The Rochester Institute of Technology will conduct a three-year project demonstrating techniques to increase participation of deaf students in science education and career development. The primary premise of the project is that deaf students will progress more rapidly in science education when they have full access to the content and language of science and to information concerning the past accomplishments of deaf people in scientific professions. The primary goal of the project is to improve access to science for deaf students by fusing best teaching practices used with deaf students from both science and English language teaching. The project will consist of the design and delivery of regional workshops, the creation of a national network of science teachers, and the evaluation and investigation of change in teaching and learning science. The regional workshops will provide science teachers of deaf students in mainstream and residential schools with a set of instructional strategies and materials that integrate visual and interactive presentations of science principles with explicit and interactive uses of scientific English. The specific goals are: (1) to develop and deliver a coherent set of instructional strategies that may be used to teach the content and language of science to deaf students; (2) to increase deaf students' access to information about the accomplishments of deaf women and men in scientific professions; and (3) to disseminate an effective intervention model for enhancing science learning by deaf students. Regional workshops consisting of a two-day series of seven sessions will be designed and implemented. The attitude and communication barriers deaf science students and deaf scientists face will be described and the science teacher's roles in breaking down these barriers will be presented. Science teachers will learn to deal effectively with the language dimensions of science teaching when both deaf and hearing students are in the cl assroom. Finally, the training will focus on critical thinking skills and the importance of visual and hands-on experiences in the teaching of science principles. Participants of each regional workshop will be expected to identify target science principles (which appear difficult for deaf students to learn) and best practices (which appear successful with deaf students in science classrooms). The target principles will become the focus of prototype mini-lessons as participants begin applying the strategies learned in the regional workshop. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the mini- lessons (and strategies) will begin after each workshop. Information will be disseminated through publications, conference presentations, and a newsletter for the regional workshop participants and other interested science teachers.
