Modifying Science Activities and Materials to Enhance Instruction for Students with Learning and Behavioral Problems

Most science educators report a willingness to teach students with learning and behavioral differences; however, they often also indicate having limited information about how to make the science classroom more accessible. One avenue of support is the modification of science instructional materials in order to reduce barriers that may exist as a result of poor reading, organization, or work-completion skills. Some suggestions for instruction modifications are provided in this article. Also included is a sample science activity that was redesigned to support students with learning and behavioral concerns.

Most science educators report a willingness to teach students with learning and behavioral differences; however, they often also indicate having limited information about how to make the science classroom more accessible. One avenue of support is the modification of science instructional materials in order to reduce barriers that may exist as a result of poor reading, organization, or workcompletion skills. Some suggestions for instruction modifications are provided in this article. Also included is a sample science activity that was redesigned to support students with learning and behavioral concerns.
Inclusion of students with disabilities in general N classes is considered the best practice in today's N schoots. ! his increased practice has resulted in t more and more students receiving the bulk of their instruction in general education classes (MrI,esky, I ienry, & ! todges, !W8). The U.s. Department of Education reported that 35% of the 4.3 million students with disabilities in the nadon's schools were mainstrcamcd ftill tilc whilc another 3Sn/~ received some out-of-cliss instruction from special education teachers (National Science 'I ~achers Association [NSTA), 1994). In a survey of elementary school teachers, science was ranked as the easiest subject in which to include students with handicaps (Atwood & Otdham, 1985). Two advantages teach-ers identified for ranking science first were its concrete hands-on activities and high levels of group interaction. These effective teaching elements seem to benefit all class members. For example, Richardson (1994) noted that general education students seemed to learn more about a subject when working with students with disabilities.
To ensure successful inclusion or mainstreaming in science, educators must use activities and laboratories that are appropriately designed for students with special needs. As designed, most standard science activities fail to accommodate for the difficulties encountered by many students with learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, and other special characteristics. Students who are not appropriately and actively engaged in learning science will likely fare poorly in science instruction (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1994). More specifically, learning activities that arc visually unclear or distracting, assignments that arc challenging to follow, or materials that contain difficult vocabulary will increase the likelihood that students with mild-to-moderate disabilities will struggle to meet instructional objectives (Finson, ()rmslee, Jensen, & Powers, 1997).
Science and special education faculty at a state university implemented a project addressing science activities in mainstreamed classrooms. Thirteen science and special educator teams in elementary and middle schools participated in the project. The groups met several times throughout thc schoc~l year to particihatc in instruction on collaboration, effective adaptations, science literacy issues, and special education concerns. Upon completion of extensive inscrvicc education, the tcaching tcams were charged with retooling science lessons and activities to support mainstreamed students with disabilities. This project was unique in regard to the eclucators' approach to adapting the science instruction. 1j irst, retooling responsibilities were shared equally between science and special education teams; that is, planning, preparing, and implementing science instruction was a collaborative process. Second, retooled science activities were designed to accommodate all students, not just stilldcnts with learning or behavioral concerns. 1 he intent was not to create activities useful to only one segment of the student lcyulaticm but to make science instruction accessible to all students. Third, academic expectations were not lowered regarding what students could accomplish in or learn from an activity. Expectations remained high for all students. 'I'hc retooled activitics containcd language, format, and organizational modifications that made them more readily usable-lnlt not simpler-by students who had learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. All teacher team efforts focused on developing challenging and interesting learning tasks that offered structure and support to help students overcome reading, writing, or management barriers. Preparation, lesson format, instruction, and materials were modified to ensure that learners had access to all levels of instruction. As part of the project, a list of modifications to written/printed materials was prepared along with a modified model of a science activity (see Suggested Modifications Chart on p. 12). The list was developed throughout the project by the teacher teams as they retooled science lessons and tried them with their students.

A Sample Retooled Science Activity
To illustrate how a science activity can be retooled, we have included an original and a retooled form of &dquo;the bouncing ball&dquo; in the Appendix. The &dquo;bouncing ball&dquo; activity originated with Science: A Process Approach (SAPA; American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1974) but has undergone a number of teacher revisions since its publication. Hence, the &dquo;original&dquo; example we provide here may not be identical to that found in current SAPA materials. I lowever, the example is one that has been used with students. This is followed by the &dquo;re-tooled&dquo; version, which has been reduced in sire so that comments concerning specifics of the retooling could be added in the margins.
One obvious result of thc retooling has been an increase in the number of pages required for the activity. J ncluding the graph paper, the original activity covered three pages. 1 he retooled version covcrs more. We rccognize that increasing the page requirements may put an unwelcome hurclen on both the teacher and the school budget, but we recommend against printing on front and back to save paper since this may not be appropriate for some students with special needs. Classroom tcachcrs havc suggested providing one copy (perhaps laminated) per cooperative group of students. Single copies (nonlaminated) of the activity could be provided to students as needed on an individual basis. This strategy w<>uld reduce the volume of paper consumed, as well as the time to print the activity for class use.
Students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders can succeed in a general curriculum when appropriatc mooiitications to instruction and materials are made. These tnodifications are not necessarily draining in terms of time or expense but can be made quite easily when first planning the lesson and preparing materials. Besides developing positive and satisfying professional relationships, when these instructional responsibilities are shared between gcncral and special educators, the result is the delivery of high-quality science instruction for all students. 6. Provide a box or line to the left of each direction or step so students can check them off as they complete them. 7. Use photocopies rather than dittos for students since many students have difficulty reading the purple/blue print.
8. Make class sets of directions, such as one per group, rather than giving each individual student a set. You may wish to laminate the directions and keep them for reuse as permanent copies. However, you may find it necessary to provide students with disabilities their own sheets on which they can write. 9. Use graph paper with large grid spaces if possible. You may find it useful to use graph grids larger than what fits on a normal size sheet of paper. For example, large bulletin board-size grids or grids marked out on the floor may be helpful.
10. Prepare graph grids ahead of time with their axes prelabeled and marked.
11. Use colors on graphs when possible. For example, besides using different colors for graphed data, use different colors for different lines of the grid itself. The &dquo;zero&dquo; line might be black, the next line might be green, the next red, and so forth. Graph that ~nuy /1(' usrrl to r~hrrrt drrtrr.
-The metersticks used should be color coded by decimeters. For example, the first decimeter may be lined with a thin strip of yellow tape. The second decimeter may be lined on the edge with a thin strip of red tape. Other decimeters are color coded in similar ways. This aids students in spotting the balls' bounce heights more effectively.