2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Early attitudes and beliefs shape the trajectory of students' educational experiences. By expanding young students’ perceptions of engineering, we seek to encourage them to see themselves as possible future engineers. This work presents a collaboration between faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at a large, public, research-intensive university in the Southern United States and teachers at a local metropolitan area elementary school. The elementary school, which qualifies as a Title 1 school, serves students from low-income households and communities that are typically underrepresented in the field of engineering. Given that many students belong to communities that have been historically marginalized in engineering, early intervention through engaging and creative programming could contribute to long-term improvements in equitable access to engineering education. The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to develop and evaluate sustainable, age-appropriate classroom activities that show the possibilities of engineering, art, and design.

Now in its fourth year, the collaboration has included a range of activities targeted to elementary school students, k-5 graders. These activities have evolved over time as we use utilize the elementary school as a trial laboratory to understand how best to provide engagement and mentorship to elementary school students within logistical constraints. Activities have included "Girls Who Code," hands-on engineering activities in the elementary school classroom lead by senior design ECE students, and involving elementary students in the creation of an interactive video game by mapping their artwork to game characters. In this paper, we incorporate the perspectives of the faculty instructors, elementary school teachers, and undergraduate students to share their experiences bringing these activities to life and how it has affected their own views of engineering.

We are focusing on engaging early learners since students’ perceptions are formed at a very young age. Focusing efforts on early learners and STEM engagement through creative hands-on activities is the foundation of the strategy for this program. This paper will detail the guiding ideals of the program and discusses the practical challenges of building a sustainable collaboration between a Title 1 elementary school as university faculty members in an engineering department. As with any new program, there have been challenges, including transportation between campuses, integrating the initiative into the existing elementary curriculum, and maintaining long-term engagement with industry professionals.

The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we detail an approach to using art and design to bring engineering practice to life, which differs from stereotypical depictions of the engineering profession that may push students away from seeing themselves as possible future engineers. Second, we share challenges that we have encountered in the process of building this fledgling collaboration, which may be useful to readers who are interested in creating programs in similar contexts. This paper shows some promising directions for engineering engagement in marginalized communities and maps out the future goals of the project.