Presenters will discuss the challenges and successes encountered in customizing inquiry science curricula according to the principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and in then enacting those Web-delivered curricula in secondary classrooms.

It has long been understood that teaching is challenging and that reform-based materials multiply the challenges. Two NSF-supported inquiry curricula, Investigating Our World through Science and Technology (IQWST) and Foundation Science (FS), address instructional challenges through educative features and professional development that support teachers across a range of ability and experience. It is known that students are challenged when classroom practices do not meet their needs or capitalize on their strengths as learners. FS and IQWST address both through engaging adolescents in investigations in which they explore original questions; connect science to their everyday lives; and read, write, and talk science in order to build conceptual understanding.

To these curricula, our collaborative team applied principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and harnessed the affordances of technology to enable an even broader range of students to participate successfully in the scientific enterprise. The project developed an authoring system to support future curriculum developers in creating UDL science materials, and used that tool to create digital versions of an FS ecology unit (high school) and an IQWST chemistry unit (middle school). The Web-based materials encourage participation and support the learning of all students, including those on the margins, by providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression that allow customization to fit learner needs and preferences, while maintaining a focus on curriculum learning goals.

In this session, presenters will share what they have learned in the process of designing UDL science curricula that might be helpful to other developers. However, they will devote the majority of the session to sharing their struggles and successes as they began with inquiry and UDL principles, designed materials accordingly, enacted in classrooms, and realized that while they can, indeed, retrofit curricula not originally designed for a digital environment, the act of providing UDL materials does not ensure a UDL classroom. Presenters experienced well-documented difficulties of enacting technologies in schools, but the more interesting experiences are those that shaped their evolving work with teachers to support them in using the materials effectively. Numerous challenges arose as teachers, with particular expectations of the teaching-learning environment and concomitant classroom management practices, did not use the digital materials in ways that took full advantage of their potential. For example, teachers’ conditioning to want all students to be on the same page at the same time, and to complete tasks at the same pace, conflicts with UDL principles and curriculum design, which allows for and encourages differentiation. Students have options, for example, to use supports that might slow their pace, but deepen their understanding. For many teachers, pacing concerns outweighed learning goals, and problematic use of the digital materials has resulted.

This session should interest those interested in UDL or in developing digital science materials for classroom use. Presenters will share their experiences and solutions, as well as present unresolved questions and issues for discussion among participants. Significant time will be allotted for both Q&A and small-group sharing so that participants learn from one another’s experiences in addition to those of the presenters. 

Session Materials: 

Zucker_PPT.pdf

Courey_PPT.ppt

The capabilities of interactive, Web-based media offer approaches that can be especially valuable to students and teachers who find STEM content challenging to learn. Through the lenses of both general education and special education, the presenters are designing new products to be effective for all teachers and students. Web-based tools link multiple visual representations and allow immediate feedback to teachers and students. See and discuss free tools that Dynabook and SmartGraphs are developing.

Teaching challenging mathematics and science content to diverse groups of students is a formidable task. Even highly qualified teachers do not have the expertise and knowledge to teach the range of learners in today’s classrooms (CEC, 2006; DeSimone & Parmar, 2006). While textbooks try to address the range of learners with pedagogical suggestions for students with exceptional talent or learning disabilities, they often fall short in providing conceptual information for teachers who lack key content knowledge (Sood & Jitendra, 2007). Textbooks often assume teacher expertise and treat exceptional learners as an afterthought.             

Informed by research from the fields of science, mathematics, and general and special education, teams developing Dynabook and Smartgraphs are creating dynamic learning tools for teachers and students. In designing these innovative tools, both teams draw on three complementary and synergistic conceptual frameworks —universal design for learning, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and interactive representations—which reflect state-of-the-art thinking about learning, curricula, and design of technology supported curriculum and assessment materials. Both teams seek evidence of improved learning.

Dynabook is planned as a resource focused on proportionality for pre-service teachers in general and special education to develop their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). The focus is on pre-service teachers so that they are provided a more coherent, connected view of middle school mathematics. Dynabook focuses on the related topics of ratio, similarity, and linear function. The media-rich environment includes dynamic representations, videos of student work and perceptions, and challenging problems. Users can enter through any of these paths, take notes, and complete assignments. The student work section is intended to provide a rich understanding of how middle school students think about proportionality (including misconceptions), and the strategies they employ in solving problems. In addition, Dynabook makes use of dynamic representations such as graphs, bar models, and number lines. When a learner changes one aspect of a dynamic representation, other aspects of the representation change accordingly. In addition, wherever continuity of change is important, the learner can enact change in the model or representation in a way that they experience "as continuous as time."

Smartgraphs are Web-based digital objects that “know about themselves” and provide visual and other hints and scaffolds to help students understand graphs and STEM concepts represented in graphs. SmartGraphs enable students to see what experts see when they look at a graph. Using SmartGraphs activities, students interact with graphs, which can be created by an author or input from sensors, models, or students’ computer drawings. Representations include tables and functions as well as graphs. Teachers will create new SmartGraphs activities or use existing ones. SmartGraphs software will be free and open source, and can be used by other projects and programs, as well as by teachers and students. Graphs are difficult; SmartGraphs will make them accessible to all students.

Session participants will examine both Dynabook and SmartGraphs, and consider the collaborative research that informs their development.

URL: http://www.concord.org/projects/smartgraphs