2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This poster presents a secondary analysis of participatory data collected during a community learning event with rural Appalachian families and youth at a nonprofit arts and cultural center in East Tennessee. During the event, participants used colored yarn and open-ended prompts, such as "Where does your community gather?" and "Who has helped you become who you are?", to co-construct a collective visualization of community relationships, values, and local assets. The resulting data were subsequently analyzed using the Participatory Asset Mapping (PAM) framework, categorizing responses across five asset domains and identifying multi-domain bridge assets through a network-based community asset map generated in Python. Findings reveal four cross-cutting themes: (1) family and intergenerational support as the relational core of community identity; (2) teachers as trusted helpers bridging personal and institutional domains; (3) outdoor and shared spaces as the primary multi-domain anchors of community life; and (4) collective aspirations for kindness and peace over material resources. These findings are represented through frequency charts, a radar visualization, and a PAM-grounded asset network map, serving as accessible entry points for community reflection and for designing culturally responsive, place-based STEM programming in rural and underserved contexts.