Product Tips
The following is a list of products and materials with photos and descriptions that we have used. We have noted the strengths and limitations. Please remember these are our opinions. Click on the names below to jump to that particular product.
Strengths: Can do American (inches and feet) and metric (millimeters, centimeters, and meters) measurements. Allows students with no useful or low vision to independently measure with accuracy.
Limitations: Keeps talking when you do not want it to. Only has an automatic shut off. Pricey.
Order info: LS & S
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Strengths: Many varieties and vendors. Allows students to measure independently.
Limitations: Not very precise. May be possible to accurately measure .5 centimeters or .25 inch.
Ordering info: Many commercially available. Adapted rulers and meter sticks available from APH. It may be easier, but time consuming, to adapt your own to meet student needs.
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Description: An easy and quick method to measure meters. Roll the wheel along the ground and listen for the click. After one complete turn of the wheel a click will sound to signify one meter has passed.
Strengths: Audible click for every meter traveled. Great way to measure long distances.
Limitations: Short handle can be a problem for taller students. Difficult for student to use cane at the same time, therefore would need to trail wall or use a sighted guide. Accuracy to one meter.
Ordering info: Available in most science catalogs.
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Strengths: Can do American (ounces and pounds) and metric (grams) measurements to the nearest tenth of a unit. Allows students with no useful or low vision to independently measure with accuracy.
Limitations: Is sensitive to touch, so it’s necessary to teach students to place something in the tray and quickly take their hands away to get an accurate measurement. The scale has a display that will show measurements smaller than 5 grams but the voice won’t announce any mass under 5 grams. It only measures to the tenth of a unit so may not be suitable for more precise measurements.
Ordering info: Purchased from Independent Living Aids, Inc. @ $39.95 each http://www.independentliving.com
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Strengths: This hand-held generator is moderately priced and provides a great example of the change in energy from mechanical to electrical. It can be attached to a light, a motor, a doorbell or a buzzer. Its shape resembles a reel on a fishing pole and the handle is easy to turn.
Limitations: Attaching the wires to a light, or other items, requires excellent fine motor skills.
Ordering info: Available in a variety of science supply catalogs, including Delta Education at http://www.delta-education.com
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Strengths: Can measure degrees to the nearest tenth of a unit. Allows students with no useful or low vision to independently measure with accuracy. The thermometer has a repeating loop so students can hear a measurement more than once without resetting it. The probe is long enough to safely measure chemicals or liquids from a distance.
Limitations: Only measures in Fahrenheit!!
Ordering info: www.thermoworks.com
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Strengths: One of our favorite teaching tools! Set includes 10, 1-inch cubes of various materials (metals, woods and plastics). Students can use these cubes to explore density. This set reinforces the concept that density is a ratio between volume and mass. All the cubes are exactly the same size but vary in weight. These cubes are also useful in younger grades to explore sinking and floating. The set comes with well-described characteristics of each cube, as well as suggestions for teaching activities. We have also used these cubes to teach students to tactually identify various materials and sort materials into various categories.
Limitations: It would have been helpful if the information sheet had included color photos of the cubes for identification. It would be useful to have a set in cubic centimeters to assist with math calculations for density.
Ordering info: www.sciencefirst.com
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Strengths: This reference packet from APH comes with a backpack -sized, laminated large print, periodic table labeled in Braille, a Braille reference booklet and a large print reference booklet. This extremely useful booklet has 6 different tables enabling the student to access information about the elements in various ways including by atomic number, by symbol, and by element name. Tables also organize information about an element’s state of matter, electronegativity, electron configurations, boiling point and melting point. This is a wonderful tool for all students!
Limitations: Some students benefit from additional tactile adaptations to the table. Tracking across the first three periods or rows is difficult. A line of puff paint, Wikki Sticks™ can help a beginning student find the right side of the table. Having the row numbers added as an extension to the right side of the table is also helpful.
Many textbooks include a periodic table labeled with the cation and anion charges in the chapter where those are discussed. We adapted the APH table by adding the charges in Braille at the top of the appropriate columns.
The picture shows the model as it comes from APH.
Ordering info: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc, 2005. www.APH.org Available using APH quota funding.
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Strengths: We have used mitts similar to these to safely remove hot items from the microwave. Recently we saw them in a science catalog and decided to try them out. These work better than anything else our students have tried for safely handling hot beakers in the lab.
Limitations: It is very difficult to get tactual feedback through the mitts.
Ordering info: Hot Hand® Scienceware® Bel Art Products, Pequannock, New Jersey 07440
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Strengths: Allows students to explore the concept of density through experimenting. The kit comes with 2 solid cube boxes (different densities) and 2 solid cylinders (different densities). The solid mass can be removed from the cubes and cylinders and the space can be replaced with cotton balls, ping pong balls, sand or a liquid. The kit also comes with inserts so that a sighted student can’t see what is in the box before they observe its size and weight. Activity book included.
Limitations: The set only includes 4 containers and 2 fillers (cotton and ping pong balls).The lids don’t seal completely. Liquids will spill if you turn the box to look at it.
Ordering info: Purchased from Learning Resources $36.95. http://www.learningresources.com
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Strengths: This easy bake oven gives you the opportunity to produce graphics for lessons very quickly. Some pictures will puff up well from a copy made on a regular printer on the special paper.Other pictures come out more clearly if the image is enhanced with a graphite (carbon) pencil. Labels can be added. Drawings can be simple or complex depending on the needs of your student.
Limitations: It is an expensive piece of equipment:The PIAF is $1295.00; A similar piece of equipment the Tactile Image enhancer is $1095.00.
It can only be used with special paper:Swelltouch paper, American Thermoform Corporation, LaVerne, California 91750, www.americanthermoform.com
Ordering info: Available from Adaptive Technology, a Division of Perkins Products. Click here to order online. PO Box 778 Amesbury, MA 01913 Ph: 978-462-3817 Fax: 978-462-3928
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