Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
People with disabilities are underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce (NSF, 2016). One way to increase representation of people with disabilities in STEM fields is by supporting students with disabilities (SWDs) at the undergraduate level. In undergraduate education in the United States, SWDs represent approximately 19%…
People with disabilities are underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) workforce (NSF, 2016). One way to increase representation of people with disabilities in STEM fields is by supporting students with disabilities (SWDs) at the undergraduate level. In undergraduate education in the United States, SWDs represent approximately 19% of the undergraduate community (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). However, SWDs have lower graduation and retention rates. This is particularly true for STEM majors, where SWDs make up about 9% of the STEM community in higher education. The AAC&U has defined a list of High-Impact Practices (HIPs), which are active learning practices and experiences that encourage deep learning by promoting student engagement, and could ultimately support student retention (AAC&U). To date, student-centered disability research has not explored the extent to which SWDs participate in HIPs. We hypothesized that SWDs are less likely than students without disabilities to be involved in HIPs and that students who identify as having severe disabilities would participate in HIPs at lower rates. In this study, we conducted a national survey to examine involvement in HIPs for students with disabilities in STEM. We found that disability status significantly affects the probability of participation in undergraduate research, but is not a significant factor for participation in most other HIPs. We also found that self-reported severity of disability did not significantly impact participation in HIPs, though we observed trends that students reporting higher severity generally reported lower participation in HIPs. Our open-ended responses did indicate that SWDs still faced barriers to participation in HIPs.
