Hi Amy, thank you so much for taking the time to watch our video! Youth will participate in our program for 10-sessions which is typically delivered as one 60-minute session per week. Some of the outcomes for youth we will be exploring include engineering identity, science anxiety, mulitgroup ethnic identity, self-efficacy, future mindedness, positive identity and competency in community. To make better connections between funds of knowledge and engineering, we added short animated videos to the program where engineer hosts model their own funds of knowledge. We also added more prompting questions in the materials for the program facilitator to better elicit connections between funds of knowledge and engineering. We are definitely still exploring how to strengthen the connection between funds of knowledge and engineering and are hoping our pilot study results can tell us more. We also welcome any ideas or additional feedback!

Thank you for sharing your project! I also appreciated the approach of drawing on students’ funds of knowledge. I especially liked how your project provided examples from practicing engineers modeling their own funds of knowledge for the students. Can you elaborate more on the assessment tools you are using to measure engineering identify, future mindedness, and positive identity? 

Hi Nidaa, happy to share! We're using a modified version of the Engineering Identity Development Scale (Capobianoci et al., 2012)  to measure engineering identity. To measure future-mindedness, we're using a three item scale with items that assess students expectations about their future life (e.g., "I will be healthy"). Finally, for positive identity we're using the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney et al., 2007) which assesses identification and exploration of participant's ethnic identity. The scales are currently being piloted with the target population and we expect to refine our measures further once we receive our results. 

Thank you for sharing the specific measures! 

Hi Scott,
Thanks for joining in and raising this important question! DSL's iterative approach to development has not only left room for, but demanded that we remain open-minded when it comes to conceptions about the who, what, where, and when of engineering.

One big aspect of this has been modeling of many kinds of engineering and engineers, which opens space for Latinx youth and communities to share their own experiences of engineering. Another fun and effective tool has been taking stock of what is in our own communities; for example, our video host for the Pulleys Module takes a walk in her own neighborhood and completes a "scavenger hunt" of all the pulleys she sees daily. This is an avenue for sparking conversation about the pulleys youth see in their own communities.

With this in mind, we encourage educators to be open about their own funds of knowledge and experiences with engineering. We find that the "guide on the side" is a much more effective partner in asset-based engineering than the "sage on the stage"!

Sincerely,
The Design Squad Latinx Team

Thanks, Kim. All very interesting. Have you published about this role shift for educators? I like the way you are talking about this "guide on the side" role, and I think it could be valuable for others in the STEM education field. Thanks again!

Hi Scott,

We hope to publish our results after the implementation study in the Fall. We agree that this role shift could be helpful in many contexts, and hope that the value of kids following their own funds of knowledge can be applied more broadly to the STEM education field.

Thank you!

Hi Julia,

Thanks for your support and your question! DSL Pathways are suggested sequences for educators to take in completing modules within their programs. Each module can stand alone, be paired, or completed as part of a longer series.

The Pathways honor educator's connection to the kids in their program, while recognizing that they bring their own expertise and funds of knowledge to engineering. We hope the modularity and potential pathways will be supports for a "choose your own adventure" approach to engineering.

Thank you, from the Design Squad Latinx Team!

Hi Amy, thank you for watching our video! Before we conceptualized our program, we did a series of asset mapping activities in three different Latinx communities. These activities helped us collect information on what kids identify as the abilities (or funds of knowledge) of themselves, their families and their communities. We took the most common themes and used them as a foundation for our engineering program. For example, the theme of helping family and community members came up often. Instead of simply giving kids an engineering challenge as we have done in past programs, we changed how we frame the engineering problem by presenting them as client stories. In Design Squad Latinx, kids receive three client stories which they read and decide who they want to help by creating an engineering solution. We hope by making more of these connections in our materials we can ensure kids have a more meaningful experiences with engineering! 

¡Hola, Anasilvia!

¡Gracias por su apoyo! Actualmente estamos finalizando nuestra primera etapa de pruebas piloto, pero los comentarios iniciales han demostrado un gran entusiasmo por la ingeniería entre los niños y los educadores. Trabajamos con organizaciones asociadas en tres sitios (Puerto Rico, Rhode Island y San José) para reclutar educadores de sus programas.

Saludos del Equipo Design Squad Latinx

Hi Jackelyn, thank you for your thoughtful questions! Design Squad Latinx is designed for out-of-school settings, but we have some educators using the materials as an enrichment program in school. Our piloting and research sites do have a high population of Latinx youth, but many of the programs who are using Design Squad Latinx have a diverse group of youth with varied ethnic/racial backgrounds. Though the materials are designed with Latinx youth in mind, that activities are not exclusive, and we hope will have broader appeal. The activities are structured so they activate youth's funds of knowledge and empower them to use that knowledge to solve problems that are meaningful to them- something we think lots of kids will find engaging.

One of the ways we make authentic connections is to share the funds of knowledge of Latinx engineers in our profiles. We also make as many connections as possible to the daily lives of youth. Many of the kids in our prototype testing expressed a connection to their parents' or caregivers' work: for our pulleys video, we showcased the work that the host's dad does as a window cleaner in LA. We hope to demystify engineering concepts and show kids that they probably have already seen or used them in their daily lives. 

Thanks! The Design Squad Latinx Team

Hi Rena! Thank you so much for sending these measures, so helpful! 

Before we even started conceptualizing our program, we did a series of asset mapping activities with our partner communities. We had kids write or draw their assets of the head (things they know about), hand (things they can do), and heart (thing they care about). We then had kids do the activity at home collecting their caregiver's assets, and write a story about their community. We took all of this information and coded it for common themes and topics. These themes were then used as the foundation for our activities and materials. 

We are still iterating on our program as we await results from our pilot study. Once we have the results, we will be spending the summer refining and developing the rest of program. Our team would love to connect and talk more!