NSF Awards: 1540652
This video showcases one of many projects developed by the International Association for Geoscience Diversity (www.TheIAGD.org) highlighting the impact of creating inclusive and accessible field courses for students with disabilities. In this NSF GEOPATH project, students with diverse physical abilities from around the United States are taken to several field sites in Arizona to learn about the Earth, and how to create an inclusive community of learning in a commonly inaccessible field-based discipline. Students and faculty work together to share their knowledge and personal experiences all while using technology to remain connected to their colleagues when separated by physical barriers at every field site.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Welcome to our study showcasing access and inclusion in Geoscience field-based learning. Like many other science disciplines, many Geoscience courses and research opportunities require strenuous field experiences. The traditional approaches to teaching and learning in the field often marginalize those who do not fit the model of a physically capable field practitioner. We are working to break down the barriers to participation in field-based learning through the development of inclusive communities of learning and the strategic use of cellular technologies. As you watch this video during the 2017 STEM for All Showcase, we are currently conducting the second year of this study in Western Ireland. Please feel free to post questions and comments and we will respond to them as quickly as we are able.
Thank you for your interest in access and inclusion in the Geosciences.
Steve Whitmeyer
Professor
Environmental conditions are always a factor. In Arizona the heat and dryness provided challenges for some participants. In Ireland the wet conditions are inducing a different set of complications. But this is all part of the project!
Tami LaFleur
K-12 STEM Coordinator
Kudos for seeing an issue and being part of a solution! I have spent my career in K-12 public education, and our current focus is on the Universal Design for Learning which focuses on removing barriers for all students so they can access learning. Your work is showing a need for UDL beyond the K-12 experience. Students who once thought they 'couldn't' now can! It is interesting to see your choices of Arizona and Western Ireland. Do you work with specific colleges? Do you rely on any volunteers?
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Thank you for the post, Tami. Much of the work done by the International Association for Geoscience Diversity (www.TheIAGD.org) and this project, is founded on the Principles of UDL. We selected Arizona and Ireland for a number of reasons, but mainly the striking difference in accessibility between domestic and international sites, as a challenge for both the learning community and the technology integration. We are always interested in working with volunteers. Please email me if you would like to help!
Chris
Linda Plevyak
Very well done video-I appreciate your efforts to promote accessible field-based learning for a diverse group of learners. Good luck in Ireland.
Michael Kolodziej
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Thank you, Linda. This is really only the beginning of what is possible!
Chris
Dale McCreedy
Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement
What a great project and video! Love that you are pushing on the perceptions of what it means to be a geology student and to engage in field studies. I work at a children's museum and we have been integrating serious enhancements into our exhibits for special needs children, and have a 24 acres wetlands area. I am interested in hearing more about the types of enhancements you are developing.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Dale, please send me an email and we'll be sure that you are aware of any papers and other products we disseminate about the findings of this study. I'd be happy to speak with you about how any of our findings can relate to what you're wanting to do at the museum.
Chris
Dale McCreedy
Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement
Thanks! I just sent you my email! Eager to see your study. Dale
Rachel Bosch
This is such an important project--anyone with motivation and passion for the Geosciences needs a path that will work for them to contribute to the science! Great video! I look forward to the day when we see a dramatic shift in representation in geoscience professions!
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Rachel, Thank you for your comments. We have a long road ahead to improve representation, but establishing awareness is a great first step, followed by providing support for inclusive instructional training and making sure resources are readily available. There are many issues, but diversity isn't one of them. Diversity is all around us, but we expect all students to conform to traditional expectations of "doing" science. Expectations that are based on physical rigor do not always represent better learning. The more STEM faculty, current and future, we can get involved in supporting their students through inclusively-designed pedagogy, the stronger our scientific community becomes.
Chris
Michael Kolodziej
Tami LaFleur
K-12 STEM Coordinator
Well said.
Sharon Lynch
What an interesting project. I know of trail in a national forest in Idaho that is designed for wheelchair accessibility. I think it actually is for hunting. Do you know if the NFS offers many of these trails. Not all would work for geology, but many would work for other STEM disciplines. Thanks for this work.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for stopping by and viewing our project. Check out this page on Accessible Adventures in the Pacific Northwest by the U.S. Forest Service: http://tinyurl.com/mj699jb. I'm not sure what they have going on beyond this region, but I would be surprised if they didn't have something happening!
Chris
Laura Crossey
I am so pleased to see the utilization of our Grand Canyon Trail of Time exhibit in this fashion! It was designed by Karl Karlstrom, me and others- and supported by the National Science Foundation. Intended for both public outreach (over 5 million visitors a year to Grand Canyon National Park) AND education, we used best practices for multiple learning hierarchies to assure quality content for oeople at different learning levels. Accessibility was a major factor in exhibit design! Please visit the Grand Canyon Trail of Time and tell us your stories!
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Laura,
We LOVED our time at the Trail of Time. One of the highlights from our first year. One of the major findings from our project, however, is that regardless of what we think would be accessible still presented problems for some. "Wheelchair" accessibility does not mean accessible for all mobility disabilities. A paved path with a seemingly gradual uphill gradient was quite a challenge for some of our participants. However, they were all excited to the entire trail with a completed stratigraphic column, and we all learned a TON! Many thanks to you, Karl, Steve Semken, and everyone else involved so much for your work to promote accessibility and public outreach at the park.
Chris
Richard Ladner
Awesome project. Great to see scientists in wheel chairs in the wild.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Thanks Richard, we appreciate you taking the time to view our project. We've got a long way to go to start to shift traditional perspective of access and inclusion. However, we're seeing that it is possible!
Tami LaFleur
K-12 STEM Coordinator
Chris, where are the students in your program in Ireland from? How did they hear about this opportunity?
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
They are from all over the U.S., Tami: Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, We promoted this opportunity through the International Association for Geoscience Diversity (www.TheIAGD.org), which was also redistributed through many of our organizational partners and social media. We had over 260 students apply, 30 of whom had a disability of some kind. Narrowing this down was challenging, to say the least!
Chris
Tami LaFleur
K-12 STEM Coordinator
Wow. 260 applicants. That says a lot about the need for these solutions.
Vivian Guilfoy
Great project to open the geosciences to more students through adaptations, pedagogy and technology! I especially like the teaming collaboration that you mention. What would you say are some of the most promising adaptations and strategies that help students achieve the goal of full participation? Very often, things developed to assist differently abled students benefit all students. Are there particular examples that have been outstanding in your work? Hope your work continues to expand.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Vivian,
Thank you for taking the time to watch the video and post about our project. Great questions. My response could be an entire paper, and in fact it will be after we comb through the data from this second year. Remember "full participation" is a loaded phrase. Participation looks differently for each one of us, as we have different abilities, motivators, and personal expectations and values, both intrinsic and extrinsic. However, completing the field-based activities and assignments requires collaboration. Some sites are much more difficult than others, but we expect all students to engage with each other, and the instructors, in all observations, discussions, interpretations, and reflections to participate "fully".
You are very correct in that inclusive design (i.e. UDL) engages and supports all students. That is what we are trying to use as a foundation of this work. We will have some great examples of how we are designing our activities through inclusive collaboration, and integrating real-time communication technologies in the field to overcome common barriers to learning. Realizing that the social barrier is often most significant when working with students with disabilities. The results on mixed-ability collaboration is what is most outstanding. I'm going to leave the response at this, for now, mostly because it is midnight for me here in Ireland and I'm expecting my students to be up and ready in the morning... I probably should be, too! I'd be happy to communicate further with you offline, before the paper is written to discuss specific findings.
Chris
Dale McCreedy
Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement
I am aware of some projects that also develop virtual components that are ideal for seniors, for example, who can't make the trek - and talks as well. Anything you have considered? While this is a different focus, in that you are more focused on cultivating future scientists in geology, having addition advocates and tapping into those with interests in this topic may be useful in shifting the perspectives of those who may influence future scientists.
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Dale, so interesting that you bring this up. Let's look even deeper into the problem. From my perspective we are facing this issue in all STEM disciplines. None of us are getting any younger. How can we keep everyone engaged in the science they have spent their lives working on? We have a wealth of knowledge in people who feel they can no longer contribute because of not having specific abilities, either from age-related or other onset disabilities. Just as ONE example of many, how do we remain socially engaged at a conference if we can't hear our colleagues, or even a presenter, is a room full of ambient noise? We're losing valuable role models because our scientific communities are not accessible or inclusive. We have a lot of work to do!
Chris
Michael Kolodziej
Michael Kolodziej
Associate Vice President
Chris and Dale, One thing I love about the sharing of these ideas and projects is all of the cross pollination and connections that people make about ways to evolve other interests or apply in other areas or domains. Love this idea!
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Indeed, Mike! Now we just need time to focus on all of these great ideas. Comments turn in to conversations; conversations turn in to plans; plans turn into...
Thanks for chiming in.
Chris
Michael Kolodziej
Jon Rubin
Really powerful and inspirational demonstration of the concept of combining "teamwork and technology" to bring geoscience to life for all audiences--congrats on a great project!
Michael Kolodziej
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Jon, Just as you wrote it, there are here are so many implications for how this model of "teamwork and technology" can work beyond this instance of field-based geology and students with disabilities. Thanks for taking the time to watch and check-in with us.
Chris
Dale McCreedy
Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement
Yes - aging has its own special characteristics that differ by individual yet are shared challenges in many ways -hearing, memory, physical limitations. So Chris - do you think that there are more 'dropping away' than 'dropping in' to STEM careers? Are there novel ways that we can capture the expertise, history, wisdom of experience in ways that feel contributory and impactful and most importantly respectful? Are those of us baby boomers (or of whatever classification), leaving science prematurely? How do we insure that we capture the huge resources that are available?
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi Dale, I'm not sure about the number of students graduating versus the number of science practitioners leaving the discipline. Regardless of the number entering to replace those who are leaving, we are losing experience that could take years, decades, or even a career to learn. How can we keep these people as active as possible, for as long as they want to be active? Capturing their knowledge means we need to have a community that is inclusively-designed to accommodate their abilities and needs. Realizing that not everyone wants to do the "hard work" as they get older, keeping them engaged in person, or even virtually in online communities, at conferences and other meetings allows them the opportunity to transfer their knowledge and experience to the next generations of scientists. We need to maintain these opportunities for advising and mentoring.
Chris
Wendi Williams
This project as well as the excellent comments/replies show the dedication and interest in STEM accessibility for K to "Gray." I certainly appreciate the leadership that IAGD, through Chris' stewardship, continues to provide as we build a like-minded community! Please be sure to visit www.theiagd.org . And...why not join us? ;) Please also consider participating in the Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2017 ( http://serc.carleton.edu/earth_rendezvous/2017/index.html ) ; part of the programming includes the IAGD-sponsored mini-workshop Inclusion in the Geosciences - Instructional Approaches to Access and Accommodation ( http://tinyurl.com/EER2017Access-Inclusion ).
Susan Eriksson
Evaluation Consultant
Dale, I like your bringing up the 'seniors'. I am the external evaluator on the project and am a 'senior'. One major thing I have learned is that a 'person with a disability' can apply to any of us at different stages of our lives. I am in the 'older' catagory, and I really appreciate the spirit of this project and it's participants. Inclusion can mean so many things - and today, as we trekked through the bogs in Connemara , it was everyone helping each other through the difficult parts - no one left behind. We are seeing important outcomes that will benefit so many geoscientists.
Dale McCreedy
Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement
This is an exciting project - love the K to Gray Wendi - and so happy, Susan, to hear that you bring this rich set of lenses to this effort. I wish the philosophy of mutual support that permeated your bog trek was way more invasive of all educational experiences!
April Lindala
Wonderful project and such an important conversation to be truly inclusive for all bodies! I live within the snowy northwoods of Michigan Upper Peninsula. I would be curious to learn if anyone has success stories from a climate similar to ours. ~ miigwech/thank you... April Lindala, Northern Michigan University's Center for Native American Studies
Christopher Atchison
Assistant Professor
Hi April, while we haven't done anything in the snow, but we are finishing up our project this week in Ireland. We've had a few wet days, but nothing that has kept us from completing the mapping exercise. I would be happy to discuss ideas with you for overcoming accessibility-related weather and climate.
Leah Miller
As a student on these trips, I would love to say thank you to everyone for the kind words and support. These trips (we are currently in Ireland) have truly been a life changing experience. I never thought I would get to do Geology again and here I am. I've learned so much that I can use even after the trips are over.
Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.