Past Events

Tactile Teaching Tools Workshop - April 23-25, 2008

Dr. Lillian Rankel, Science teacher at Hopewell Valley Central High School, Pennington, NJ. and Marilyn Winograd, Teacher of the Blind from MDW Educational Services, NJ, presented a workshop at the 2008 Penn-Del AER Spring Vision Conference held at Harrisburg Hershey Holiday Inn, PA on April 23-25, 2008. The title of their workshop was "Strategies for Teaching Chemistry, Physics, & Physical Science with Labs for Blind and VI Students". Topics covered included editing and modifying print material and worksheets for JAWS and presentation of math and science problems in a linear format for JAWS screen reader. Simple modifications of laboratory materials was taught using hot glue guns, notches, Braille labels, and staples while wide mouth plastic bottles, squat jars, and plastic spoons were some of the suggestions made to facilitate lab work. Vernier probes for physics, chemistry, and physical science were recommended with free downloads of scripts from ILAB that allows JAWS to say the readings detected by the Vernier probes. Magnetic bulletin boards with magnetic backed felt, foams and other tactile materials were demonstrated to conveying science concepts such as hydrogen bonding in ice and water, DNA structures and formulas with magnetic print/Braille alphabet letters. Making simple adaptations to some commercially available materials that are used by sighted students is all that is necessary for the blind or visually impaired student to be successful in the sciences.

A Tactile Adaptation Kit, containing the materials needed to make the tactile additions described at the AER Conference and shown on the Classroom Tools page of the ILAB website is available from MDW Educational Services. For information about the Tactile Adaptation Kit, email MDWEducationalServices@gmail.com.

ILAB Workshop - Saturday, March 1, 2008

The ILAB project hosted an open house and workshop for teachers, students, parents, colleagues who were interested in adaptive technology, and the general public. Several local elementary school teachers attended the workshop and did hands-on science activities involving the ILAB and SAVI-SELPH tools. Presentations included "What to do when a blind student enrolls in your class," by Cary Supalo, and "Low-cost tools for teaching science to students who are blind and visually impaired," by Tom Mallouk.

National Federation of the Blind R&D Committee

Rod Kreuter and Cary Supalo made a presentation on Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 9:00 AM, at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230. (410) 659-9314. They described some of the new developments in the ILAB talking tools, especially re-design of the SALS and CALS, and prototypes of the talking voltmeter and talking stopwatch. Midwest Regional ACS Meeting in Kansas City
November 8-10, 2007

ILAB team members Cary Supalo and David Wohlers presented two posters and ran a half-day teacher workshop.

The posters were titled "Multi-Sensory Learning Experience for Students Who Are Blind or Low Vision in the Chemistry Laboratory," and "Manipulation and Modifications of High School and General Chemistry Experiments for Blind and Low-Vision Students." The workshop, "Independent Laboratory Access for the Blind," was attended by 15 high school teachers and teachers of the visually impaired.

ILAB Workshop - Saturday, October 20, 2007
Chemistry Research Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802

The ILAB project hosted a workshop for science teachers, students, parents, colleagues who are interested in adaptive technology, and the general public. This was the first public demonstration of the combination of laboratory probes, data collection software, and a talking computer interface, which can be used in several laboratory subjects by students who are blind or low vision (BLV).

Download the workshop agenda.

Walter Rohr of Vernier Software and Technology led a hands-on workshop with several experiments in chemistry, physics, and biology. These experiments utilized Logger Pro, a data collection software platform by Vernier, lab probes, also by Vernier, and Job Access with Speech (JAWS), a text-to-speech screen reader program. Participants learned how combining these technologies allows students who are BLV to conduct their own data acquisition.

Later, exhibits of teacher-constructed devices for communicating scientific concepts and techniques to students who are BLV were shown. New adaptive technologies were available for hands-on experimentation, and free literature and resource information was distributed to participants.

The afternoon seminar consisted of short presentations. Presenters included blind professionals, educators of children with visual impairments, blind students working in the sciences, and people within the assistive technology field.

NCBYS Youth Slam
The National Center for Blind Youth in Science organized a Youth Slam event July 30 - August 4, 2007. While staying at Johns Hopkins University, students were mentored by blind role models doing fun, challenging, and inspiring activities meant to stretch the imagination, build confidence, and increase science literacy. The ILAB team contributed some of its adaptive tools to this event, and ran hands-on laboratories on fuel cells and biodiesel. For more information, please see the NCBYS website.

ACS National Meeting in Chicago
The Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemcal Society sponsored a symposium on Teaching Chemistry to the Visually Impaired at the National Meeting in Chicago on Tuesday, March 27, 2007. David Wohlers was the symposium organizer, and several members of the ILAB teams presented talks in this symposium. For the complete program, please visit the ACS meeting website.

Presentations
Cary Supalo presented a talk on ILAB tools and techniques at the ATIA Annual Meeting at 4:00 PM on Friday, January 26, 2007. The meeting was held at the Caribe Royale Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando, FL.

Cary Supalo and Rod Kreuter presented a talk on the ILAB tools at the annual meeting of the NFB Research and Development Committee on Sunday, January 28, 2007. The meeting was held at the National Center for the Blind, 1800 Johnson St., Baltimore, MD 21230.

Cary's talk at the NFB Jernigan Institute on his path to a STEM career.

Meet the Blind Month
The Happy Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of Pennsylvania recently sponsored a Meet the Blind Month activity. Meet the Blind Month is an entire month dedicated to working together with members of their local communities to educate about blindness and to help dismiss the stereotypes related to blindness. Each October, NFB chapters are encouraged to sponsor these outreach activities.

Last year, the members of the Happy Valley Chapter organized a workshop on Teaching Science to Blind and Visually Impaired Students. This free workshop was open to teachers, education faculty, and current students with an interest in teaching. It is true that teaching science to blind students can present many challenges, but all of these challenges are surmountable with the right training. Through participation in this workshop, teachers, parents, and students exchanged information on how to teach chemistry, physics, astronomy, and biology to blind students.

Please use the links below to download transcripts of some of the talks from the workshop:

Teaching Science to a Blind Student from a Parent's Perspective, by John Wai.
The Importance of Blind and Visually Impaired Students in STEM Education, by James Antonacci.





High school students exchange notes on using a submersible audible light sensor and a talking balance at last year's ILAB workshop.

If you would like to obtain a DVD recording of the talks given at the workshop, please contact Cary at (814) 234-4NFB.

The National Federation of the Blind is changing what it means to be blind.

This workshop was sponsored by:

The Happy Valley Chapter, NFB of PA
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute
NASA Grant, DePaul University
Penn State Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS)
Penn State Chemistry Department