Meeting Abstract
Blind and visually impaired K-12 children are an underserved group in terms of science education. Although they are often enrolled in traditional education systems, lack of teacher training and resources often limit the opportunities these children have to experience the wonder and joy of science. To help create opportunities for blind students to appreciate the diversity of structure and function in the natural world, we are generating traveling toolboxes focused around different themes, containing 3-D, tactile materials paired with relief graphs and tables, as well as printed braille and sound-recorded discussions that expose students to biological designs. The first two boxes, refined from feedback by blind students at multiple stages of design, will be housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah and distributed to Utah public schools in the spring of 2015. One toolbox, designed for students in high school, includes models of Galapagos fauna and relates to natural selection and conservation biology, and another, designed for middle school, includes model primate skeletal material relevant to human evolution. Discussions reflect current best pedagogical practice, and question the students to come up with their own ideas instead of simply hearing the “right” answer. Discussions can be modified to be applicable to multiple grand bands. Testing shows that students were enthusiastic to have teaching elements that they could touch, and generated insightful questions from the discussion and tactile observations of the materials. The scope of this project may be increased with more tactile kits, kits that focus on other non-visual senses, or by creation of an online database where scientists and educators can generate teaching materials for the blind relevant to their expertise, interests, and needs.
