Collaborative Research: GP-IN: GLOBE Weather Pathways for Students with Disabilities

该项目将支持教育工作者学习有效的做法，通过研讨会和改编天气课程中的课程，为残疾学生（即聋人/听力障碍、盲人/视力低下、行动不便）改编STEM学习材料。当地的地球科学专业人员、科学教师和特殊教育教师将在三个地点共同努力，确保课程的质量和效果。研究小组将与评价人员合作，根据下列三个相互关联的项目要素制定和研究方法。将使用的天气单元在普通教育教师中显示出有希望的结果，但关于如何使用标准驱动的故事情节教学单元为残疾学生开发适应性的研究很少或根本没有。该项目将通过充分了解教育工作者在三年的课程中如何使用这种方法来帮助解决这一差距。该项目为科学教师提供了直接与STEM专业人员合作的机会，以适应包括职业机会在内的单元。所有学生都应该得到高质量的科学指导，包括了解可能的职业机会的机会。鉴于此，科学教师应该配备所有必要的资源和技术，以满足残疾学生的独特需求。然而，许多科学教师需要从有残疾学生经验的专家那里获得进一步学习的机会。该项目将开发和测试一种方法，为教育工作者提供经验、工具和能力，以调整地球科学课程资源，以满足残疾学生的需求，并为他们阐明科学、技术、工程、数学（STEM）领域的职业道路和机会。通过增加残疾学者进入STEM领域的机会，提高STEM学科中可用资源的质量，更多的残疾人可能会考虑从事STEM职业。许多科学教育者面临的挑战是如何帮助残疾学生设想地球科学概念和更广泛的STEM职业机会。该项目将通过直接与科学教育工作者合作来应对这一挑战：1)建立并支持一个由当地STEM教育工作者、内容专家（大气科学）、特殊教育工作者和在STEM领域工作的残疾人组成的团队，以支持学生的职业道路；2)提供关于天气课程的工作坊，这是一个基于标准的单元，学生通过研究有趣的现象来参与天气概念，以及；3)为教育工作者提供时间，让他们一起工作，为有身体残疾的中学生修改教材。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。

This project will support educators in learning effective practices for adapting STEM learning materials for students with disabilities (i.e., Deaf/hard of hearing, blind/low vision, mobility) through workshops and by adapting lessons from a weather curriculum. A cohort of local geoscience learning professionals, science teachers and teachers of special education in three locations will work in concert to assure quality and effective curricular adaptations. The research team will work together with evaluators to develop and study the approach based on the three interrelated project elements listed below. The weather unit that will be used has shown promising results with general education teachers but there has been little or no research on how to develop adaptations for students with disabilities using a standards-driven storyline unit of instruction. This project will help to address this gap by fully understanding how this approach can be used by educators over the course of three years. The project provides the opportunity for science teachers to work directly with STEM professionals in adaptations of a unit including career opportunities.All students deserve high quality science instruction including opportunities to understand possible career opportunities. In light of that, science teachers should be equipped with all of the necessary resources and techniques to meet the unique needs of their students with disabilities. However, many science teachers need further learning opportunities from experts who have experience with students with disabilities. This project will develop and test an approach to provide educators with the experiences, tools and abilities to adapt geoscience curricular resources to meet the needs of students with disabilities and articulate career pathways and opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) for them. By increasing access to STEM fields for scholars with disabilities and by improving the quality of resources available in STEM disciplines, more persons with disabilities may consider pursuing STEM careers. A challenge for many science educators is how to help students with disabilities envision geoscience concepts and a broader range of STEM career opportunities. This project will address this challenge by working directly with science educators to: 1) establish and support a team consisting of local STEM educators, content specialists (atmospheric sciences), special educators and person(s) with a disability working in STEM fields to support student career pathways; 2) provide workshops on a weather curriculum, a standards based unit in which students engage with weather concepts through studying interesting phenomena, and; 3) facilitate time for educators to work together to adapt materials for middle school students with physical disabilities.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.