Engaging Individual Education Plan Teams as Co-Designers of Middle Grades Computing Activities for Autistic Students

残疾人在STEM教育和STEM职业中的代表性不足。对劳动力来说，计算思维和计算机科学也变得越来越重要。这个项目将贡献资源和知识，如何在一个专注于计算思维的机器人项目中支持自闭症学生。IDEA法案要求自闭症学生的需求得到个性化教育计划(IEP)的支持，该计划由一个包括教育工作者、行政人员、言语语言病理学家、辅助专业人员和辅导员在内的多学科IEP团队制定。这个项目将开发工具和资源，为自闭症学生创建与IEP团队共同设计的计算思维活动。联合设计过程将把不同类型的专业知识聚集在一起，以支持自闭症学生学习机器人技术。机器人学、计算思维和推动IEP进步的课程的跨学科整合将有助于所有学生参与计算思维。该项目包括塔夫茨大学工程教育和推广中心与温特希尔社区创新学校之间的合作伙伴关系。该工作的总体目标是了解如何为自闭症学生设计机器人和计算思维学习环境。研究问题考察了IEP团队成员和项目中学生的经历。对于IEP团队成员，这些问题探索他们如何共同设计资源和工具，以帮助学生在练习计算思维的同时实现他们的IEP目标。对于学生来说，这些问题考察了参与集成机器人设计活动如何支持他们与IEP相关的技能的发展和他们参与计算思维实践。该项目将使用基于设计的研究方法来反复开发学习活动。数据收集包括合作伙伴教师访谈、课程观察和学生作业的人工制品(例如照片和视频)。数据分析记录了与学生共同设计和使用活动的过程。这项研究的结果将有助于了解如何纳入关键技能，如社交情绪学习、职业技能和具有计算思维和机器人的执行功能。该项目由CS for All：Research and RPPS计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Persons with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM education and STEM careers. Computational thinking and computer science are also becoming more important for the workforce. This project will contribute resources and knowledge about how to support autistic students in a robotics program focused on computational thinking. The IDEA Act requires that the needs of autistic students are supported by an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that is developed by a multidisciplinary IEP team including educators, administrators, speech-language pathologists, paraprofessionals, and counselors. This project will develop tools and resources to create computational thinking activities for autistic students that are co-designed with IEP teams. The co-design process will bring different types of expertise together to support autistic students' learning about robotics. The transdisciplinary integration of robotics, computational thinking, and lessons advancing IEP progress will help engage all students in computational thinking. The project includes a partnership between the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and the Winter Hill Community Innovation School.The overarching goal of the work is to understand how to design robotics and computational thinking learning environments for autistic students. The research questions examine the experiences of the IEP team members and the students in the program. For the IEP team members, the questions explore how they can co-design resources and tools to help students to meet their IEP goals while practicing computational thinking. For students, the questions examine how participation in integrated robotic design activities supports their development of IEP-related skills and their engagement in computational thinking practices. The project will use a design-based research methodology to iteratively develop the learning activities. Data collection includes partner teacher interviews, lesson observations, and artifacts of student work (e.g., photos and videos). Data analysis documents the process of co-design and the use of the activities with students. The findings of the research will contribute to knowledge about how to include critical skills such as social-emotional learning, career skills, and executive functioning with computational thinking and robotics.This project is funded through the CS for All: Research and RPPs program.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.