DEAF STEM: Deaf Educational Access For Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

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The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. requests funding support in the amount of$292,590 for a research and development effort, Deaf Educational Access For Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DEAF STEM). DEAF STEM will expandthe work of Project SUCCEED-HI (NSF #9906189) by adding American Sign Language(ASL) versions to the existing text of a wide variety of Shodor materials. A project goalis to improve access for all students to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL),including Shodor's extensive STEM materials, which have been developed throughprevious, and current NSF funding. In addition, DEAF STEM will provide a dynamicresource for educational interpreters and other providers to increase their competence andconfidence in interpreting and supporting education in STEM areas to deaf students.Intellectual Merit: DEAF STEM addresses the needs of both deaf students and theirteachers/educational interpreters. Deaf students are underrepresented in STEM fields inlarge part because of the documented low-grade reading level (3 rd 4 th grade) of theaverage deaf high school student and the minimal skill levels of most educationalinterpreters. DEAF STEM will address the teacher and student needs by expanding onthe work of SUCCEED-HI to provide bilingual versions of two of Shodor's awardwinning activities: Project Interactivate and the Computational Science EducationReference Desk (CSERD) which has been selected as one of the inaugural pathwayprojects of NSDL. Purely text-based approaches to STEM materials are insufficient toensure active access to STEM information by deaf students. Through focused research,DEAF STEM scientists will work with deaf educators and their students to perfect themodification and presentation of NSDL materials, while assessing a variety oftechnologies, including video and the use of avatars. This focused research includes thedevelopment of best practices for providing bilingual materials to our audience.Additional online tools for searching our growing collection of signed lessons willsupport educational interpreters. These tools will enable providers to locate correctexamples of STEM concepts communicated through ASL. The DEAF STEM team willinvite educational interpreters in the field to submit STEM passages that they need helpsigning. These passages will be signed and posted on a signing STEM forum. This willprovide an open-ended opportunity for interpreters to both improve their signing skillsand to provide support for the issues they face on a daily basis.Broader Impact: The impact of our DEAF STEM project will be felt on two fronts. Byproviding deaf students with signed assistance to read STEM text, the students' abilityand confidence in reading STEM materials will be improved. The bilingual presentationof the STEM materials in both English text and ASL video clips will provide anopportunity for language arts and STEM teachers to work together to improve their deafstudents' reading and English skills.By creating a web based DEAF STEM Forum, the entire deaf community will beencouraged to explore the signing of STEM concepts. By appealing to the deafcommunity's interest in promoting their language, DEAF STEM will widen the exposureof the deaf community to relevant STEM issues. As a deliverable under theNSDL/Pathway memorandum of understanding, Shodor will be sharing these bestpractices with other projects in NSDL to maximize impact and breadth of dissemination.