ISE Pathways: Audemes, Metaphors and Aural Games: A Pathways Project to Make STEM Engaging for the Blind and Visually Impaired

August 15th, 2011 - July 31st, 2013 | PROJECT

The project, from Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), investigates the design, development and dissemination of metaphoric aural sound symbols (audemes), audeme dictionary and riddle audeme games to teach scientific concepts to 75-100 students who are blind and visually impaired (BVI). A number of research questions are included. How do audemes and sequences function as metaphors of STEM concepts? Which audeme game structures and strategies work best to engage BVI students? How do audemes and audeme games impact STEM education? The audeme-to-concept-to-audeme dictionary will build scientific concepts using standards, state-approved science textbooks, teachers and students. They will also examine secondary words that are associated with the science concepts by mining textbooks, identifying tertiary concepts, and establishing a preliminary dictionary of audemes. A team of education, students and professionals who are experts will design the audemes after multiple iterations. A control and experimental group of students will test the audemes through traditional methods and audeme games. Students will complete a pre and post test of scientific concepts with repeated measures ANOVA to examine changes on student scores from the control and experimental groups. This work using audemes to teach scientific concepts will make contributions to BVI, learning disabilities, and general population students. Audemes and audeme games have the potential for broad implementation in both formal and informal settings for computers, mobile, and other networked platforms.

Project Website(s)

(no project website provided)

Team Members

Steven Mannheimer, Principal Investigator, Indiana University
Mathew Palakal, Co-Principal Investigator, Indiana University
Davide Bolchini, Co-Principal Investigator, Indiana University

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 1114597
Funding Amount: 249999

Tags

Access and Inclusion: People with Disabilities
Audience: Museum | ISE Professionals | Youth | Teen (up to 17)
Discipline: Education and learning science | General STEM
Resource Type: Project Descriptions
Environment Type: Games | Simulations | Interactives | Media and Technology