2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This empirical research, full paper examines students’ learning in a co-curricular, community-based outreach program called Community Robotics (CR), where college students were assigned to local schools to support robotics education. Community-based, service learning experiences are considered high-impact practices because they foster important learning outcomes, including students’ understanding of their social responsibilities. In engineering, these outcomes include the development of sociotechnical learning outcomes, such as learning to design for people, communities, and social justice. However, existing literature suggests conventional educational practices position students as objects of change, where educational activities are designed to shape their ways of thinking, knowing, and doing, instead of subjects of change, where students are agentic sociopolitical actors. Community engagement can be mutually beneficial in terms of knowledge and resources for students and communities when carried out thoughtfully. The research component of CR examines undergraduate students' sociotechnical skills and their development into agents of social change. This paper was guided by the following research question:

How does community engagement shape students’ beliefs about the role of engineers in social change?

The setting was a private, highly selective, research university. Undergraduate participants collaborated with teachers to address the specific needs of their classrooms. For example, while one school requested a track to teach robotics to a blind student with limited mobility, other schools asked for robotics classroom activities or mentoring K-8 students on debugging their code. We conducted one-on-one interviews with 6 undergraduate participants after a semester in the program, which were video and audio recorded. Interview questions were guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory. For example, we asked students how CR shaped their thinking about their career goals. We also asked students to discuss their experience in the program, similar activities in community engagement, teamwork experiences, and career plans. The purpose of these interviews was to examine how, if at all, community outreach has changed students’ goals and motivations in their career, such as their desire to participate in future outreach opportunities. After developing our codebook inductively, we used thematic analysis to analyze interview transcripts. The findings described in this paper focus on students’ personal outcomes and career aspirations after participating in engineering service experiences.

All participants believed their involvement in community outreach contributed to social change. Participants saw this experience as a way to tackle representation issues within underrepresented communities. For example, participants mentioned how their robotics classroom activity contributes to exposing their school partner’s students to engineering so that the school may continue to invest in engineering. Another participant saw their contributions in the classroom as providing access to STEM opportunities that historically, underrepresented communities may not have. While some saw their project as contributing to their own community, other participants viewed community outreach experiences as experiences that would aid them in fostering soft-skills for their career goals. Through their involvement in the CR program and similar experiences, students appeared to have maintained a sense of social responsibility to give back to others.