2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper, we describe the development of a community-based after-school engineering program for middle-school-aged culturally and linguistically diverse youth (CLDY). This program was designed to provide CLDYs with opportunities to engage in authentic engineering activities while also supporting their academic language development. Previous research has shown that CLDYs face multiple educational challenges and exhibit significant achievement gaps. Consequently, they are under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors and careers. This project seeks to reduce this opportunity gap by providing CLDYs with STEM learning opportunities beyond school, as well as to provide them with opportunities to further develop their academic English proficiency.

The overall goal of this work is to contribute to the field of P-12 engineering education research by articulating design principles that make engineering and STEM learning more meaningful, accessible, and engaging for bilingual and multilingual students, particularly in out-of-school informal settings. In this paper, we describe the initial development of the program and the lessons learned from the implementation of a pilot program. Throughout the pilot program, we also collected written work from participants and recorded their verbal interactions with other participants and facilitators. At the end of the pilot program, we utilized a reflective inquiry approach to conduct in-depth interviews with all participants to investigate their ability to articulate their understanding of engineering concepts, the development of their academic language use related to those concepts, and their STEM identity development. Specifically, we focused on investigating how students reflected on their learning of engineering concepts, their use of academic and informal language, and their sense of autonomy and identity as emerging STEM learners. In these interviews, students demonstrated an improving ability to talk about engineering work and persistence with completing hands-on projects. They also indicated that they had come to view engineering as both collaborative and creative. These preliminary findings will be used to inform the design of the next phase of the project, when we plan to expand the program and make it available to more students.