Universal Design of Inquiry-Based Middle and High School Science Curricula
Principal Investigators
Boris Goldowsky, Ph.D. , CAST
David Rose, Ed.D , CAST
Project Partners
CAST, EDC, and the University of Michigan
Funder
National Science Foundation (Grant Number: DRL 0730260)
Timeframe
2007-2011
Project Description
Science educators at all grade levels face a daunting challenge: Raise the academic performance in all the sciences of an increasingly diverse student population. Both the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) have dramatically raised expectations for students with disabilities within the general curriculum and assessment systems. Yet, students with disabilities lag significantly behind their peers in science learning.
CAST in collaboration with Education Development Center, Inc., and the University of Michigan, are engaged in research to support and propel the creation of new kinds of science materials, ones that embody both the principles and practices of high quality science and high quality universal design. Project deliverables include:
Developing a UDL Design Heuristics for Universal Design for Science.
Developing a Web-based Universal Design for Learning Inquiry Science System (ISS), a software system that curriculum developers can use to digitally customize inquiry-based science curricula to incorporate UDL features.
Developing and evaluating UDL exemplar units in physical and life sciences that illustrate the application of the UDL ISS to inquiry-based curricula and the benefits of the resulting curricula to middle and high school students with and without learning disabilities.
The four-year project will create both the knowledge and the infrastructure necessary for cost-effective, efficient development and production of universally designed inquiry-oriented science curricula. Science curriculum developers and publishers will be able to apply the Design Heuristics and utilize the web-based software to incorporate UDL features (highlighting critical text, categorizing and organizing notes from reading, experiments, discussions; multimedia coaches to provide models of successful practices) into their curricula. Teachers will have access to exemplar units in Chemistry and Biology that demonstrate universally designed science curriculum. Students with learning disabilities will have the embedded supports necessary for them to make progress in science thereby broadening their participation in STEM and enabling them to reach their full academic potential.
