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，这些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职业生涯中的比例仍然很低，部分原因是缺乏高中和大学之间的过渡支持。该项目将在Maker俱乐部的背景下，通过一个全面的、以人为中心的近同伴导师计划，提供这些过渡性支持，以解决这一关键差距，超过135名自闭症青年和本科生参加。在这个项目中，STEM专业的自闭症大学生将作为自闭症高中生的近乎同行的导师，因为他们参与了Maker俱乐部的自我指导项目。与大学和高中辅导员合作，导师将把高中生的STEM兴趣与相关的STEM职业和职业道路联系起来，同时分享有关资源、网络和实践的实用建议，这些资源、网络和做法有助于在中学后STEM教育和就业中促进自我倡导和自决。研究将探索过渡计划是否以及如何在高中生及其导师中培养更高的STEM认同感、自我宣传技能和更高的生活质量。由此产生的经过现场测试和基于经验的过渡计划将广泛传播到makerspace和其他环境，最终为自闭症青年提供更多进入STEM职业生涯的机会。自闭症高中生和自闭症本科生STEM专业将共同设计STEM导师计划，嵌入Maker俱乐部，支持高中和大学之间的过渡。不同的导师和青年将根据他们认为对他们的导师经历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。参与性的混合方法研究将调查共同设计的导师计划是否与高中生和本科生中更高的生活质量、自决、自我效能、自我倡导和STEM认同感有关。此外，这项研究将考察导师经验的特定方面如何以及为什么会对项目的有效性产生影响。为了达到这些研究目的，将对前后调查进行统计分析，包括针对自闭症的生活质量调查和STEM自我效能和职业兴趣调查，该调查已适应自闭症青少年并与其验证。这些数据的发现将通过对导师和青年进行前后访谈的定性分析进行三角划分。由此产生的研究将促进对基于优势的参与式方法如何支持自闭症青年追求STEM职业道路的了解。除了STEM教育研究人员和教育工作者外，这项研究还将通过自闭症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、基于导师关系的过渡计划将通过数字制作导师工具包共享。由于这个工具包是基于自闭症青年和本科生的经验和专业知识，它可能会支持将研究准确和真实地转化为自闭症患者的实践。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.