The activity that I have chosen is Lesson Plan- Welcome to STEM. The redesigned lesson is Redesigned Lesson Plan- Welcome to STEM. I redesigned this lesson using the UDL principle of engagement, representation and action and expression. 

First, I added a video reading the book, pockets with the vocabulary and sentence starters to provide multiple means of representation.  Students that need to hear the book again or take more time to process the book would have that opportunity.  I would also post the book on google classroom for students to have access to revisit the story.  The vocabulary in a pocket gives students access to the information that includes definitions and picture clues. Giving students sentence starters allows students that have difficulty formulating their thoughts a starting point.  

Then I added Plicker cards and Flipgrid to allow students multiple means of action and expression. Plicker cards allow students to share the answers in a “judgment free” manner.  The Fligrid option allows students to use videos to share their learning with the class without having to write things down. 

Lastly, students had a choice in their groupings and what part of the topic they wanted to discuss.  This would keep them engaged.  This would encourage social interaction and peer support.

The evaluation model that I used to determine the effectiveness of this activity is Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction Model. In the 9 parts of the model, this lesson got a 5/9. The lesson is effective in informing students of the objectives, stimulating recall of prior learning, presenting the content, providing learning guidance, and eliciting performance (practice). However, it is deficient in gaining attention of the students, providing feedback, assessing performance and enhancing retention and transfer. This shows that the lesson is effective.  It has some room for improvement. 

When looking at both lesson plans you may see many different strengths and weaknesses. They both try to get the students to think about what STEM is and what is its purpose in their lives. In the first version of the lesson students are given the choice of how they would share their thoughts which is one way to provide UDL.  However, the lesson doesn’t meet the other UDL requirements.  The lesson doesn’t provide multiple means of representation or multiple means of action and expression.  The redesigned lesson does provide these missing aspects of UDL by incorporating two digital tools.  The first tool integrated into the lesson was Plickers. Plickers allowed students to think, process and respond to questions at the beginning of lesson to activate what they knew about the topic.  It allowed all students to engage with the content. The other digital tool integrated into the lesson was Flipgrid.  Flipgrid allows students to have another option to share their thoughts and ideas.  This supports students that have difficulty writing down their thoughts and may increase their interest in sharing. These tools directly improve the accessibility of the lesson, and it allows all students the ability to fully participate.