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Deaf school uses lab for learning
Jad Gore, 11, and lab partner Lance Brewer, 10, both fifth-graders at the Maryland School for the Deaf, spent hours studying rocks, contemplating plate tectonics and observing water erosion at the Earth and Space Science Laboratory last week.
On Lance’s first visit to the lab March 29, he said it wasn’t all hard work.
‘‘Some of it’s like playing,” Lance said via an interpreter. ‘‘I like it a lot.”
In the last three months, elementary students from the Maryland School for the Deaf have visited the laboratory at Lincoln Elementary School more frequently, thanks to a new closed captioning system and a renewed partnership between the two schools.
Students at the Maryland School for the Deaf are visual and hands-on learners, and the Earth and Space Science Laboratory is an ideal learning environment for them, according to Lisa Houck, director of curriculum and instruction at the Maryland School for the Deaf.
Mark Bowman, co-director of the Earth and Space Science Laboratory, said Maryland School for the Deaf students and teachers had occasionally visited the lab, but their visits had dwindled in recent years.
In December 2006, Bowman and Houck met with Frederick County Public Schools staff to discuss how the school’s students could access the lab.
Bowman said all elementary grades from the Maryland School for the Deaf except first grade will have visited the lab by mid-April.
The Earth and Space Science Laboratory is a hands-on learning lab for mostly elementary students who are studying astronomy, oceanography, meteorology and geology. The lab was established in 1962 to supplement and enrich the elementary and middle school science curriculums with half-day excursions to the lab and planetarium.
In total, the laboratory has 40 hands-on geology and oceanography learning stations for third- and fifth-grade students as well as 20 fresh and saltwater aquariums filled with stingrays, terrapins and fish.
Houck said the Maryland School for the Deaf adopted Frederick County Public Schools’ curriculum in 1993 and actively works with county schools staff on other areas of learning.
Bowman said the new captioning system has re-ignited an interest of his to open the lab to deaf and hearing impaired students.
Two years ago, the Earth and Space Science Lab received a $9,700 grant from the Alcoa Foundation and used some of the funds to install a captioning system inside the lab’s planetarium, Bowman said.
The captioning system has voice recognition capability during live planetarium programs as well as the ability to program captions on videos. The system was tested for the first time during a planetarium program for a live audience of Maryland School for the Deaf students in February.
Although some kinks need to be worked out in coordinating the system to a live planetarium show, Bowman noted that it is a learning process for everyone.
‘‘We’re learning together to do all of this,” Bowman said. ‘‘The feedback from the community has been positive.”
Houck agreed.
‘‘Our students are thrilled to be going and our teachers are giving positive feedback,” Houck said.
Houck noted that teachers are impressed with the lab’s artifacts and activities for students since the Maryland School for the Deaf does not have such a facility.
Randee Bickford, a science teacher at the Maryland School for the Deaf, visited the laboratory for the first time with her fifth-grade science students on March 29 and said she was pleased with the lab.
‘‘This has a bit of everything,” Bickford said through an interpreter. ‘‘It’s really been worth it.”
Jad Gore, 11, and lab partner Lance Brewer, 10, both fifth-graders at the Maryland School for the Deaf, spent hours studying rocks, contemplating plate tectonics and observing water erosion at the Earth and Space Science Laboratory last week.
On Lance’s first visit to the lab March 29, he said it wasn’t all hard work.
‘‘Some of it’s like playing,” Lance said via an interpreter. ‘‘I like it a lot.”
In the last three months, elementary students from the Maryland School for the Deaf have visited the laboratory at Lincoln Elementary School more frequently, thanks to a new closed captioning system and a renewed partnership between the two schools.
Students at the Maryland School for the Deaf are visual and hands-on learners, and the Earth and Space Science Laboratory is an ideal learning environment for them, according to Lisa Houck, director of curriculum and instruction at the Maryland School for the Deaf.
Mark Bowman, co-director of the Earth and Space Science Laboratory, said Maryland School for the Deaf students and teachers had occasionally visited the lab, but their visits had dwindled in recent years.
In December 2006, Bowman and Houck met with Frederick County Public Schools staff to discuss how the school’s students could access the lab.
Bowman said all elementary grades from the Maryland School for the Deaf except first grade will have visited the lab by mid-April.
The Earth and Space Science Laboratory is a hands-on learning lab for mostly elementary students who are studying astronomy, oceanography, meteorology and geology. The lab was established in 1962 to supplement and enrich the elementary and middle school science curriculums with half-day excursions to the lab and planetarium.
In total, the laboratory has 40 hands-on geology and oceanography learning stations for third- and fifth-grade students as well as 20 fresh and saltwater aquariums filled with stingrays, terrapins and fish.
Houck said the Maryland School for the Deaf adopted Frederick County Public Schools’ curriculum in 1993 and actively works with county schools staff on other areas of learning.
Bowman said the new captioning system has re-ignited an interest of his to open the lab to deaf and hearing impaired students.
Two years ago, the Earth and Space Science Lab received a $9,700 grant from the Alcoa Foundation and used some of the funds to install a captioning system inside the lab’s planetarium, Bowman said.
The captioning system has voice recognition capability during live planetarium programs as well as the ability to program captions on videos. The system was tested for the first time during a planetarium program for a live audience of Maryland School for the Deaf students in February.
Although some kinks need to be worked out in coordinating the system to a live planetarium show, Bowman noted that it is a learning process for everyone.
‘‘We’re learning together to do all of this,” Bowman said. ‘‘The feedback from the community has been positive.”
Houck agreed.
‘‘Our students are thrilled to be going and our teachers are giving positive feedback,” Houck said.
Houck noted that teachers are impressed with the lab’s artifacts and activities for students since the Maryland School for the Deaf does not have such a facility.
Randee Bickford, a science teacher at the Maryland School for the Deaf, visited the laboratory for the first time with her fifth-grade science students on March 29 and said she was pleased with the lab.
‘‘This has a bit of everything,” Bickford said through an interpreter. ‘‘It’s really been worth it.”