Handheld Signing Math and Science Dictionaries for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Museum Visitors...

Full title: The Handheld Signing Math & Science Dictionaries for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Museum Visitors Research Project

TERC and the Museum of Science, Boston (MoS), are studying the integration—into MoS’s Take a Closer Look and Science in the Park exhibits—of iPod Touch versions of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP), Signing Science Dictionary (SSD), and the Signing Math Dictionary (SMD). Project partners are adding human voice to all the text-based components, developing a Flash-based movie for each dictionary to introduce its features and an accompanying activity to practice its use, and researching how two audiences, each of which includes museum visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing and whose first language is sign, use the dictionaries to access science content during visits to the exhibits. One audience is family visitors ages 5-12+; another audience is classroom visitors in grades K-8+. The partners will also begin to establish the kinds of learning gains that are possible. The dictionaries were originally web-based an intended for use in classrooms. They were developed by TERC and Vcom3D (innovators of the SigningAvatar® technology that powers the dictionaries) with funding from NEC Foundation of America, the National Science Foundation (HRD-0533057), and the U.S. Department of Education (H327A060026) for the SSD; the National Science Foundation (HRD-0833969) for the SMD; and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation, Disability Inclusion Initiative and the U.S. Department of Education (H327A080040) for the SSP.

Funder: National Science Foundation (DRL-1008546)
Partners: Vcom3D, Museum of Science, Boston