2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Curricula containing accessibility topics with positive societal impact are useful in career training and have shown promise in engagement of students from groups historically excluded from and underrepresented in engineering. Toy adaptation makes toys accessible to kids with disabilities and is a hands-on process that involves toy disassembly, circuitry assessment, and addition of an accessible switch. Previous work incorporating toy adaptation into curriculum has demonstrated that it is well-received by students and is especially impactful to women. However, it is unknown how student response to toy adaptation is connected to career interests and motivation of students, including those who are Pell-eligible and/or first-generation college students. Here, we incorporated toy adaptation into an undergraduate laboratory course and examined student response, laboratory interests, and career interests. We found that students responded extremely positively to the toy adaptation activity, including that they enjoyed toy adaptation, that it was useful, and that it increased appreciation for the positive effects of engineering. Additionally, we found that women felt significantly more empowered as a result of the experience as compared to men. Conversely, while Pell-eligible students also responded favorably to the module, they expressed significantly less agreement that the experience solidified their choice of studying engineering as compared to their non-Pell-eligible peers. All groups indicated that “interesting work” was most important to them in career selection and that “doing something impactful that helps others” was their favorite part of toy adaptation. Interestingly, we observed statistically significant connections between career interests and laboratory interests, wherein students who selected the technical, hands-on aspects of toy adaptation as most enjoyable were more likely to select “interesting work” as their most important career consideration. Ultimately, identifying curricular laboratory activities that are educational, engaging to all students, and that meet students’ career interests is valuable in supporting a positive engineering educational experience.