STEM Storytelling with Podcasts for Blind, Visually Impaired and Sighted Students (SSP)

2022 - 2025

The STEM Storytelling with Podcasts for Blind, Visually Impaired and Sighted Students (SSP) project will broaden participation in STEM for blind and visually impaired (BVI) and sighted upper elementary students through engagement with podcast technology. BVI individuals are significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Research has shown that BVI students face many obstacles in pursuing education pathways to STEM fields, beginning in early education. These obstacles include negative attitudes of both students and teachers regarding the ability for BVI persons to engage in STEM careers, and the lack of BVI-accessible STEM resources in classrooms. This project builds on the success of the children’s science podcast, Tumble, to engage BVI students in the use and development of podcasts to promote STEM learning and career awareness.

In addition, this project explores how podcasts can be used to engage BVI students in the classroom, with broader implications for digital media use for all students. It lays the foundation for educators to integrate podcasts and podcast technology into the classroom, in a way that is accessible for BVI students. Tumble will produce a variety of podcasts featuring BVI and disabled scientists. Teachers will guide students in using these episodes as the basis for producing their own science podcasts - developing ideas, interviewing scientists, writing scripts, and editing audio. Twelve BVI and integrated classrooms will be involved in design-testing this curriculum. The final materials will be made freely available in a web portal, where students and teachers around the world can access it. Tumble’s BVI episodes will also be freely available and will reach its estimated 200,000 listeners worldwide. Additionally, the episodes will be adapted into Spanish, and released on Tumble’s Spanish-language podcast feed.

NSF award for SSP project

SSP project profile