Promoting Engagement in Informal STEM Learning as a Path to Employment for Autistic Adolescents

Audience & Settings

Audience: Neurodivergent Stakeholders, Informal STEM Educators, Public Participation in Scientific Research Practitioners.

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Learning environments: Online workshops, informal STEM education, community outreach and engagement in research.

Project Description

Increasingly guided by a participatory team of Autistic students and scholars, we designed, delivered, and assessed Game Design and Employment Workshops for Autistic youth. We seek to empower Autistic youth to succeed in careers that match their skills and interests by:

1. Developing and sharing strategies that effectively engage Autistic youth in informal STEM learning opportunities;
2. Promoting key employment skills including self-determination and self-efficacy.

Community Partners: Batkin, D., Dave, S., Delos Santos, J., Dwyer, P.,Grossman, E., Gravitch, K., Hwang-Geddes, L., Kilgallon, E., Kosminoff, K., Kofner, B., Leon, B., Malik, A., Rico, J., Shevchuk-Hill, S., Siper, M., Thomas, J., Tricarico, N., Yan, A., Tech Kids Unlimited, & Soft Chaos

Project Leaders: Kristen-Gillespie Lynch (PI: CUNY), Amy Hurst (PI: NYU), Sinéad O’Brien (Postdoc: CUNY)

Evaluation Team: Ariana Riccio & Wendy Martin (EDC)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 2005772 and 2005729. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Key Achievements

• Guided by a participatory team, we developed 5 increasingly advocacy-centered workshops across 3 summers (See Year 2 and Year 3 websites).
• Improvements in video game design self-efficacy were often observed, with some improvements in self-determination, planning, and career decision-making self-efficacy.
• To address conflicting values in Year 2, two neurodivergent staff created neurodiversity-affirmative principles that guided staff training and curriculum development in Year 3.

Access and Inclusion

• Autistic community members lead project decision-making via our participatory team and hold leadership positions on our advisory board, research and workshop teams.
• To address representation issues in autism research, we prioritized recruiting underserved Autistic youth (e.g., low-income; people of colour; co-occurring learning/communication challenges).

AWARD

Table highlighting areas where Autistic and additional neurodivergent voices shaped the game design and employment workshops.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 2005772 and 2005729. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

LEGEND

Promoting Engagement in Informal STEM Learning as a Path to Employment for Autistic Adolescents

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#2005772

#2005729

AWARD