Overview of the proceedings of the 2022 Inclusion in Science, Learning a New Direction, Conference on Disability (ISLAND) (original) (raw)
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Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities, 2021
The 11th annual Inclusion in Science, learning a New Direction, Conference on Disability was hosted by Princeton Center for Complex Materials a National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and Princeton University on Saturday, September 19, 2020 in a virtual format due to the Covid19 pandemic. This annual conference included presentations that featured innovative research done by science teachers, science education researchers, access technology developers, and policy makers, other disability conference organizers, and others interested in the full inclusion of persons with disabilities into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. Due to the virtual conference format, we were able to include closed captioning for all presentations. Princeton University is also known as an Aira Access point. Aira is a visual interpreter service to which blind and vision impaired (BVI) persons can subscribe, that assists them in their daily lives with navigation, and reading print materials in the home or in the community among numerous other purposes. The ISLAND conference, with the support of Princeton University, was able to offer the Aira service to any blind patron of the conference that requested it, to provide them with visual descriptions of PowerPoint slides that were being discussed by each speaker. According to Aira, the 2020 ISLAND conference was the first conference to attempt this innovative new accessibility addition. Most of the ISLAND 2020 presenters agreed to allow their presentations to be video recorded and are now available on YouTube for archival
2011
This paper examines the effects of a two-day working conference on attitudes and dispositions of educators and other professionals who have a responsibility to students with disabilities. During this professional meeting, participants shared their experiences and suggested strategies to better educate students with sensory and mobility disabilities. The purpose of this working conference was to stimulate dialogue to (a) improve attitudes toward, (b) investigate ways to better support, and (c) plan accommodations/supports for students with disabilities who have interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in secondary and postsecondary settings. Speakers and participants examined ways to support students transitioning from high school to postsecondary education, shared ideas to ease transitions from community colleges into STEM majors in four-year institutions, explored options for resolution of issues, and advanced recommendations for improving the quality o...
1994
This book includes four papers presented at a conference on teaching science to students with disabilities. The first paper, "Science Education for Motor/Orthopedically-Impaired Students" (E. C. Keller, Jr.), covers: (1) categories of motor/orthopedic-impairments, (2) life function assessment, (3) formal and informal science teaching methods and experiences for students with disabilities, and (4) past work on science education for students with disabilities. The second paper, "Science Education for Students with Disabilities: The Visually-Impaired Student in Chemistry" (H. David Wohlers), addresses challenges that students with blindness face, based on personal experience in acquiring a doctoral degree in chemistry and working as a chemistry professor. Challenges include attitude barriers, laboratory safety, access to theoretical and experimental data graphics, and adaptations of computers and lab equipment. The third paper, "Learning Disabilities" (Helenmarie Hofman), discusses: general education settings for students with learning disabilities; science education opportunities The editor is grateful to Helenmarie Hofman who helped proofread the near final draft ant to Vivian Anvelt who rekeyed about sixty percent of the manuscript contained in this document. Appreciation is also expressed to Donavan Honnold of the Public Relations Office at the University of Northern Iowa, for his meticulous production of this publication and the several operators in the Word Processing Center at NTID at RIT for their excellent production through the drafts of this manuscript. Finally, we acknowledge the children with physical and learning disabilities who will learn science for their careers and their everyday lives.
Journal of Special Education Technology, 2010
Increased numbers of elementary and secondary students with learning and other disabilities are participating in inclusive science classrooms. Unfortunately, many of these students struggle to achieve at a level commensurate with their peers. As a result, few students with disabilities pursue advanced scientific coursework or enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Technology offers promise as a means to promote these students' academic achievement and attitudes toward science. However, there is limited research that utilizes the quality standards identified by Gersten and Edyburn that examine how this can be accomplished. This article presents a review of literature (N = 71) from 1997-2009 across the often disparate fields of special education, science, and technology using the Universal Design for Learning and Cognitive Load (Sweller, 1999) theoretical frameworks. It concludes with the identification of key research issues that should be considered when examining how technology can affect the academic achievement and attitudes of students with learning and other disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.
A Working Conference on Students with Disabilities in STEM Coursework and Careers
2009
Background: Few teachers and special education specialists are aware of the materials and resources available to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instruction for the scattered and isolated 3000 students with sensory and motor disabilities in Iowa's K-12 schools. Additionally, faculty at many community colleges and regent institutions are not aware of possible accommodations for their students with disabilities who have interests in pursuing STEM careers. Unfortunately, this often leads to discouragement and lack of success for students with motor or sensory disabilities. This conference brings together experts and conference attendees involved in instruction, support, or transitions for these students with sensory or mobility disabilities to plan ways to remedy the problem. Purpose: This document provides a summary of a two-day conference related to assisting secondary and post-secondary students with disabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas. Highlights of the conference and the need for self-advocacy of students with disabilities are included in the narrative. In particular, this conference focused on students with sensory and mobility disabilities, including students with vision impairments, hearing impairments, students using wheelchairs, and students with movement-related health and motor impairments. The purpose of this two-day working conference was to stimulate dialog to (a) improve attitudes toward, (b) investigate ways to better support, and (c) plan accommodations/supports for students with disabilities who have interests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), in secondary and post-secondary settings. This included examining ways to support students with STEM interests transitioning from high school to post-secondary education, investigating ways to support students with STEM interests transitioning from community colleges into STEM majors in 4-year colleges and universities, exploring options for resolution of issues; and advancing recommendations for improving the quality of STEM education for students with disabilities. Research Design: This is a descriptive conference report with quantitative and qualitative conference evaluation responses. Setting: The conference took place at the University of Northern Iowa on April 1 st and 2 nd , 2009. Study Sample: A group of 67 professionals from across the state of Iowa and from Midwestern institutions with exemplary programs were invited as collaborative partners. The professional positions of these individuals included high school science teachers instructing students with disabilities, special education support staff, persons from post-secondary offices of student disabilities, community college and four-year institution STEM instructors/professors, with high school, college, and matriculated students with disabilities, and engineering students in senior design (with research projects focused on wheelchair modifications and other mechanical aids for students with mobility impairments), and representatives from business and industry. The conference was also attended by 159 preservice teachers. Data Collection and Analysis: The two-day conference was organized to include three 30 to 50 minute panel presentations each day followed by 15 to 20-minute eight person table discussions. Attendees addressed critical issues through panel presentations. Discussions addressed focus questions in small groups related to the panel members' presentations. Responses from these discussions were recorded by volunteers typing into laptop computers during the discussions. Responses to these questions are reported elsewhere (Rule & Stefanich, in review; Rule, Stefanich, & Boody, in review). Data for this report were obtained from responses to questions on a post-conference evaluation form. These ratings were tabulated and remarks were qualitatively sorted into groups. Findings: Participant comments and ratings on the conference evaluation indicate that the organizers were successful in providing speakers who presented interesting, useful information for stimulating discussions. The most often-reported participant comment was that the conference provided an ideal setting for networking for professionals working with students with disabilities. Overall conference ratings were high, also supporting conference efficacy. Conclusions: Response to the conference from professional participants was overwhelmingly positive. Future conferences should provide opportunities for participants to try out assistive technology and provide more discussion of classroom supports.
Increased numbers of elementary and secondary students with learning and other disabilities are participating in inclusive science classrooms. Unfortunately, many of these students struggle to achieve at a level commensurate with their peers. As a result, few students with disabilities pursue advanced scientific coursework or enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Technology offers promise as a means to promote these students' academic achievement and attitudes toward science. However, there is limited research that utilizes the quality standards identified by Gersten and Edyburn (2007) that examine how this can be accomplished. This article presents a review of literature (N = 71) from 1997–2009 across the often disparate fields of special education, science, and technology using the Universal Design for Learning (Rose, Meyer, & Hitchcock, 2005) and Cognitive Load (Sweller, 1999) theoretical frameworks. It concludes with the identification of key research issues that should be considered when examining how technology can affect the academic achievement and attitudes of students with learning and other disabilities in inclusive science classrooms.