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The purpose of the current study is to examine the engineering interests held by a diverse sample of high school students, along with a battery of social cognitive factors related to interest – including experience with engineering, knowledge and understanding of engineering as a career field, and identity as an engineer. The study is part of an overarching program of research at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, aimed at testing the efficacy of an out-of-school engineering program, Young Engineers Shape the World embedded in an NSF INCLUDES project. This NSF project, Engineers from Day One, aims to facilitate the engineering identities of female, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students, with the goal of increasing these students’ entry and retention in engineering majors. This paper presents findings from efforts to study the awareness, enjoyment, interest, opinion formation, and understanding that high school students have towards engineering. These high school students were enrolled in a year-round program, Young Engineers Shape the World. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of high school students (N = 334, 53.3% female, 60.6% non-white, 77.1% first-generation) via the online survey platform Qualtrics. In addition to collecting demographic information, the questionnaire collected data on students’ experience with engineering, their understanding of who engineers are and what they do, and their identities as future engineers. 

This Work in Progress aims to address the broadening participation challenge in engineering. This paper will describe a complex adaptive systems approach based project aimed at enhancing entry and persistence in engineering of first-generation students, women, under-represented ethnic minorities, and those with socio-economic need. Sponsored by a national agency, the effort involves a large public comprehensive research university, a county-wide community college system, feeder high-school districts, industry collaborators, and a local foundation partner.