Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM

调查优势具有学习差异的人带到STEM项目将推进与阅读障碍本科生相关的神经学差异的知识，这些差异可以导致视觉处理和STEM学习的优势。 这个示范研究项目将导致试点测试的实验和干预措施，这将作为基础，更先进的，强大的调查与诵读困难的本科生的特点，可以导致视觉处理和学习STEM的优势。 将进行三项试点研究：1。第一项可行性研究将调查用于调查空间学习和周边处理优势的技术，以前在患有阅读障碍的天体物理学家中观察到，是否可以应用于调查患有阅读障碍的中学后学生的STEM学习和STEM处理技能。第二项试验研究将以正在学习STEM的有阅读障碍的专上学生为样本，探讨干预模式。第三个实验将采用凝视跟踪技术来绘制患有阅读障碍的大学生在执行STEM任务时使用的策略。 这项实验将通过改变任务中呈现的记忆负荷来操纵工作记忆需求;通过调整掩盖工作的视觉噪音水平来改变对视觉注意力的需求。哈佛大学物理系研究助理Gerhard Sonnert博士将担任该项目的外部评估员。 索纳特医生的出版物包括科学职业中的性别差异、科学与社会的联系以及爱因斯坦等主题。

The Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM project will advance knowledge about the neurological differences associated with undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. This demonstration research project will result in pilot-tested experiments and interventions, which will serve as the basis for more advanced, robust investigations about the characteristics of undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. Three pilot studies will be conducted:1. The first feasibility study will investigate whether the techniques used to investigate advantages for spatial learning and peripheral processing, previously observed in astrophysicists with dyslexia, can be applied to investigate STEM learning and STEM processing skills in pos-secondary students with dyslexia.2. The second pilot study will investigate an intervention model using a sample of post-secondary students with dyslexia who are studying STEM.3. The third experiment will employ gaze tracking techniques to map strategies used by college students with dyslexia when performing STEM tasks. This experiment will manipulate working memory demands by varying memory loads presented during the tasks; demands for visual attention will be varied by adjusting levels of visual noise masking the work.Dr. Gerhard Sonnert, a Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, will serve as the external evaluator for this project. Dr. Sonnert?s publications include topics on gender differences in science careers, connecting science and society, and Einstein.