Some specialized materials for science instruction are available through commercial sources, while others can be adapted or modified by the instructor. The items listed below include hands-on tactile models, as well as teaching resources.
Commercially- Available Products
- Acorn Naturalists offers a host of 3-D models appropriate for students with visual impairment.
- APH Downloadable Product Manuals are free-of-charge downloads. You may print or emboss them as needed. Science resources include the following: Adapting Science for Students with Visual Impairment: Advanced Preparation and Skills Checklist; Basic Science Tactile Graphics; Basic Tactile Anatomy Atlas; Life Science Tactile Graphics; DNA/RNA kit; Sense of Science: Animals; Sense of Science: Plants.
- APH Instructional Videos for Science Products (videos of commercial products)
- Cell Zone (commercial product) These commercially-available materials provide hands-on tactile access to biology concepts. Cell Zone offers biology education products that incorporate universal design for learning (UDL) to include more learners in biology. Their products cover many topics in biology classes, including cells, biological molecules, diversity, and cell division.
- Dicot Flower Model 3-D models of fully dissectible plants.
- Getting a Feel for Eclipses: Tactile Graphics from NASA explains details surrounding the August 2017 total solar eclipse with tactile graphics providing an illustration of the interaction and alignment of the Sun with the Moon and the Earth. Associated activities will clarify the nature of eclipses.
- High Dots can be used to mark graphs, maps, keyboards, and more.
- Independence Science is an organization founded by Dr Cary Supalo, a chemist who is blind. They offer a number of specialized products, a resource program, and an access blog. Most notable among the products offered is the Talking LabQuest, an adapted version of the commonly used Vernier LabQuest, equipped with speech capability and utilizable with many of the Vernier probes.
- Molymod Kits to Build Hands-on Molecular Models
- The Whalemobile is a life-sized (43 feet long) humpback whale you can touch. It is modeled after a real whale, named Nile, who spends her summers off the coast of Massachusetts. Cynde McInnis brings Nile into schools, libraries and summer programs sharing her experience as a whale watch naturalist with children. Whale biology, sounds, natural history, and individual identification are among a few topics she presents using slides, sounds and video. Nile has been to visit Perkins School for the Blind.
- Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit
Adaptations
Other Resources
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