ABSTRACT
Latino student's prior experiences and own worldviews may conflict with engineering norms, making it difficult for them to navigate engineering and identify with engineering-related practices. Many factors affecting under representation of Latinos in engineering. It investigates the historically developed and accumulated strategies or bodies of knowledge, also known as "funds of knowledge", of Latino students as they solved a community-based problem. In order to build the long-term success of Latinos in STEM education, it is important to understand Latino high-school student's funds of knowledge and ways of learning. The use of engineering-design activities can help the learning outcomes of Latino students. Students may encounter different conflicts when their everyday life world does not connect to the science classroom world. Culture and social interactions influence the cognitive processes of students and their sense of belonging and identity. Analyzing ethnographic data brings a strong cultural lens to the study by describing and interpreting patterns of behavior, customs, and ways of life.
