Pathways Project: KC Empower: Universal Access To After School STEM,

Kinetic City After School是一个由先前的NSF奖项支持的项目，该项目在典型的课后活动领域开展了80多项活动，如电脑游戏/模拟，动手活动，积极玩耍，艺术和写作。这个途径项目，KC Empower，将重新设计和测试动力城市目前开发的80项活动中的5项活动，使用新的方法来增加残疾儿童和青年在非正式科学环境中的代表性。该项目将测试通用设计原则如何与新技术相结合，以满足残疾学生的需求。重新设计中使用的技术包括先进的移动的平台和应用程序;筛选音频、图像和视频文件的搜索引擎;对身体运动做出反应的游戏输入设备;以及允许内容多种表示的信息重组。该项目将测试通用设计准则如何与新技术配合使用，在短期内为残疾学生提供更无障碍的动手活动，同时增加所有学生的无障碍机会。该项目预计将导致一个全面的开发项目，将更新动力城市放学后的所有模块。本项目的目标受众是三至五年级的学生，其假设是为残疾人设计可以加强旨在增加科学知识的活动。 与其说是为残疾人提供便利，倒不如说是环境和设计造成了残疾，更好的教育做法是从包括残疾人在内的所有学习者的角度重新思考活动。因此，通用设计的使用将解决如何最好地为所有用户提供材料，同时受到残疾用户提出的挑战的影响。该项目包括课后科学联盟、应用特殊技术中心和课后联盟。

Kinetic City After School is a project supported by a prior NSF award that has produced over 80 activities in areas typical of after school activities such as computer games/simulations, hands-on activities, active play, and art and writing. This pathways project, KC Empower, will redesign and test five activities of the 80 activities currently developed by Kinetic City using a new approach to increase the representation of children and youth with disabilities in informal science settings. The project will test how universal design principles can be integrated with new technologies, not available when most after school STEM content was created, to address the needs of students with disabilities. The technologies used in the redesign include advanced mobile platforms and applications; search engines that sift through audio, image and video files; gaming input devices that respond to body movements; and information restructuring that allows multiple representations of content. The project will test how universal design guidelines will work with new technologies, in the short-term providing hands-on activities more accessible to students with disabilities, while increasing access for all students. The project is expected to lead to a full scale development project that will update all modules in Kinetic City After School. The target audience is 3rd - 5th grade students.The hypothesis of the project is that designing for disability can strengthen activities designed to increase science knowledge. Rather than making accommodations for persons with disabilities, it is the environment and design that are disabled, and it is better educational practice to rethink the activity from the point of view of all learners, including those with disabilities. Thus the use of universal design will address how best to present material for all users while influenced by the challenges presented by disabled users. The project includes the Coalition for Science After School, the Center for Applied Special Technology and the Afterschool Alliance.