Engaging Blind, Visually Impaired, and Sighted Students in STEM with Storytelling through Podcasts

该项目将通过播客技术的参与，扩大盲人和视障人士（BVI）和有视力的高年级小学生对STEM的参与。英属维尔京群岛个人在STEM劳动力中的代表性明显不足。研究表明，从早期教育开始，英属维尔京群岛学生在追求STEM领域的教育途径方面面临许多障碍。这些障碍包括学生和教师对英属维尔京群岛人从事STEM职业的能力持消极态度，以及课堂上缺乏英属维尔京群岛的STEM资源。该项目以儿童科学播客“Tumble”的成功为基础，吸引英属维尔京群岛学生使用和开发播客，以促进STEM学习和职业意识。此外，本项目探讨了如何利用播客让英属维尔京群岛学生参与课堂教学，从而对所有学生使用数字媒体产生更广泛的影响。它为教育工作者以英属维尔京群岛学生可以使用的方式将播客和播客技术整合到课堂中奠定了基础。Tumble将制作各种以英属维尔京群岛和残疾科学家为主题的播客。教师将指导学生使用这些片段作为制作他们自己的科学播客的基础——发展想法、采访科学家、编写脚本和编辑音频。12个英属维尔京群岛和综合教室将参与本课程的设计和测试。最终的材料将在一个门户网站上免费提供，世界各地的学生和教师都可以访问。Tumble的英属维尔京群岛剧集也将免费提供，并将覆盖全球约20万听众。此外，这几集将被改编成西班牙语，并在Tumble的西班牙语播客上发布。虽然许多教师已经开始在课堂上使用播客，但很少有研究将播客作为一种技术向K-12学生传播信息，或者如何将播客用作课堂上的教学工具，特别是满足英属维尔京群岛学生的需求。该项目在探索小学高年级学生（3-5年级）使用播客技术进行科学学习的结果方面具有创新性，特别关注支持英属维尔京群岛学生使用播客技术。项目目标解决以下问题：1)收听和制作播客技术如何提高英属维尔京群岛和视力正常的学生对STEM职业的认识和兴趣？2)英属维尔京群岛的科学家及其工作如何使残疾人参与科学和科学研究常态化？3)这在多大程度上导致了所有学生的同理心，以及英属维尔京群岛学生对科学的“可能自我”感？该项目是一个数据收集和设计测试的迭代过程。它从一年级和二年级的前端研究开始，评估文献，从播客专业人士、英属维尔京群岛科学家和倡导者那里获得见解，参与教师设计小组，并对教师进行全国调查。播客专业人士、英属维尔京群岛科学家和教师的访谈和焦点小组将使用归纳开放编码进行分析。将分析全国教师调查（n=500）的频率和集中趋势，并使用推理统计（例如，组间比较，感兴趣的变量比较）来探索解释变量。在二年级，将对小学高年级的BVI学生和视力正常的学生进行资源设计测试。它将依赖于一个由12人组成的设计测试小组，并将涉及问卷调查和焦点小组，网站分析数据，以及至少六次课堂观察。在二年级和三年级将进行一项有效性研究，将教师使用资源的自然研究与准实验研究相结合，以了解BVI和视力正常的学生的结果。这项自然主义的研究将集中在12个教室，并将定期书面反馈与访谈、网络分析和课堂观察相结合。准实验研究在12个教室共240名学生中进行（嵌套设计），包括教师访谈，观察和学生回顾性事后调查。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣的实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解。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 broaden participation in STEM for blind and visually impaired (BVI) and sighted upper elementary students through engagement with podcast technology. BVI individuals are significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Research has shown that BVI students face many obstacles in pursuing education pathways to STEM fields, beginning in early education. These obstacles include negative attitudes of both students and teachers regarding the ability for BVI persons to engage in STEM careers, and the lack of BVI-accessible STEM resources in classrooms. This project builds on the success of the children’s science podcast, Tumble, to engage BVI students in the use and development of podcasts to promote STEM learning and career awareness. In addition, this project explores how podcasts can be used to engage BVI students in the classroom, with broader implications for digital media use for all students. It lays the foundation for educators to integrate podcasts and podcast technology into the classroom, in a way that is accessible for BVI students. Tumble will produce a variety of podcasts featuring BVI and disabled scientists. Teachers will guide students in using these episodes as the basis for producing their own science podcasts - developing ideas, interviewing scientists, writing scripts, and editing audio. Twelve BVI and integrated classrooms will be involved in design-testing this curriculum. The final materials will be made freely available in a web portal, where students and teachers around the world can access it. Tumble’s BVI episodes will also be freely available and will reach its estimated 200,000 listeners worldwide. Additionally, the episodes will be adapted into Spanish, and released on Tumble’s Spanish-language podcast feed.While many teachers have begun using podcasts in the classroom, there is little research around podcasts as a technology to disseminate information to K-12 students or how podcasts can be used as a teaching/learning tool in classrooms, especially to meet the needs of BVI students. This project is innovative in its approach to exploring outcomes of engaging upper elementary students (grades 3-5) with podcast technology for science learning, with a particular focus on supporting access for BVI students. Project goals address the following questions: 1) How can listening to and producing podcast technology increase awareness and interest in STEM careers for BVI and sighted students? 2) How does featuring BVI scientists and their work normalize participation of persons with disabilities in science and scientific research? 3) To what degree does this lead to empathy in all students, and to a sense of “possible selves” in science for BVI students? The project is an iterative process of data collection and design testing. It begins with a front-end research study in Years 1 and 2, to evaluate the literature, gain insight from podcast professionals, BVI scientists and advocates, engage a teacher design group, and conduct a national survey of teachers. Interviews and focus groups with podcast professionals, BVI scientists and teachers will be analyzed using inductive open coding. The national survey of teachers (n=500) will be analyzed for frequencies and central tendencies, and inferential statistics (e.g., comparisons between groups, comparisons by variables of interest) will be used for exploring explanatory variables. In year-2, design testing of the resources in upper elementary classrooms with BVI and sighted students will take place. It will rely on a 12-person design tester group and will involve questionnaires and focus groups, website analytic data, and at least six classroom observations. An efficacy study will be conducted in Years 2 & 3, combining a naturalistic study of the use of the resources by teachers with a quasi-experimental study to understand outcomes for BVI and sighted students. The naturalistic study will focus on 12 classrooms and combine a system of regular written feedback with interviews, web analytics and classroom observations. The quasi-experimental study in 12 classrooms with 240 students (in a nested design) involves teacher interviews, observations and a student retrospective post-survey. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.