Features of Engineering Challenges That Support Linguistically Diverse Students' Engineering Design Thinking and Activity

• In Event: Exploring Issues of Diversity and Underrepresentation in Engineering Education Research

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the features of engineering challenges that supported linguistically diverse middle school students’ engineering design thinking and activity. The authors conducted a comparative microgenetic analysis of linguistically diverse middle school students' design thinking as they participated in different engineering challenges. They found that the design challenge with the clearest connections to students’ community and to their everyday experiences fostered complex engineering design thinking, as contrasted with challenges that offered fewer direct connections to students’ everyday experiences.

Authors

• Amy Wilson-Lopez, Utah State University

• Christina Marie Sias, Utah State University