Highly Adaptive Science Simulations for Accessible STEM Education

探索研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具（rmt），显著提高pre -12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该项目将研究、设计和开发交互式科学模拟的自适应可访问性特征。该研究将为促进复杂互动学习的可及性奠定基础，并有助于解决残疾学生和非残疾学生在科学成就方面的显著差异。科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的PhET互动模拟项目和佐治亚理工学院的合作者将组成项目团队，他们在无障碍技术和设计方面具有专业知识。项目团队将进行基于设计的实施研究，通过与残疾学生和他们的老师共同设计，开发交互式科学模拟的自适应无障碍功能。学生将包括那些有阅读障碍、视力障碍或失明的学生，以及有智力和发育障碍的学生，从五年级到高中，以及最近的高中毕业生。自适应辅助功能将在一组PhET交互式科学模拟中实现，并允许残疾学生使用替代输入设备（如键盘，开关和吸吸设备）访问科学模拟，改变模拟的视觉显示（更改颜色对比度，缩放和放大以及简化），听到视觉显示的不同听觉表示（描述，声音化和文本到语音）。控制模拟事件的频率。所有功能都可以由教师或学生通过一个包含精选功能集的全局控制面板打开或关闭，并进行实时修改，从而形成高度灵活、高度可访问的交互式学习资源。PhET模拟在美国课堂上广泛使用，以证据为基础，与标准保持一致，是高度参与和有效的学习资源。通过提出的高适应性功能和支持资源，教师将能够快速调整PhET模拟，以满足许多残疾学生的需求，简化为学生创造差异化学习机会的任务，并支持残疾学生与非残疾学生一起参与协作学习——这是高质量STEM教育的基本组成部分。为了研究、设计和开发自适应功能，并调查学生对它们的使用情况，项目团队成员将与残疾学生一起在教室里共同教学，并与学生进行共同设计活动，学生们参与设计思维，帮助设计和完善自适应功能，以满足已确定的可访问性需求（他们自己和同龄人的需求）。此外，还将对有残疾和没有残疾的学生进行访谈，以测试个人特征的早期原型，随后完善许多不同特征的分层，并确保自适应特征的存在不会对模拟的传统使用产生负面影响。拟议的工作还包括对教师和学生的调查以及对教师使用情况的分析，以完善全球控制功能，开发策划功能集，并开发支持教师资源。该项目将解决具有不同需求的学生的教育设计核心的关键问题，包括如何使自适应功能支持学生实现特定的学习目标。该项目将采用基于设计的实施研究，与残疾学生（包括视力障碍、认知障碍或阅读障碍）进行重要的共同设计，通过访谈、案例研究和课堂实施来设计和评估无障碍功能。这将为利用技术学习提供新的模式和理论。该项目将研究：1)学生如何参与、使用自适应辅助功能并从中学习；2)如何设计自适应辅助功能以在学习资源中和谐地分层；3)如何有效地支持访问丰富的动态功能控件和策划功能集，以便学生和教师直观地在课堂上使用。该项目将制作8个具有自适应无障碍功能和辅助教师资源的PhET模拟。基础研究知识将通过分析学生参与、可用性和从可访问模拟中学习，导致自适应可访问特性的有效设计和实施。此外，该项目还将提供技术基础设施、范例和软件，供其他STEM教育技术开发商使用。项目团队将共同努力，深入了解如何设计实用、可用、有效的适应性科学模拟，以便有不同需求的学习者能够提高他们的科学内容知识，并与同龄人一起参与科学实践。这项工作具有巨大的潜力，可以改变残疾学生的STEM学习，并使模拟对所有学习者更有效。结果将深入了解无障碍模拟活动及其相应的教师材料在吸引学生参与科学实践和课堂学习方面的有效性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This project will research, design, and develop adaptive accessibility features for interactive science simulations. The proposed research will lay the foundation that advances the accessibility of complex interactives for learning and contribute to solutions to address the significant disparity in science achievement between students with and without disabilities. The PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder and collaborators at Georgia Tech, with expertise in accessible technology and design, will form the project team. The project team will conduct design-based implementation research, where adaptive accessibility features for interactive science simulations are developed through co-design with students with disabilities and their teachers. Students will include those with dyslexia, visual impairments or blindness, and students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, ranging from 5th grade through high school, and recent high school graduates. The adaptive accessibility features will be implemented within a set of PhET interactive science simulations, and allow students with disabilities to access the science simulations with alternative input devices (such as keyboards, switches, and sip-and-puff devices), alter the visual display of the simulations (changing color contrast, zoom and enlarge, and simplify), hear different auditory representations of the visual display (descriptions, sonification, and text-to-speech), and control the rate of simulated events. All features will be capable of being turned on or off and modified on-the-fly by teachers or students through a global control panel that includes curated feature sets, resulting in highly flexible, highly accessible, interactive learning resources. PhET simulations are widely used in US classrooms, evidence-based, aligned with standards, and highly engaging and effective learning resources. With the proposed highly adaptive features and supporting resources, teachers will be able to quickly adapt the PhET simulations to meet the needs of many students with disabilities, simplifying the task of creating differentiated learning opportunities for students and supporting students with disabilities to engage in collaborative learning - a foundational component of a high-quality STEM education - alongside their non-disabled peers. To research, design, and develop the adaptive features and investigate their use by students, project team members will co-teach in classrooms with students with disabilities and conduct co-design activities with students, where students engage in design thinking to help design and refine the adaptive features to meet identified accessibility needs (their own and those of their peers). In addition, interviews with individual students with and without disabilities will also be conducted, to test early prototypes of individual features, to later refine the layering of the many different features, and to ensure the presence of adaptive features does not negatively impact traditional use of the simulations. The proposed work also includes surveys of teachers and students and analysis of teacher use, to refine global control features, develop curated feature sets, and develop supporting teacher resources. The project will address key questions at the heart of educational design for students with diverse needs, including how to make adaptive features that support student achievement of specific learning goals. The project will use design-based implementation research, with significant co-designing with students with disabilities (including visual impairments, cognitive disabilities, or dyslexia), interviews, case studies, and classroom implementation to design and evaluate the accessibility features. This will inform new models and theories of learning with technology. The project will investigate: 1) How students engage with, use, and learn from adaptive accessibility features, 2) how adaptive accessibility features can be designed to layer harmoniously together in a learning resource, and 3) how to effectively support access to rich, dynamic feature controls and curated feature sets for intuitive classroom use by students and teachers. The project will produce 8 PhET simulations with adaptive accessibility features and supporting teacher resources. The foundational research knowledge will result in effective design and implementation of adaptive accessibility features through the analysis of student engagement, usability, and learning from accessible simulations. Additionally, the project will provide technical infrastructure, exemplars, and software for use by other STEM education technology developers. The project team will work together to create a deep understanding of how to design adaptive science simulations with practical, usable, effective accessibility, so that learners with diverse needs can advance their science content knowledge and participate in science practices alongside their peers. The work has great potential to transform STEM learning for students with disabilities and to make simulations more effective for all learners. Results will provide insight into the effectiveness of accessible simulation-based activities and their corresponding teacher materials in engaging students in science practices and learning in the classroom.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.