy.
Students first worked alongside an occupational therapist to experience the tools, movements, and physical limitations involved in burn recovery. They then returned to their classroom makerspace to design professional-quality products that addressed patients’ rehabilitation needs while meeting important requirements such as infection control. Their creations provided engaging, practical ways to help patients stay motivated throughout their therapy. Items made by the students included marble mazes designed to improve wrist mobility, small journals that encouraged fine-motor movement, and phone holders that patients could assemble during therapy and use throughout their hospital stays.
The enthusiastic response from patients and hospital staff inspired students to ask a larger question: “Who else can we partner with?” That question launched the BA Friend initiative, a formalized effort through which students identify community needs, contact potential partners, and create meaningful solutions. Since then, students have worked with organizations including Saint Francis Children’s Hospital and the Little Light House, designing toys, assistive devices, and other inventions to benefit their community.
“This year’s recipient beautifully demonstrates what becomes possible when young adolescents are trusted to apply their learning in service to others,” said Tami Jo Cook, AMLE Trustee and Chair of the Toepfer Award Committee. “Through the BA Friend initiative, Mr. Dumas has created a culture that fosters student agency, purposeful learning, and human connection. His work carries Dr. Toepfer’s legacy forward in a truly inspiring way.”
Student Agency and Career Exploration
Mixed grade level students work together in Mr. Dumas’ STEM classes, with more experienced students mentoring younger classmates and taking on leadership responsibilities. This structure helps create a classroom culture in which students are trusted to produce professional-quality work and recognize themselves as capable leaders, designers, and problem solvers.
The initiative also advances career exploration in the middle grades. By entrusting young adolescents to create solutions to today’s challenges, Dumas helps students discover pathways that connect with their interests and abilities at an opportune time in their development. These early opportunities are especially valuable as young adolescents are exploring who they are, where their passions lie, and how they might connect those discoveries with who they become.
Putting the Toepfer Award Grant to Work
Dumas used the funding accompanying the Toepfer Award to extend the BA Friend initiative through a new partnership with the annual Firefighters Burn Camp, which serves burn survivors ages 6 to 16 from across Oklahoma.
Although the event took place during summer break, students volunteered their time to create and lead a STEM night for campers. Students traveled to the camp with materials and activities that invited participants to design, build, and create. Campers built catapults, designed T-shirts, created jewelry boxes and figurines, learned airbrushing techniques, and participated in friendly competitions.
The experience reflected Dumas’ guiding philosophy: Students were not participating for a grade, but for people and a purpose. The grant allowed them to share their skills with young burn survivors while expanding the reach and impact of the work they had begun in the classroom.
Taking Middle School Students Beyond Simulations
The BA Friend initiative demonstrates how STEM education can move beyond simulations and connect academic skills with empathy, service, career exploration, and authentic problem-solving. Its approach is also adaptable: Schools can begin with one community partner, one identified need, or one student-designed product and allow the work to grow from there.
“I think oftentimes we underestimate what our middle school students are able to accomplish when they’re truly engaged and they see the purpose in it,” Dumas said. “When we add in the realness: a real audience, real tools, a real problem, their level of engagement just skyrockets, and they’re able to do a lot more than we give them credit for.”
Join Us at AMLE26
AMLE invites educators to join Dumas at the AMLE26 Annual Conference in Nashville, where he will present his project during a concurrent session and be recognized from the main stage. Learn more about the Conrad Toepfer Award and AMLE26.