In this article, we draw on sociocultural perspectives on literacy to explore the ways in which pre-engineering students took up and made sense of engineering notebooks implemented as part of a robotics project in a first-semester university study course at a large, public Hispanic-Serving Institution. Through ethnographic methods, we uncovered two primary sets of uses for the notebooks: (1) recording and remembering and (2) problem solving and decision-making. The study illustrates the ways in which entering college students, especially those from underrepresented groups who seek to become engineers, may take up opportunities to "try out" disciplinary literacies through meaningful engagement with the practices of the discipline.