UC San Diego

The purpose of this thesis is to give new light in the role of using American Sign Language (ASL) to express scientific concepts as little research has been done in order to change STEM instruction within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing classroom. The curriculum consists of three units and seven lessons centralizing around the human body system. The three goals of this curriculum focus on increasing content knowledge in explaining how body systems are interdependent and influence our everyday lives, by creating ASL imagery of body systems, in two different styles (descriptive and expository) using media. Implementation of this curriculum was done in a period of two and a half weeks, based on the evidence presented from field notes, student vlogs, work samples and individual presentations; students showed significant growth with increase of scientific content understanding by utilizing significant ASL structures in media. All three curriculum goals were met.