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In this project summary, we briefly describe the culturally responsive gamified activity that taught students about the engineering design process. We provide an overview of its effectiveness of how the activity supported migratory adolescents’ engineering interest, self-efficacy, aspirational engineering identity, and how it engendered positive perceptions of using engineering as a tool for social justice. 

Cultivating high school students’ engineering career aspirations necessitates efforts to help them see themselves in the role of an engineer. This study examines the effects of an out-of-school learning experience designed for Latinx high school students, focusing on an invisible group: children of migratory/seasonal farmworkers. Out-of-school experiences are more impactful when incorporating students’ community settings and cultural backgrounds. Thus, we created a hands-on, culturally responsive engineering activity that engaged migratory students’ desire to make a positive impact in the world while highlighting their students’ culture and home knowledge. Pre-and-post surveys showed a significant increase in the critical areas that support identity development: interest, recognition, and self-efficacy beliefs. The existing gender gap in recognition and tinkering self-efficacy beliefs significantly decreased after the activity. 

Interpersonal skills are essential to engineers’ work as they regularly manage large projects, engage with people, collaborate in teams, and offer vital services to society. This study explores how twelve undergraduate students from migratory/seasonal farmworker (MSFW) backgrounds use their funds of knowledge in the form of interpersonal skills in engineering. An hour-long semi-structured interview protocol was designed and used to understand the funds of knowledge participants brought into their respective engineering classrooms. Using thematic analysis, we found that MSFW students accumulated multiple interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, organizational skills, empathetic practices, work ethic, and communication. This work adds to the existing literature on funds of knowledge and puts MSFW students and their unique assets in engineering at the forefront.