Activities

A student who is visually impaired holds a turtle in science class.

What you will find in this section:  

This section includes adapted activities that you can view them online or download and print our activity sheets to take to your classroom.

We have divided the activities by target subject. Follow the links below to see a list of activities in that category:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physical Science
• Technology and Engineering

Many of these experiments can be found in books or other websites, but we have adapted them to meet the needs of our students and have successfully used them in our classrooms.  We did not include lesson plans because we know that you will develop your own plans to meet the needs of your students. We encourage you to search the internet and experiment with various activities.  Just because it doesn’t say “for the visually impaired" doesn’t mean it won’t work!

A science student examines an artificial insect.

What to consider when planning activities for students who are visually impaired:

In planning science activities for students who are visually impaired there are several factors to consider. These include: useful vision (lighting and contrast); gross and fine motor skills (hand skills, pouring, cutting, measuring, etc.); orientation and mobility (spatial awareness and travel skills); laboratory safety; and science background knowledge.  

Many of these factors are encountered by teachers of the visually impaired when planning any learning activity. A teacher often needs to determine if a student's vision will be of use to him or her during an activity. Safety is another major consideration when choosing a science experiment. Almost all activities can be easily modified to allow all students to participate.

The APH publication, Adapting Science for Students with Visual Impairments has some excellent suggestions on adaptations.