Building STEM pathways for students with special abilities

Abstract

Over the last two years, we have been working closely with undergraduate students designated as having disabilities within the engineering sciences and related STEM fields. As we identify and collaborate with these students, we find that they are able to teach us many valuable lessons. Chief amongst these lessons is that in the face of adversity, success within STEM fields may still be achieved by hard work, patience, kindness, and 'grittiness' - a determination to achieve goals, overcome obstacles and discover opportunities. To celebrate this awareness, we have partnered with the Center of Accommodation and Support Service (CASS) at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the Center for Students with Disabilities at the EL Paso Community College (EPCC) to organize and implement a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Ability Awareness program. This work in progress is part of a STEMGROW program [1] that is informed by a theory-to-practice model [2] and uses a funds of knowledge framework [3]. The goal is to bring together students already studying STEM fields and learn more about how they can serve as an an inspiration not only for future students with disabilities, but for all all students at EPCC, UTEP, in STEM-fields and beyond. Our work centers on our students' self-efficacy development and growth pathways. Therefore, we ground our project in the Model of Co-Curricular Support (MCCS) [4], whereby it is posited that there exist four main areas in which students become integrated and educationally engaged within the university. The MCCS builds off Tinto's model of institution departure [5], and contains four main areas which are: Academic, Social, Professional, and University Integration (AI, SI, PI, and UI, respectively). In our action research, we share illustrative example of the impact of using integrated and applied learning practices [6], which are currently being widely instituted at UTEP.