TY - JOUR
AU - Radavich, Rosanne, M
AB - According to the American Printing House for the Blind (APH 2004), there were approximately 56,900 visually impaired students in the U.S. education system in 2004, but there was shockingly little science education material available to teach them. To address this gap, I spent my master’s program at Purdue creating entomology material and evaluating it at a nearby school for the blind1. Thirteen years later, there are an estimated 63,300 visually impaired students in the U.S. education system (APH 2017), and science educators have an excellent chance that they will get to teach one of them. In this article, I offer some simple ways for teachers to adapt teaching material for visually impaired students. I invite you to learn from both my successes and my mistakes. What You Should Know About Visually Impaired Students First and foremost, visually impaired (VI) students are just like other students: they love food and games, they tell funny stories, and they ask curious questions. They come with their own set of skills, weaknesses, interests, and dislikes, just like every other student you have taught. Second, vision loss is a very individual experience, and each student is unique. For example, one student might be able to navigate, but can’t read print or recognize faces; another might not be able to read the board, but can read printed material and do close-up work. Provide a Safe and Welcoming Classroom Talk to your student. Your VI student is a great resource, and establishing comfortable and open discussion sets you both up for success. Talk with them about how they like to learn, what things are distracting or uncomfortable, and how they like to participate in the class. For example, where do they prefer to sit? How would they like to access written material? How do they take notes? Do they need in-class assistance? Introduce your student to the class. Most students have not had VI classmates before, so give the class some basic guidelines to be polite and helpful. For example, the class should keep bags and chairs out of walkways, and students should refrain from petting or distracting a guide dog. Explain that your VI student might request help, and if they do, classmates should offer assistance. This helps cut down on unwanted (though well-meaning) assistance, while simultaneously making your student feel okay about asking for help. Avoid moving furniture or supplies around your classroom or lab, and if you do, let your VI student know in advance to prevent injuries and frustration. Provide a spacious and sturdy work surface. It’s easy to accidentally knock over items on a crowded desk, and difficult to find them after they’ve fallen on the floor. Help students see and handle material. In my first class, I placed dark brown cockroaches on the black desks, and my students couldn’t see them. I learned right away to provide high-contrast colors for students with low vision. Put dark objects on light-colored paper, and vice-versa, to help items stand out (Fig. 1). Attach a large paperclip to items that are difficult to pick up to make them easier to handle (Fig. 2). Fig. 1. Open in new tabDownload slide Use contrasting colors for students with low vision. Fig. 1. Open in new tabDownload slide Use contrasting colors for students with low vision. Fig. 2. Open in new tabDownload slide Attach a paper clip to make items easier to pick up. Fig. 2. Open in new tabDownload slide Attach a paper clip to make items easier to pick up. Provide Assistance and Build Independence Pair your VI student with a sighted student so that they can ask simple questions (like “Which one is the fly model?” or “Is this the right part?”) without needing to interrupt the instructor. It is intimidating for some students to stop a class to ask a question, and asking a classmate keeps your VI student engaged in the lesson. When given an individual task, VI students should first try the task themselves. If they are unsuccessful, they then should ask their paired student for assistance. If neither can figure it out, the student should ask the instructor. As an instructor, a good strategy to encourage independence and original work is to first provide suggestions, followed by direction, and to offer hands-on assistance only if the student is still unable to complete the task. Ask the student what they want, and confirm you did exactly what they requested to avoid “improving on” or changing their project. Design and Present Teaching Material Hands-on learning dramatically improves learning for VI students. However, lessons aren’t successful just because they include hands-on elements. Here are some guidelines to make your lessons engaging and educational for your VI students. Teach using whole organisms, not disconnected parts. Students learn better and form more complete mental pictures when given time to methodically explore the whole organism with all pieces connected (Fig. 3). Disconnected objects lose a lot of associated information. For example, which end of a leg attaches to the body? Where does it attach? How does it move? Students can only learn this kind of information by handling a real insect with the legs attached. Fig. 3. Open in new tabDownload slide Provide the whole organism for visually impaired students to explore. Fig. 3. Open in new tabDownload slide Provide the whole organism for visually impaired students to explore. Give VI students extra time. When VI students handle hands-on material, give them extra time to inspect the item. If students get their own specimen, pass your VI student the first one. If specimens are limited, try to have at least two and give one to your VI student while the sighted students pass the other one around. Always orient new material. Orient students to models and raised-line illustrations to help maximize learning and avoid wasting time or causing frustration. Explain what they are examining and what they should be able to feel or see. This could include directions such as “Your insect is back up and belly down, with the head pointing away from you,” or “This is a raised-line drawing of the three insect body parts.” Touching is not “seeing.” Touching a feature is not the same as actually recognizing or identifying that feature. Check in with your VI student and ask them to show you the features. If they are wrong, immediately redirect them. While it’s good to give students time to explore, students are also more likely to give up and stop learning if they can’t find or recognize features. Access to written and illustrated material. If you teach for a school, there may be a mechanism in place to get text and illustrations turned into braille (letters, numbers, and words transposed into a series of raised dots) or raised-line drawings. If you have no mechanism for turning text into braille or illustrations into raised-line drawings, here are some do-it-yourself tips. Braille. For around $10, you can purchase a braille slate and stylus with which you can write short text descriptions and make labels in braille for your VI students (Fig. 4). Slate-and-stylus braille can be a challenge, because braille has to be written from right to left and in mirror image to get the dots to read correctly on the reverse side of the page. A read-and-write slate that lets you write conventionally left-to-right is also available for around $35. Fig. 4. Open in new tabDownload slide Braille slate and stylus. Fig. 4. Open in new tabDownload slide Braille slate and stylus. Illustrations. You can create your own simple raised-line drawings by firmly tracing an illustration with a dull pencil over a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil (Fig. 5). Keep your drawings simple; students ignore overly complex illustrations. Also, don’t draw lines to parts of an insect to label them because students aren’t able to tell label lines from the actual illustration. Instead, label parts using braille letters or numbers, and make a key off to the side of the drawing. Fig. 5. Open in new tabDownload slide A raised-line drawing on a piece of aluminum foil. Fig. 5. Open in new tabDownload slide A raised-line drawing on a piece of aluminum foil. Real and alive. Nothing illustrates a concept better than the real thing, and my students love to handle live insects. In general, students like live insects better than dead ones, and dead insects better than models. Inversely, students were least afraid of models and most afraid of live insects. Use your best judgment and consider your students’ comfort level when using real/live materials. We handled “safe” live things, such as Madagascar hissing cockroaches, crickets, monarch butterflies, and millipedes (Fig. 6). Fig. 6. Open in new tabDownload slide Millipedes are among the safe live things visually impaired students handle in my classes. Fig. 6. Open in new tabDownload slide Millipedes are among the safe live things visually impaired students handle in my classes. Models and analogies are great teaching tools. Some insect features are small and difficult for students to recognize, so introduce new concepts by linking them with everyday objects the students already know. For example, my students were on the swim team and understood how swim fins helped them swim faster and more efficiently. After handling swim fins (the model), they easily recognized swimming legs on real insects. Pair these analogous models with a real specimen for most efficient learning. Consider your analogies and models carefully to avoid using purely sighted examples. My worst in-class analogy was comparing a backhoe to the praying mantis’ grasping legs. You only learn how a backhoe works by seeing one in action, and my completely blind students had no idea what a backhoe was or what it did. Students notice all textures, even inaccurate ones. When choosing models and teaching material, remember that students assume all features on a model are accurate. If you have to use a model with inaccurate textures or shapes, explain the inaccuracies before students commit these features to memory. I learned about VI students’ memory for textures the hard way when, to represent leathery tegminous wings, I gave students a piece of leather that had a smooth finish on one side and a suede finish on the other. I wanted students to feel the smooth finish and tough texture and associate the name of the material with the wing type. In reality, my students remembered the soft, fuzzy feel of the suede, which they connected with butterfly and moth wings. Overcoming Negative Reactions Imagine it’s your first day in a science class, and you are blindfolded and asked to put your hand into a bag. If it smells like something is rotting or is slimy when you touch it, or if it moves or hisses, you probably don’t want to handle it. Fear and unpleasant textures and smells can get in the way of learning. Your goal is to minimize the negative experiences for students. Fear affects learning. The unknown is frightening, even for fully sighted students. Throughout my teaching experience, I found four broad ways to help reduce fear and encourage students to handle material: Have a good attitude. If you are enthusiastic and excited about your material, the students will be, too. Knowledge makes insects less scary. I scared students if I just plopped a live hissing cockroach in a student’s hand. If I told them this roach came from the island of Madagascar, loved apples and bananas, and spent its days sleeping in a sunny spot on a stick, it was less frightening. Verbally prepare students for sensations when they handle specimens. If it’s wet, cold, or prickly, let them know, but also explain that it won’t hurt them. Prepare them for the feeling by saying something like, “This is Rachael. She will have prickly little toenails because she’s holding onto your hand.” I anthropomorphize insects, giving them human-like emotions and motivation. I name my insects and explain their behavior in terms students empathize with: “Rachael is just scared you are going to drop her.” Students stopped being afraid of insects when they related to them, and even looked forward to handling them. Bad smells and textures. Insect specimens often smell like preservatives or decomposition, and are wet, squishy, or slimy. Provide the freshest specimens you can; recently killed specimens are better than specimens that have been relaxed and removed from pins. If you need to use specimens in alcohol, rinse them under running water, blot them dry, and then store them wrapped in paper towels in the refrigerator. Although the specimens are a little cold, the process reduced the smell significantly and firmed up the bodies. NOTHING ILLUSTRATES A CONCEPT BETTER THAN THE REAL THING, AND MY STUDENTS LOVE TO HANDLE LIVE INSECTS. Sometimes you will have to use something with an unpleasant texture or smell. Do your best to minimize this, and be honest with the students that the specimen may smell “a little strong” or “be a little wet,” but emphasize that it’s still worth handling: “I know this smells a little, but you’re really going to like this one!” In Parting Teaching science is a challenging and rewarding endeavor, and teaching science through entomology to VI students remains one of my favorite experiences. Not every lesson will be perfect, but if you go into your teaching with enthusiasm and interest, and take the time to thoughtfully and creatively adapt your material, you have all the tools you need to succeed. Science is for everyone, and teaching VI students helps make this a reality. Footnotes 1 To protect the identities of the students and teacher, the name of the school is withheld. Acknowledgments I thank my major professor, Dr. Christian Oseto, whose dynamic and humorous teaching, keen insight, and encouragement helped an idea grow into an opportunity. I am also deeply indebted to my teacher, Becky, who opened her classroom to me and not only allowed me to succeed, but also to fail, and helped me build failure into something better. Finally, my acknowledgement would be incomplete without thanking my many wonderful students, who maintained their enthusiasm, even through my mistakes, and made me look forward to every lesson we shared. Rosanne M. Radavich, MS, BCE, is an entomologist with the U.S. Army Public Health Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Email: rosanne.radavich@gmail.com References Cited American Printing House for the Blind (APH) . 2004 . Annual report 2004 . https://archive.org/details/annualreportofam2004amer/ American Printing House for the Blind (APH) . 2017 . Annual report, fiscal year 2017 . https://www.aph.org/files/annual-reports/APH-Annual-Report-FY17.pdf © The Author 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of America. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - Entomology Education for the Visually Impaired
JF - American Entomologist
DO - 10.1093/ae/tmz051
DA - 2019-09-18
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/entomology-education-for-the-visually-impaired-EyDtwlcXR2
SP - 164
VL - 65
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -