Increasing STEM Signing Knowledge of Undergraduate Student Interpreters

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A persistent challenge facing educators is how to broaden participation of underrepresented populations in STEM careers. Historically, students who are deaf or hard of hearing experience significant obstacles to successful learning in the sciences. Most of these students rely on the support of sign language interpreters. This project will develop a prototype Signing Bioscience Dictionary that will include approximately 1,500 terms that are routinely used in undergraduate biology courses. This project team will examine the potential effectiveness of the dictionary in increasing the life science vocabulary of student interpreters enrolled in Lamar University's four-year undergraduate Interpreter Training Program. The overall goal is for trained interpreters to accurately and effectively convey undergraduate biology information via sign language to support deaf and hard of hearing students. This project may also lead to the dictionary being incorporated into undergraduate training programs across the nation, potentially increasing the number of STEM interpreters working with these students and leading to more persons who are deaf or hard of hearing pursuing careers in STEM.The intellectual merit of this project rests in advancing the knowledge base for retaining deaf and hard of hearing students in the life sciences. In addition to developing a prototype dictionary, the project will evaluate its potential effectiveness in enabling undergraduate students at Lamar to develop a more robust American Sign Language life science vocabulary and use it to interpret content taught in undergraduate biology courses. In addition, this project will solicit recommendations from students and instructors at Lamar to identify new terms to be included in an expanded version of the dictionary and to incorporate any improvements they suggest. The project innovation is the repurposing of the signed terms from TERC's Signing Life Science Dictionary into interactive on-demand videos that include terms, definitions, illustrations, and an avatar signing the English text-based elements. Use of video will make the dictionary compatible with most computers and browsers and does not require an Internet connection. Research methods and measurements will build on the designs TERC has used for evaluations of other signing dictionaries. Results will render new knowledge about the effectiveness of the dictionary in strengthening the American Sign Language STEM knowledge of students in Lamar's training program. If successful, the project will help address the challenge of broadening participation of an underrepresented student population in STEM learning and potentially in STEM careers.