Zero Barriers! How can we support access in our community?
Zero Barriers! How can we support access in our community?
Interested in learning how to apply this guide in your classroom or other learning settings? We are hosting an in-depth virtual professional development academy in April for educators interested in implementing the guide.
Zero Barriers! How can we support access in our community? is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. Smithsonian Science for Global Goals community research guides support youth to turn their ideas into actions for a sustainable future through activities that allow them to discover, understand, and act on solutions to complex global issues.
The Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Zero Barriers! guide explores communities as complex systems that support access to needs such as transportation, health care, and education. This free educational resource, aimed at ages 11-18, helps young people:
- Investigate barriers and supports for accessing systems within their local community using social science tools
- Innovate using STEM to address barriers to access and support accessibility.
Download the Zero Barriers! Printable Pages
Visit the StoryMap for additional resources.
Visit the Zero Barriers! STORYMAP
Help us measure impact! By providing us with this basic information, you are ensuring that we can document the reach of the Zero Barriers! guide and help the Smithsonian Science Education Center understand how best to support educators and parents as they undertake this module with their learners.
Click below to download the PDF files for each part of the community research guide. Follow the instructions in the research guide for each task.
DOWNLOAD Zero Barriers! GETTING STARTED
Task 1: How do communities work together to meet needs? In this task young people discover more about their identities, map and model a system that helps your community access goods and services, and design a storybook that shares a story about access.
Task 2: What features help make our community accessible? In this task young people observe accessible design features in their community, investigate factors that influence ability, and imagine a perfect community.
Task 1: How do we reach things we want and need? In this task young people use local data to investigate structures and technology to support transportation in their community, map access points, and create transportation guides.
Task 2: How can we engineer solutions that address accessibility problems? In this task young people will use accessibility assessments to identify accessibility problems and build and test a prototype of an engineering solution.
Task 1: How can we support access to education in our community? In this task, young people will diagram aspects of their learning environment, interview local educators about education practices and technologies, and use a systems map to think about how to improve education.
Task 2: How can we consider accessibility when sharing ideas and information? In this task, young people will use local communications to learn about a topic, investigate accessibility of online resources, and plan an accessible meeting to share resources.
Task 1: How can we support access to health care in our community? In this task young people will use Photovoice to create a storyline about the health care system, play a game to understand access to health care, and share a health care access storyline.
Task 2: How can we engineer assistive technology? In this task young people will investigate aspects of assistive technology that relate to sustainability, use data to think of design criteria, then create designs for sustainable assistive products.
Task 1: How can our community support access to jobs and careers? In this task young people will create flyers on different careers, collect and represent data on careers, and create a book or binder that can help people plan for their career future.
Task 2: How can we support everyone’s right to work? In this task young people will investigate disability laws and practices that support employment, use computational thinking to think of actions that can address unemployment, and write an algorithm for action that could make employment more accessible.
Task 1: How can we support access to the activities that bring us joy? In this task, young people will create a triptych on an activity they enjoy, create a timeline about access to meaningful activities, and design an innovation that supports access to an activity you enjoy.
Task 2: How can we create welcoming activities and experiences? In this task, young people will complete sensory activities, build a diorama of a community space, and create a plan for redesigning a space or experience in your community.
Task 1: How can we improve systems in our community? In this task young people will use a model to think about access at a systems level, map different systems in their community, and think of actions that help people care for themselves and the planet.
Task 2: How will we make our community more accessible? In this task young people will generate different action possibilities and implement their action plan.
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