Video
Safely Heating Water
Learn how to teach students who are blind or visually impaired to heat water safely for a science class.
In this short video, Safely Heating Water, Kate Fraser, a teacher in the Secondary Program at Perkins School for the Blind demonstrates how students who are blind or visually impaired can safely and efficiently heat water. She uses a hotshot, a measuring cup and a pitcher in her demonstration while she describes the instructional strategies she uses
Transcript: Safely Heating Water
FRASER: Hello, I’m Kate Fraser from the Perkins School for the Blind, and today we’re going to be talking about an easy way to heat water for a young student in the science class.
We have here a Hot Shot, and this has been available for a number of years, so if you may have one in your home, they come in various designs but they all include a heat button and a dispense button.
We have our dry measuring cup set onto another tray. This tray is aluminum and as we pour, I will instruct my students to keep their fingers on the outside edge of the cup, and to pour until it reaches the top and to listen.
And they’ll feel when it starts to spill over, as well as some students can actually hear when the first drops of water hit this aluminum.
Once the student has poured the water, you make sure that the equipment is ready, you’ve placed a cup under here that will hold the exact amount of water that is needed for the experiment.
Open the top, come over, holding this level.
Holding it level is very tricky for a number of students, so some may need help with this part.
You pour it in; it can be located tactilely. Make sure the Hot Shot is cold!
Close the lid. This is going to be the beaker that our experiment will happen in.
Press the heat button, and there’s an audible click that the student will hear, and there’s a red light on.
The student will hear it start to heat up.
I instruct the students to keep their faces and heads and bodies away from the equipment while it’s heating up, and to listen for the process.
There is an audible click when it shuts off.
I instruct my students to listen for the click and also wait until it becomes quiet so they can approach it without the risk of being burned by the steam.
Then the student locates the heat button. Very often I might indicate because, as I do, sometimes the students may mix up left and right, so I may put a tactile marker on the dispense button.
Dispense the water. I let them know that if it starts to feel too hot to just take their fingers away and come back.
The student can come locate the handle, locate their beaker.
Using the pitcher; this is a measuring cup that has a nice pointed spout.
Now the hot water is ready for the experiment, and that is our teachable moment about heating water.
Presented by Kate Fraser
Length of time to complete: approximately 5 minutes
