Dr. Giudice and collaborators awarded 4-year, multi-institution NSF grant for accessible data science research
Computing initiatives, including data science, are quickly expanding in preschool-12th grade curricula as the demand for technical skills in the workforce rapidly increases. Although data science is difficult on its own, it has been shown that the current tools and curriculum for teaching and learning such skills are largely inaccessible to students with disabilities. This inaccessibility has resulted in workforce inequity and underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in data science and other STEM fields.
Dr. Nicholas Giudice and collaborators from the University of Nevada, the University of Las Vegas, St. Louis University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Washington, plan to address this problem in their new project titled, “Collaborative Research: Creating and testing data science learning tools for secondary students with disabilities.”
This team has been awarded $303,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create, deploy, and rigorously evaluate the first data science tool and curriculum that is accessible to all high-school aged learners. This will involve numerous strategic partnerships and will engage hundreds of individuals including teachers, students with disabilities, and industry practitioners. The intent is to help create equitable pathways for all students to enter the field of data science.
The new project builds on several other NSF-funded projects conducted by Dr. Giudice, VEMI, and collaborators that focus on making STEM material more accessible to students with disabilities.
For more information, see the UMaine News Release: https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2021/04/28/giudice-helps-creation-of-data-science-teaching-tools-for-high-school-students-with-disabilities/