WAYS AND MEANS OF TEACHING GENERAL SCIENCE TO BLIND STUDENTS

This paper is an effort to relate how some of the laboratory equipment and experiments needed for a course in General Science are adapted to better meet the needs of the students at our school. At present, it seems that most of the textbooks and apparatus used for teaching this subject were designed for students with vision. This condition of course makes the teaching of General Science to the blind somewhat awkward unless some of the laboratory equipment is changed to make parts of it more tangible. It might be well to state in the beginning that this “new” equipment does not always make ideal laboratory models. Much of it is crude and needs refinement. In fact, all of our devices for demonstration are based on the theory that a diagram which approximates the desired conditions is better when teaching science than if no form of laboratory equipment were used. Since a course in general science includes many different topics, it will perhaps be well to consider the ones discussed in this paper on the basis of the three main divisions of science; namely, biology, chemistry, and physics. the body of the mold, and also the sporangia, are much smaller than the model. ( A scheme of this sort is only an enlarged model such as is frequently used by students with vision.) 2. Yeasts-Again we meet with a difficult specimen for the blind to work with, but this time we are able to secure, and with little difficulty in most places, an object which is a good representation of the plant under study; namely, an Irish potato. Specimens taken directly from the field, where growths or little potatoes are often seen projecting from the side of the larger one, are almost exact reproductions of some yeast plants. In some cases the protruding growth is no more than a bulged place on one side of the main potato. In other cases, however, the little potato is barely fastened to the larger one. 3. Heart, liver, and lungs-We secure from the farm or the market a specimen taken from a calf or a pig. The heart is dissected so as to best show the chambers and valves. A group of two or three students are asked to come to ,the dissecting table. The teacher then traces with each student’s fingers the course of the blood Biology through the heart, noting, of course, the Six topics, and the necessary adaptation valves, chambers, thickness of the walls, etc. of laboratory work to meet the needs of the This process continues until each student blind, will be mentioned, the first three dealhas seen all that he is expected to learn ing with zoology, the last three with botany. about these organs. Probes are also used 1. Molds-This is a difficult specimen for so the students may see more dearly how the visually handicapped to study, especially the blood vessels lead to and from the heart. from the laboratory point of view. They do, 4. Structure of a. leaf-A cross-section however, seem to get some conception of the of a leaf may be made by using blocks of structure of these tiny plants if several small wood 2″ x 2″ x 5″ ( other dimensions may (No. 25) copper wires, three or four inches also be used) for the palisade layer, and in length, are tangled and a piece of raw wads of paper of appropriate size for the potato one-half the size of a peanut is spongy tissue. Heavy wrapping paper ‘Serves placed on each end of the wire to represent well for the epidermis. Cardboard properly the sporangia. The students must be careshaped and fastened to the epidermis with fully reminded <that the little fibers forming glue or tacks will represent the stomata.