2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Assistive technology is highly interdisciplinary and requires experience working with a team of professionals that has not always been accessible to under¬represented student groups. With support from NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program, California State University Northridge creates the first minority student development program that specifically targets students for careers in assistive technology by leveraging institutional commitment to engage underrepresented and underserved minority students in STEM fields by,1) building a support system for underrepresented students in STEM. 2) providing an authentic learning experience through tailored activities. 3) increasing our institutional capacity of creating a culturally sensitive learning environment and interdisciplinary STEM curriculum. The project uses student-centered principles and focuses on the significance of a learning environment applying an integrated STEM approach. So students take a more active role in their own education (Struyf et al.; 2019). Instructors use various active and student-centered learning methods including collaborative, cooperative, problem-based, and project-based learning. The emphasis of student learning activities is placed more on experiential learning and less on didactic teaching, with the instructor serving as both a mentor and a facilitator of learning. The project develops a strong professional identity critical to the persistence for students enrolled in a minority-serving institute in STEM majors and the motivation to pursue a STEM career, particularly in careers at the human-technology frontier. Project evaluation is in collaboration between the CARE evaluators, the project PIs and guided by the outputs, aims and outcomes about student STEM Identity theory by using both formative assessments and summative assessments.