Building Understanding through Inclusive Learning Design
STEM BUILD undergraduate researchers, Abdul, Felix, and Quincy presented a poster at SNCURCS – the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. This year’s symposium was held Saturday, November 23 at NC Duke University.
STEM BUILD undergraduate researchers, Abdul, Drew, and Felix, presented at SNCURCS – the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. This year’s symposium was held Saturday, November 10 at NC State University.
We are so proud of the amazing work of these young scientists! They’ve been working hard this semester. Great job!
Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Gordy are attending the American Society for Microbiology – Conference on Undergraduate Education in Austin, TX, where they will share microbiology and biology-related Tactile Teaching Tools through a Microbrew Presentation entitled “Developing Tactile Teaching Tools to Increase Inclusivity in Science Learning”.
2018 STEM BUILD Workshop participant Dr. Stefanie Chen of the NCSU Biotechnology Program is also in attendance, and shared a prototype of her Tactile Teaching Tool during her poster presentation (“Assessment of a CURE-based Module for Protein Interactions”).
Last month, the STEM BUILD group hosted a workshop to train interested faculty in the development, implementation, and assessment of guided inquiry-based Tactile Teaching Tools. The workshop was held in DH Hill Makerspace at NC State and included faculty and postdocs teaching across many areas of biological science.
Workshop participants partnered with STEM BUILD student researchers and DH Hill Makerspace experts to develop and prototype Tactile Teaching Tools during the workshop. In addition to time spent tinkering in the Makerspace, there were additional sessions on Universal Design for Learning led by Dr. Zerrin Ondin (AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center, Georgia Institute of Technology) where we learned about ways to increase accessibility in our teaching. With ongoing support from the STEM BUILD group, workshop participants will continue their projects through the 2018-2019 academic year.
One comment that was heard over and over was how exciting it was to see students, faculty, and staff all working collaboratively in the Makerspace. It truly captured what those spaces are intended to be – a place that brings different people together to solve problems in new and innovative ways.
The STEM BUILD project was featured in a DELTA News article entitled A Work in Progress: Tactile Teaching Tools for Inclusivity in Science Education. In the article, Drs. Ramirez and Gordy, along with DELTA team members Rebecca Sanchez, David Tredwell, and Jennafer Pettit, discuss the origins of the project, the process of developing a web portal for sharing of Tactile Teaching Tools and lesson plans, and efforts to create a community that connects educators and makers.