Collaborative research: research initiation: bridge-ccpbl: bridging engineering identity & retention with cultural wealth & collaborative project-based learning

The National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers awarded $131,812 to the University of Houston System (operating as University of Houston-Clear Lake) on July 15, 2026, under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to redesign an early engineering class using community cultural wealth and collaborative project-based learning.

The project addresses early retention and success in engineering education by strengthening how early engineering students at primarily undergraduate institutions perceive themselves as future engineers. The class redesign will use an asset-based framework recognizing the strengths students bring from their families, communities, languages, aspirations, social networks, and lived experiences. Through hands-on, project-based learning, students will participate in authentic engineering design activities while developing communication, teamwork, peer recognition, and problem-solving skills. The project will investigate how community cultural wealth-informed collaborative project-based learning influences teamwork, engineering identity, and retention among early engineering students, examining how this framework can inform team formation and teamwork training.

The work is performed in Houston, Texas, with a period of performance from the award date through June 30, 2028. This project aligns with the NSF Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program, supporting the principal investigator's growth as an engineering education researcher while generating practical knowledge about how early engineering classes can improve student engagement, belonging, identity, and persistence.

Abstract

This project will address the national need to improve early retention and success in engineering education by strengthening how early engineering students see themselves as future engineers. Many students at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) enter engineering with motivation and potential, but they may also face challenges such as limited engineering role models, work and family responsibilities, commuting demands, uneven academic preparation, and uncertainty about whether they belong in engineering. These challenges can reduce confidence and contribute to early attrition. This project will redesign an early engineering class using community cultural wealth (CCW), an asset-based framework that recognizes the strengths students bring from their families, communities, languages, aspirations, social networks, and lived experiences. Instead of focusing on what students? Lack, the class will help students identify and use their existing strengths as resources for engineering learning, teamwork, and persistence. Through collaborative, hands-on, project-based learning, students will participate in authentic engineering design activities while developing communication, teamwork, peer recognition, and problem-solving skills. The project will align with the NSF rief program by supporting the principal investigator?S growth as an engineering education researcher while generating practical knowledge about how early engineering classes can improve student engagement, belonging, identity, and persistence. This project will investigate how CCW-informed collaborative project-based learning will influence teamwork, engineering identity, and retention among early engineering students. The project will examine three questions: how community cultural wealth can inform team formation and teamwork training, how the redesigned class will affect students? Engineering identity, and how participation will relate to retention in engineering. The intervention will include structured student reflection, asset-informed team formation, teamwork training, role rotation, communication norms, peer recognition, psychological safety, and hands-on engineering projects. The research team will use a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Quantitative data will include CCW measures, engineering identity surveys, catme teamwork effectiveness ratings, psychological safety measures, and registrar-based retention data. Quantitative and qualitative findings will be integrated using joint displays and the pillar integration process to explain how and why the intervention supports students. Expected outcomes will include a tested instructional model, teamwork training materials, evidence on engineering identity development, and a foundation for future studies of asset-based engineering education at primarily undergraduate institutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.