DEAF STEM: Deaf Educational Access For Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Shodor教育基金会，Inc.请求提供292,590美元的资金支持，用于一项研究和开发工作，即聋人科学、技术、工程和数学教育机会(聋人STEM)。聋人STEM将扩大Success-HI项目(NSF#9906189)的工作，将美国手语版本添加到各种Shodor材料的现有文本中。一个旨在改善所有学生访问国家科学数字图书馆(NSDL)的项目，包括Shodor的大量STEM材料，这些材料是通过以前和现在的NSF资金开发的。此外，聋人STEM将为教育口译员和其他提供者提供一个充满活力的资源，以提高他们在向聋人学生解释和支持STEM领域的教育方面的能力和信心。智力优势：聋人STEM满足聋生及其教师/教育口译员的需求。聋生在STEM领域的代表性不足，很大程度上是因为普通聋人高中生的阅读水平较低(3年级和4年级)，以及大多数受过教育的口译员的最低技能水平。聋人STEM将通过扩展SUCCESS-HI的工作来满足教师和学生的需求，为Shodor的两项获奖活动提供双语版本：Project Interactive和计算科学教育参考服务台(CSERD)，后者已被选为NSDL的创始路径项目之一。纯粹基于文本的STEM材料方法不足以确保聋人学生主动获取STEM信息。通过有重点的研究，聋人STEM科学家将与聋人教育工作者及其学生合作，完善NSDL材料的修改和呈现，同时评估各种技术，包括视频和化身的使用。这项重点研究包括为我们的听众提供双语材料的最佳实践的开发。其他在线工具用于搜索我们日益增长的签约课程将支持教育口译。这些工具将使供应商能够找到通过ASL传达的STEM概念的正确范例。聋人STEM团队将邀请现场的教育翻译人员提交他们需要帮助签名的STEM段落。这些文章将被签署并发布在签名STEM论坛上。这将为口译员提供一个无限的机会，既可以提高他们的手语技能，又可以为他们日常面临的问题提供支持。广泛的影响：我们的聋人STEM项目的影响将从两个方面感受到。通过为聋生提供阅读STEM教材的签名帮助，将提高学生阅读STEM教材的能力和信心。在英语文本和ASL视频剪辑中双语呈现STEM材料将为语言艺术和STEM教师提供一个合作机会，以提高聋生的阅读和英语技能。通过创建一个基于网络的聋人STEM论坛，整个聋人社区将被鼓励探索STEM概念的签署。通过吸引聋人社区推广他们的语言的兴趣，聋人STEM将扩大聋人社区对相关STEM问题的暴露。作为NSDL/Path谅解备忘录的一项成果，Shodor将与NSDL的其他项目分享这些最佳实践，以最大限度地提高影响和传播的广度。

The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. requests funding support in the amount of$292,590 for a research and development effort, Deaf Educational Access For Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DEAF STEM). DEAF STEM will expandthe work of Project SUCCEED-HI (NSF #9906189) by adding American Sign Language(ASL) versions to the existing text of a wide variety of Shodor materials. A project goalis to improve access for all students to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL),including Shodor's extensive STEM materials, which have been developed throughprevious, and current NSF funding. In addition, DEAF STEM will provide a dynamicresource for educational interpreters and other providers to increase their competence andconfidence in interpreting and supporting education in STEM areas to deaf students.Intellectual Merit: DEAF STEM addresses the needs of both deaf students and theirteachers/educational interpreters. Deaf students are underrepresented in STEM fields inlarge part because of the documented low-grade reading level (3 rd 4 th grade) of theaverage deaf high school student and the minimal skill levels of most educationalinterpreters. DEAF STEM will address the teacher and student needs by expanding onthe work of SUCCEED-HI to provide bilingual versions of two of Shodor's awardwinning activities: Project Interactivate and the Computational Science EducationReference Desk (CSERD) which has been selected as one of the inaugural pathwayprojects of NSDL. Purely text-based approaches to STEM materials are insufficient toensure active access to STEM information by deaf students. Through focused research,DEAF STEM scientists will work with deaf educators and their students to perfect themodification and presentation of NSDL materials, while assessing a variety oftechnologies, including video and the use of avatars. This focused research includes thedevelopment of best practices for providing bilingual materials to our audience.Additional online tools for searching our growing collection of signed lessons willsupport educational interpreters. These tools will enable providers to locate correctexamples of STEM concepts communicated through ASL. The DEAF STEM team willinvite educational interpreters in the field to submit STEM passages that they need helpsigning. These passages will be signed and posted on a signing STEM forum. This willprovide an open-ended opportunity for interpreters to both improve their signing skillsand to provide support for the issues they face on a daily basis.Broader Impact: The impact of our DEAF STEM project will be felt on two fronts. Byproviding deaf students with signed assistance to read STEM text, the students' abilityand confidence in reading STEM materials will be improved. The bilingual presentationof the STEM materials in both English text and ASL video clips will provide anopportunity for language arts and STEM teachers to work together to improve their deafstudents' reading and English skills.By creating a web based DEAF STEM Forum, the entire deaf community will beencouraged to explore the signing of STEM concepts. By appealing to the deafcommunity's interest in promoting their language, DEAF STEM will widen the exposureof the deaf community to relevant STEM issues. As a deliverable under theNSDL/Pathway memorandum of understanding, Shodor will be sharing these bestpractices with other projects in NSDL to maximize impact and breadth of dissemination.