Investigating the Use of Inquiry & Web-Based Activities with Inclusive Biology Learners (Report‪)‬

Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2002) noted that students with disabilities make up 13.2% of the student population in public schools. Due to recent federal government legislation that includes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1997) and No Child Left Behind Act (2001), more school districts are moving students out of self-contained classrooms (a classroom containing only students with disabilities where they often receive little or no science instruction) and into inclusive science classroom settings (a classroom setting where all students regardless of the type of disability are educated with their same-age peers). This represents a 30% increase in the last decade. This steady increase of inclusion may be beneficial to students, but it creates special challenges for teachers of biology, many of whom were not trained in special education. In inclusive biology classrooms, all students are expected to meet standards for biology education. These standards include developing understanding of science content knowledge and scientific thinking skills (National Research Council, 1996). A variety of instructional strategies used to promote science learning for students with learning disabilities has been described in the literature. These include: providing learning tasks that engage students in actively doing science (Champagne, Newell & Goodnough, 1996; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1992), adapting available science activities to address the needs of diverse learners (Finson, Ormsbee, Jensen & Powers, 1997), using alternate assessments (Finson & Ormsbee, 1998), delivering instruction through integrated themes (Champagne et al., 1996), and implementing appropriately-developed computer applications to promote science learning (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1996).