Colleges are becoming increasingly diverse, including strengthening representation of students with disabilities in STEM (Science, Teaching, Engineering, and Math) fields; however, representation still lags behind national trends. To adapt to this changing demographic and improve representation, STEM college professors must be prepared to grant equitable access to the STEM curriculum and enhance scientific communication skills. This practice brief outlines how a college science faculty applied the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to improve scientific communication skills equitably among college students with diverse needs during a 10-week NSF-REU (National Science Foundation – Research Experiences for Undergraduates) at the host institution summer program during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides recommendations about how students with disabilities (i.e., chronic illness, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) which may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying the UDL framework increased student confidence in applying the scientific method and led to gains in students' perception of their ability to use their skills to solve scientific problems. STEM faculty can use the lessons from the NSF-REU summer program outlined in this work to develop inclusive and accessible STEM programs for students with diverse needs across the country. Moreover, this work highlights the need for STEM faculty to involve Disability Services coordinators as active members in research programs to ensure equity and inclusion.
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Leveraging Out-of-School STEM Programs During COVID-19
K–12 schools across the United States have been challenged to make programmatic shifts to meet the
needs of youth and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to both structure and existing connections
to youth and families, many out-of-school learning (OSL) programs, including Pre-College STEM
Programs (PCSPs), are nimbler and have the ability to be more responsive. The STEM PUSH Network (a National
Science Foundation INCLUDES Alliance; https://stempushnetwork.org)—which brings together PCSPs
as part of a national collaborative of programs and citywide STEM Ecosystems focused on program
improvement and college admissions—revealed some of the ways programs have adjusted during COVID-
19, as well as the ways systematic cross-program collaboration can enhance this work.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1930990
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10250287
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Connected science learning
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2475-8779
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The National Science Foundation (2019) points to Black, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Island peoples as underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) college majors and professional pathways. This underrepresentation results from an interplay of representation and process, meaning that it in part results from STEM opportunities and programming that do not reflect the experiences of racially and ethnically diverse people, offer insight into the needs of diverse communities, nor address barriers that prevent participation (McGee 2020). One way that institutions of higher education (IHEs) and community organizations try to address inequities in STEM is through pre-college programs aimed at supporting racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) youth. These pre-college STEM programs (PCSPs) work to foster increased STEM awareness and support students in achieving academic milestones that make college pathways more viable. Out-of-school learning (OSL) and informal STEM programming have the potential to fill gaps in STEM K–12 education, as well as complement and support connections with K–12 STEM by offering REM youth opportunities to connect STEM with their lives and influence both their capabilities and dispositions toward STEM (Kitchen et al. 2018). Studies have pointed to positive connections between OSL STEM participation and outcomes such as high school graduation, sustained interest in STEM, and matriculation to university (Penuel, Clark, and Bevan 2016). PCSPs may also support IHE’s development of infrastructure to increase admissions of REM students into college STEM programs. For PCSPs to be an effective element of reducing inequities in STEM, they must successfully engage with and recruit REM youth to participate. In this article, we focus on the recruitment of REM youth into STEM OSL to better understand what is effective for REM youth and their families, as well as highlight connections between OSL and in-school STEM opportunities. Our goals in this work are to (1) identify program practices with the aim of broadening STEM educational and career pathways for REM youth and (2) support strengthened pathways between STEM in K–12 schools and IHEs.more » « less
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