RDE-DEI: Enhancing Geology, Chemistry, Biology and Physics Laboratory and Field Experiences for Students with Visual and Physical Disabilities

University Of Colorado At Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs CO

Investigators

Abstract

Laboratory classes and field experiences in the sciences pose particular obstacles for students with disabilities. Most higher education institutions respond to these obstacles by providing individual accommodations to students. While these individual accommodations are valuable in addressing the particular needs of each individual student, in this proposal we seek to make transformations to the laboratory environment and to field experiences that will help improve learning for all students with visual and physical disabilities. This approach has been to assemble a team including science faculty who teach laboratory and field experience courses in Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Physics, special education faculty, staff from the Disability Services office, and students with disabilities to work together in identifying aspects of the lab environment and field experiences which can be altered to enhance student learning. Once improvements to the experiments and field work have been developed, the project will introduce these changes into our introductory classes. In the classroom the project will examine the impact of the changes on both accommodation of disabilities and on student learning. Both students with disabilities and some non-disabled students will perform experiments using the modified equipment. Changes in their understanding of content, attitude development and skill mastery will be assessed. By examining both students with and without disabilities, we seek to determine the impact on student learning in general as well as on accommodating students with disabilities. The approach should yield results which will be of interest to the academic community as a whole.