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Promoting Belonging in Engineering through the Creation of Youth-Centered Technology-Rich Spaces

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Engineering Equity: Challenging Paradigms and Cultivating Inclusion in Technical Education

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47889

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Paper Authors

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Kiana Alexa Ramos

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Isabella Stuopis Boston College

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Boston College in Human Centered Engineering program under mentorship of Professor Avneet Hira. Earned PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University under mentorship of Kristen Wendell.
Interests: undergraduate learning, learning outside of the classroom setting, collaboration in engineering, learning assistants, makerspaces, broadening participation in engineering

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Emanuel Joseph Louime

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Peyton Elise Carter

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Caitlyn Hancock

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Avneet Hira Boston College

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Dr. Avneet Hira is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Engineering Program and the Department of Teaching, Curriculum and Society (by courtesy) at Boston College.

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Abstract

Prior work in engineering education has suggested that creating technology-rich spaces, such as makerspaces, for traditionally underserved youth will help increase access to and participation in engineering. However, simply creating these spaces is not sufficient to foster feelings of ownership over the space or promote belonging within the space or engineering itself. Further, these spaces do not focus on reducing harm to communities and the environment in engineering work, which, based on prior research, may help youth foster connections with engineering. Therefore, our work aims to create a youth-centered, technology-rich environment to further feelings of belonging for underserved youth while promoting a value of reducing harm in engineering.This paper focuses on a harm reduction in engineering activity that is part of a ten-week workshop within an after-school program assisting youth from resettled families with refugee and migrant experience in the United States Northeast. The workshop aimed to utilize the makerspace and youth-led teams to introduce youth to harm reduction and have them complete an activity in which they could apply harm reduction principles and build a physical prototype. We evaluate the youths' responses to the introduction to harm reduction presentation, team dynamics while designing and building, and finally the physical prototype and justification of design to understand how youth conceptualize harm reduction. We hope that continued study of harm reduction in a K-12 setting will lead to a successful framework of implementing harm reduction in engineering education.

Ramos, K. A., & Stuopis, I., & Louime, E. J., & Carter, P. E., & Hancock, C., & Hira, A. (2024, June), Promoting Belonging in Engineering through the Creation of Youth-Centered Technology-Rich Spaces Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47889

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