Years One and Two of the Physics Summer Camp for Students with ASD at Mississippi State University

Over the last several decades, the awareness and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has steadily increased. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the prevalence of ASD among children 8 years old in 11 communities around the United States [1] found that 1 in 36 children, or 2.8%, were estimated to have ASD. Despite the continued upward trend in the numbers of diagnoses of ASD, the number of specialized services available to individuals with ASD are still minimal and do not match the growing needs for persistent intervention in education and the transition to adulthood, employment, and independent living. An excellent means of successfully navigating this transition is through acquiring a postsecondary education. For many students with ASD, studies indicate that courses focusing on STEM are particularly appealing and their enrollment in these courses occurs at a high rate compared to other disability categories and the general population [2]. As a means of providing a comprehensive postsecondary inclusive transition program for students with ASD that have an interest in physics and STEM in general, we run the week-long Physics Summer Camp for Students with ASD at Mississippi State University. This summer school provides a unique experience for high-school students with ASD to explore physics from a hands-on and highly interactive perspective while also getting to experience a sample of college life, allowing the student to sample if a 4-year college might be right for them. In this talk, I will discuss some of the experiences of organizing and running the summer school, including the structure of the summer school, for its first two years as well as relate some of the personal interactions with the campers with ASD that make running this kind of program so impactful and rewarding. I’ll also discuss some of the challenges faced that we were better prepared for in year 2 after running the summer school for the first time.



[1] Surveillance Summaries / March 24, 2023 / 72(2);1–14

[2] Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 43, pp. 1539-1546, Jul 2013