Urban Ecology Course Materials Created with a Universal Design for Learning Framework

The Lynch School of Education and the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College are partnering with the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) to develop, test, evaluate and disseminate a year-long set of urban ecology course materials for use in high school-level capstone science courses. The standards-based materials emphasize locally-relevant field studies and incorporate principles of Universal Design for Learning and Educative Curriculum. Other features include (1) an on-line resource center that links to professional development resources, (2) a student-written urban environment newspaper called "Green Times," and (3) a writing support toolkit. Evaluation and research studies focus on measuring effectiveness of the materials in promoting content understanding, self-efficacy in science and inquiry abilities of students in urban high schools, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

(Note: This project was originally awarded to the Lead Organization, Boston University under the Award #0628143 and for the Funding Period: Sun, 10/01/2006 - Thu, 09/30/2010. Due to a change in institution by the PI of the project, a new award was issued: Award # 1110524)