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NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft Education and Public Outreach team (located at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago) is in need of participants in a project designed to create curriculum support materials that will ultimately benefit middle
school students with dyslexia.  I know that this message doesn't apply to most of you on the list-serv, but I am hoping you can (quickly) forward this message to people you think would be appropriate.

First, we are interested in finding classroom teachers of middle school students with dyslexia to participate in an online questionnaire to identify the types of materials those teachers use now or materials that they could use to help their students
with dyslexia succeed in science class.  

Next, we are looking for a sub-group of approximately eight to ten teachers of middle school students with dyslexia to come to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL in July (most likely July 30-Aug 1) to participate in a three-day extended focus group
session. The goal of the session will be to analyze the Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) Space Science Sequence for Grades 6-8 curriculum thoroughly and identify strategies and materials that their students with dyslexia would need to get
the most out of the curriculum, especially the reading & writing components. Selection for the focus group would be done via a very short application. The IBEX Education and Public Outreach staff would then work with the focus group participants to
identify which of the identified materials can be developed and tested in a timely manner. The focus group participants who come to the Adler Planetarium will be compensated (stipend, airfare, hotel, meals, and incidentals). 

The questionnaire can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N3M27T9

If you have colleagues who teach science in a middle school classroom to students with dyslexia, please feel free to forward this email to them.  We have a short timeline for this survey, but we would like to get as many responses as possible, and we
need to select the focus group participants soon to arrange travel. Responses must be received by 9 a.m. CDT on Monday, June 18, 2012.

Just to be abundantly clear - we are not looking for people who are doing informal education to students with dyslexia (a fascinating topic for sure, but not the focus of this particular project).  We need formal ed middle school in-the-classroom
teachers who teach students with dyslexia.  What is also acceptable is if someone you know was a middle school classroom teacher prior to working at a museum and that person has experience in creating accommodations for students with dyslexia in a
classroom.  If that's the case, then we would like that person to fill out the survey, too, and that person can be considered as a potential focus group participant.  (And also to be clear, filling out the survey does not guarantee acceptance in the
focus group...our budget will be the limiting factor.)

If you have questions about anything I have mentioned above, please email the IBEX Education and Public Outreach Team at [log in to unmask]  To learn more about the IBEX spacecraft mission, please visit our website at: http://www.ibex.swri.edu.

Thanks!

Michelle

Michelle Nichols, Master Educator - NASA Forum Programs
The Adler Planetarium
1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL  60605
312-322-0520 
312-322-2257 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org


Visit our website: http://www.adlerplanetarium.org


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