Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM

Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Investigating Strengths People with Learning Differences Bring to STEM project will advance knowledge about the neurological differences associated with undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. This demonstration research project will result in pilot-tested experiments and interventions, which will serve as the basis for more advanced, robust investigations about the characteristics of undergraduate students with dyslexia that can lead to advantages for visual processing and learning in STEM. Three pilot studies will be conducted: 1. The first feasibility study will investigate whether the techniques used to investigate advantages for spatial learning and peripheral processing, previously observed in astrophysicists with dyslexia, can be applied to investigate STEM learning and STEM processing skills in pos-secondary students with dyslexia. 2. The second pilot study will investigate an intervention model using a sample of post-secondary students with dyslexia who are studying STEM. 3. The third experiment will employ gaze tracking techniques to map strategies used by college students with dyslexia when performing STEM tasks. This experiment will manipulate working memory demands by varying memory loads presented during the tasks; demands for visual attention will be varied by adjusting levels of visual noise masking the work. Dr. Gerhard Sonnert, a Research Associate in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, will serve as the external evaluator for this project. Dr. Sonnert?s publications include topics on gender differences in science careers, connecting science and society, and Einstein.