Research Supporting Multisensory Engagement by Blind, Visually Impaired, and Sighted Students to Advance Integrated Learning of Astronomy and Computer Science

计算和计算思维是现代科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域日常实践中不可或缺的一部分。因此，STEM+计算伙伴关系(STEM+C)计划寻求推动新的多学科方法和对计算在STEM教与学中的整合的基于证据的理解，以及特定学科在计算方面的努力，旨在为K-12阶段的计算机科学教学和学习建立一个证据基础，包括在不同的人群中。就天文学而言，计算和计算思维(CT)几乎被用于收集、处理和分析数据的各个方面。然而，几乎没有教育资源支持学生以计算密集型的方式学习天文学。此外，支持计算过程的视觉界面的优势对盲人和视障人士(BVI)提出了独特的挑战。天文学和计算机科学中视觉中立工具的缺乏为英属维尔京群岛个人的学习和劳动力进入带来了额外的障碍。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将开发、实施和研究一个创新的教育计划，为英属维尔京群岛和有视力的学生提供机会，学习如何应用计算和计算思维来设计完全可用的天文工具，并将这些工具用于他们自己的天文查询。研究人员假设，学生参与以用户为中心的设计/通用设计过程，以及使用由此产生的天文学研究工具，将促进学习，并扩大对计算机科学和天文学等高障碍学科的兴趣和参与。由联合大学公司的研究人员领导的项目团队包括来自北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校、芝加哥大学耶克斯天文台、TERC和内华达大学拉斯维加斯分校的天文学家、计算机科学家、软件工程师、教育开发人员和学习科学家。约200名英属维尔京群岛和耶尔克斯天文台附近以及全国各地的有视力的学生将参与该项目并从中受益。通过确保研究结果和开发的工具和资源反映了他们学习的广泛的人和地方的广泛需求，人口结构多样化的学生群体将帮助该项目实现重大的更广泛的影响。通过实现数据采集、处理和分析过程的多感官参与，开发的工具将改善对天文学以及其他视觉和计算密集型领域的获取，如卫星、地球物理和医学成像。该项目将解决培养学生STEM素养的艰巨挑战--以真实、创新和有效的方式整合科学和计算机科学的关键思想和实践的教与学--同时灌输增加所有人获取的计算工具的社会价值。教育干预措施的主要组成部分包括：a)以探究为基础的课程单元和促进的活动，教授天文学方面的计算；b)以用户为中心的设计/通用设计的脚手架过程，强调在优化天文学工具以使所有用户都能充分利用的背景下的计算思维做法；c)由学生主导的真实天文学研究；d)英属维尔京群岛和有视力的天文学家和计算机科学家，作为学习者社区的导师和榜样。干预将涉及下一代科学标准、数学共同核心国家标准和K-12计算机科学标准中规定的相关学科内容、实践和计算。该项目将在三年内从主流盲人学校和专门的盲人学校招募20名教师和200名学生。对学生和教师的评估、调查、访谈、工作成果和用户的计算机日志文件以及课堂观察的定量和定性分析将被用来确定将物理和计算结合在一起的方法的有效性和广泛的实用性。学生层面的研究问题侧重于学生对计算思维的理解和使用是如何与天文学和他们使用的特定天文工具有关的；以及学生的参与如何提高他们的兴趣、自我效能和对谁可以参与天文学和计算的理解。教师层面的研究侧重于教师整合天文学和计算的能力，以及支持英属维尔京群岛学生在课堂上学习的能力。该项目将在天文学和计算机科学相结合的背景下，首次对学生的学习和行为进行纵向研究。它将加深对多感官计算输入和输出如何支持英属维尔京群岛和视力正常的学生学习的理解。该项目将开始向外地介绍英属维尔京群岛的个人如何在进入门槛较高的学科、天文学和计算机科学的交叉点参与劳动大军。项目组和咨询委员会成员将向各自的专业协会和网络，包括美国天文学会和美国地球物理联合会，以及通过在同行评议期刊和会议报告上发表论文等传统手段，传播研究成果。这项研究中产生的可使用的工具和教育资源将免费提供给全国的K-12教师，并可在天文学和其他视觉密集型领域被英属维尔京群岛和有视力的个人广泛采用。

Computing and computational thinking are an integral part of everyday practice within modern fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As a result, the STEM+Computing Partnerships (STEM+C) program seeks to advance new multidisciplinary approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the integration of computing in STEM teaching and learning, and discipline-specific efforts in computing designed to build an evidence base for teaching and learning of computer science in K-12, including within diverse populations. In the case of astronomy, computing and computational thinking (CT) are used for nearly every aspect of collecting, processing, and analyzing data. Yet, few educational resources exist to support students in learning astronomy in the computationally-intensive way that it is practiced. Furthermore, the predominance of visual interfaces that support computing processes present unique challenges for blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals. The dearth of vision-neutral tools in astronomy and computer science introduce additional barriers to learning and workforce entry for BVI individuals. To address these challenges, this project will develop, implement, and study an innovative educational program that provides BVI and sighted students with opportunities to learn how to apply computing and computational thinking to design fully-accessible astronomical tools and to use those tools for their own astronomy inquiry. Investigators hypothesize that students' participation in both the user-centered design/universal design process and in the use of the resulting tools for astronomy inquiry will foster learning and broaden interest and participation in the high-barrier disciplines of computer science and astronomy. Led by investigators at Associated Universities Inc., the project team includes astronomers, computer scientists, software engineers, education developers, and learning scientists from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory, TERC, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Approximately 200 BVI and sighted students near Yerkes Observatory and across the nation, will be involved with and benefit from the project. The demographically diverse student population will help the project achieve significant broader impacts, by assuring that the research findings and developed tools and resources reflect the needs of a broad diversity of people and places in which they learn. By enabling multi-sensory engagement for data acquisition, processing, and analysis processes, the developed tools will improve access to astronomy and to other visually- and computationally-intensive domains such as satellite, geophysical, and medical imaging.This project will address a daunting challenge to developing STEM literacy in students - integrating teaching and learning of key ideas and practices of science and computer science in authentic, innovative and effective ways - while instilling the societal value of computational tools that increase access for all. Key components of the education intervention include a) inquiry-based curricular modules and facilitated activities that teach computing in the context of astronomy; b) a scaffolded process of user-centered design/universal design that underscores computational thinking practices in the context of optimizing astronomy tools to be fully-accessible to all users; c) student-driven, authentic astronomy research; and d) BVI and sighted astronomers and computer scientists as mentors and role models to the community of learners. The intervention will address relevant disciplinary content, practices, and computation as specified in Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards for mathematics, and K-12 Computer Science Standards. The project will engage 20 teachers and 200 students from mainstream and specialized schools for the blind over three years. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of student and teacher assessments, surveys, interviews, work products, and user' computer log files, and classroom observations will be used to determine the effectiveness and broad utility of the approach for integrating physics and computing The student-level research questions focus on how students' understanding and use of computational thinking develops in relation to astronomy and the specific astronomy tools they use; and how students' participation augments their interest, self-efficacy, and understandings of who can participate in astronomy and computing. The teacher-level research focuses on teachers' capacity to integrate astronomy and computing and to support BVI students' learning in their classrooms. The project will provide the first longitudinal study of student learning and behaviors in the context of integrating astronomy and computer science. It will deepen understanding of how multisensory computing inputs and outputs support learning for BVI and sighted students. The project will begin to inform the field about how BVI individuals can participate in the workforce at the intersection of high barrier-to-entry disciplines, astronomy and computer science. The project team and advisory board members will disseminate findings to their respective professional associations and networks, including the American Astronomical Society and the American Geophysical Union, and through traditional means, such as papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations. The accessible tools and educational resources produced in this study will be freely available to K-12 teachers nationwide and could be widely adopted by BVI and sighted individuals in astronomy and other visually-intensive domains.