SBIR-STTR Award

A Blended Arithmetic Curriculum that combines constructivist and back-to-basics features, designed to encourage special education students' understanding of math principles, is proposed. A proven curriculum would be enhanced to include an on-line interactive component. Each of the fourteen lesson plans for the Blended Arithmetic Curriculum consists of four components:1.a constructivist conceptual lesson plan;2.a back-to-basics fluency building worksheet that students must complete independently at their seats or at home;3.a "blended" on-line computer "game" that builds conceptual understanding and fact retrieval fluency and is used as a rewardfor students that successfully complete their worksheets; and,4.an on-line message board where teachers can communicate.In Phase I, a six-month course, basic addition for second grade special education students, would be evaluated in three Cleveland Empowerment Zone elementary schools. Phase I research will: determine the feasibility of our Blended Arithmetic Curriculum; prototype the technology and curriculum; address how to make the technology and curriculum accessible to special education teachers, and; determine how well the curriculum and technology improves special education students' addition skills.Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:Phase I will determine whether the Blended Arithmetic Curriculum will help special education students learn addition concepts and facts. The Blended Arithmetic Curriculum will be tested in three Cleveland Empowerment Zone elementary schools. Phase I will prototype the technology and address how to make the technology accessible and easy to use for young students and their teachers.Phase II envisions the implementation of the Blended Arithmetic Curriculum in other selected Empowerment Zone public schools. Empowerment Zone communities (in other cities) will be included in the Phase II development in order to broaden the testing environment, especially on-line distance training of teachers. There are three questions to answer during Phase II:1.Can the Blended Arithmetic Curriculum be expanded to include all the arithmetic skills?;2.Does the Blended Curriculum ease the inclusion of special education students into regular classrooms?; and,3.Can the blended Curriculum be used by teachers with only a few days of in-service and minimal on-site help?The successful completion of Phases I and II will produce a sophisticated, simple-to-use, and inexpensive technology that engages special education students to learn math skills - and is ready to market commercially. The On-line Blended Curriculum will find a ready market well beyond the typical "urban" elementary school and should become an important curriculum for rural and home school teaching environments.

Educators have long battled over how to teach arithmetic. Constructivists argue that students learn best by "discovering" and "constructing" their own understanding of the underlying principles of math. Back-to-basics advocates argue that students must learn basic facts and computational skills. Curricula written by one side usually completely ignore key components advocated by the other side. An on-line Blended Arithmetic Curriculum (Count Me Smart) , encompassing both the constructivist and back-to-basic philosophies and methodologies, will be developed and implemented to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Each Count Me Smart lesson consists of a constructivist conceptual lesson plan; a back-to-basics fluency building worksheet that students must complete independently at their seats or at home; and an on-line computer "game" that builds conceptual understanding and fact retrieval fluency. The "addition" component of Count Me Smart , One+One=Fun , was implemented in a Cleveland Empowerment Zone elementary school classroom and tested using 42-question addition worksheets. The tests confirmed the results of a previous study: after a six-week One+0ne=Fun curriculum, time to complete the worksheet decreased from 15 minutes to 8 minutes; accuracy improved from a completely random grade distribution (ranging from 20% to 100%) to an almost perfect grade (average of 95%). Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications: Previous studies determined and Phase I confirmed that Count Me Smart helps special education students learn and perform addition well. In Phase II Count Me Smart will be tested in three Cleveland Empowerment Zone elementary schools, grades 2d through 4th. Phase II further prototypes, implements and tests the technology as applied to Subtraction, Multiplication and Division and addresses how to make the technology accessible and easy to use for young students and their teachers. The questions to resolve during Phase II will be "Can Count Me Smart be expanded to include all the arithmetic skills?," Does Count Me Smart ease the inclusion of Special Education students into regular classrooms?," and "How can Count Me Smart be integrated into the classroom in a practical way that so that teachers receive adequate training and fully embrace the technology?" A successful Phase II will produce a sophisticated, simple-to-use, and inexpensive technology that engages special education students to learn math skills and is ready to market commercially. Count Me Smart will find a ready market well beyond special education to the regular classroom. Because Count Me Smart is on-line and automated, we are able to deliver, in a cost effective way, to a wide range of customers; from and entire school district, to a single school, to an individual classroom, or to a single student being schooled at home.