Making Mentors: Enhancing Access to STEM Careers for Autistic Youth through Mentorship Programs in Makerspaces

自闭症青年和年轻人往往拥有许多技能，有可能为未来的STEM劳动力做出重大贡献。然而，自闭症患者在STEM职业中的代表性仍然不足，部分原因是高中和大学之间缺乏过渡支持。该项目将通过在超过135名自闭症青年和本科生参加的制造商俱乐部的背景下，通过全面的，以人为本的，近同行的导师计划提供这些过渡性支持，以解决这一关键差距。在这个项目中，主修STEM领域的自闭症大学生将担任自闭症高中生的近同伴导师，因为他们在创客俱乐部中从事自主项目。与大学和高中辅导员合作，导师将高中学生的STEM兴趣与相关的STEM职业和职业途径联系起来，同时分享有关资源，网络和实践的实用建议，以促进自我宣传和自决在中学后STEM教育和就业。研究将探讨过渡计划是否以及如何促进高中生及其导师的STEM身份，自我宣传技能和更高的生活质量。由此产生的实地测试和基于实践的过渡计划将广泛传播到创客空间和其他环境，最终为自闭症青年提供更多的STEM职业机会。自闭症高中生和自闭症本科STEM专业学生将共同设计一个STEM导师计划，嵌入创客俱乐部，这将支持高中和大学之间的过渡。不同的导师和青少年将根据他们认为对他们的导师经验很重要的属性进行配对，包括但不限于种族，民族，性别，语言，自闭症特征和STEM兴趣。示范性，混合方法的研究将调查共同设计的导师计划是否与高中生和本科生的生活质量，自决，自我效能，自我宣传和STEM身份相关。此外，本研究将探讨如何以及为什么具体方面的指导经验对该计划的有效性产生影响。为了实现这些研究目的，将对调查前和调查后进行统计分析，包括自闭症特定生活质量调查和STEM自我效能和职业兴趣调查，该调查已适用于自闭症青年并进行了验证。这些数据的结果将与导师和青年访谈前后的定性分析进行三角分析。由此产生的研究将推进知识的优势为基础的，参与性的方法可以支持自闭症青年追求干的职业道路。这项研究将通过自闭症研究人员和教育工作者以及STEM教育研究人员和教育工作者的会议和期刊广泛传播。共同设计的，基于导师制的过渡计划将通过数字制作导师工具包共享。因为这个工具包是基于自闭症青年和大学生的经验和专业知识，它很可能支持自闭症患者的研究准确和真实的转化为实践。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程，信息和通信技术（ICT）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Autistic youth and young adults often possess numerous skills that have the potential to substantially contribute to the STEM workforce of the future. However, autistic people remain underrepresented in STEM careers due in part to a lack of transitional supports between high school and college. This project will address this critical gap by providing these transitional supports through a comprehensive, person-centered, near-peer mentorship program in the context of maker clubs attended by over 135 autistic youth and undergraduates. In this program, autistic college students who major in STEM fields will act as near-peer mentors to autistic high school students as they engage in self-directed projects in maker clubs. In partnership with college and high school counselors, the mentors will connect the STEM interests of the high school students with relevant STEM careers and career pathways, while sharing practical advice about resources, networks, and practices that foster self-advocacy and self-determination in post-secondary STEM education and employment. Research will explore whether and how the transition program fosters increased STEM identities, self-advocacy skills, and greater quality of life among the high school students and their mentors. The resulting field-tested and empirically-based transition program will be disseminated widely to makerspaces and other settings, ultimately providing increased access to STEM careers for autistic youth. Autistic high school students and autistic undergraduate STEM majors will co-design a STEM mentorship program, embedded within maker clubs, which will support the transition between high school and college. Diverse mentors and youth will be paired based on attributes that they identify as important to their mentorship experience, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, language, autistic traits, and STEM interests. Participatory, mixed-methods research will investigate whether the co-designed mentorship program is associated with greater quality of life, self-determination, self-efficacy, self-advocacy, and STEM identity among the high school students and undergraduates. Additionally, this research will examine how and why specific aspects of the mentorship experience have an impact on the effectiveness of the program. To achieve these research purposes, statistical analyses will be conducted on pre- and post-surveys, including the Autism Specific Quality of Life Survey and a STEM Self-Efficacy and Career Interest Survey that has been adapted for and validated with autistic youth. The findings from these data will be triangulated with qualitative analyses of pre- and post-interviews with the mentors and youth. The resulting research will advance knowledge of how strengths-based, participatory approaches can support autistic youth in pursuing STEM career pathways. This research will be disseminated widely through conferences and journals for autism researchers and educators, in addition to STEM education researchers and educators. The co-designed, mentorship-based transition program will be shared through a digital Making Mentors Toolkit. Because this toolkit is based in the experiences and expertise of autistic youth and undergraduates, it is likely to support the accurate and authentic translation of research into practice for autistic people. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.