Category: Cram Session
Hi everyone!! As part of the graduation requirements for my college, I have to take two science labs. I was initially adverse to doing so because of my experiences in high school when I was basically assigned the task of note taker and didn't learn a thing. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to how I could make labs more accessible? I am considering taking either an intro biology, astronomy, or environmental science course. I am also considering geology. I talked to one of the professors in the astronomy dept at my college who was concerned that I would have a difficult time accessing any information at all aside from observation which I cannot do for obvious reasons *grins* because a lot of charts used in astronomy were not accessible at the time I asked him about it. Any experiences/thoughts on how to make science laboratory classes more accessible? Thanks!!
some classes at my college have projects that you do and that's considered the lab portion. LIke my phi sci 5 class just had a project in which you followed your diet and wrote down everything you ate for a week and then entered it into a computer program and that told you somethings about your lifestyle. You also took some test like cholesterol tests and blood pressure tests. All that was part of the lab portion involved in the class so you to a science course with a lab. Generally on science majors take those types of classes and if you're not a science major check classes like that out. Perhaps they may have some of those classes at your school. You don't necessarily have to take a class in which you are in a real lab doing pipetting or southern blots. That's just my take on it because like I said my college offers a variety of science classes that have a lab portion attached to it, but it's not really an actual lab. Hope that might help you out a bit.
I think a way for labs to be made accessible is to try to make it hands-on and memory-based. For instance, in my college Biology class (I took a nonscience major one but I'm sure it can worrk with almost any one), my instructor had some tactile models as well as creating some herself and also had me memorize some things. For example, she had some plastic models of an animal cell, a plant cell, and the animals we read about wich included different shapes/textures for the different parts of it. She would tell me what each part was and I had time to study and memorize them during the time the students were doing their workbooks/quizzes. While my group was doing microscope/visual work, they had to tell me what they were looking at/doing and so I was able to take that down in Braille and get some information out of that as well. during the quizzes/tests I was expected to study and memorize my notes and the models were also used for the quizzes/tests. For those, depending on what would work better, she would randomly show me a part and I'd tell her or I could just tell her what I remembered and could take more time thinking on what I didn't to answer last.
A favorite model that she had set up to help me was one representing the metric system, where she had a big piece to represent the meter/liter/gram and smaller pieces to the left and right of it to represent milli, centi, kilo, etc. (I don't remember how it goes now, but at that time that certainly made it more easy to understand.) Anyways, so yeah, I think it mostly has to do with whether the instructor/students is willing to work with you if you feel you learn better differently. I mean because I'm sure the would have been a way for me to memorize things just by listening but I learn better thru hands-on and she was willing to do that; she already had some tactile models but also used everyday items to make ones she didn't have, and so it wasn't that big a thing to memorize that and take the notes in Braille when I needed to do that. As for other classes, I know they have Braille books for some of them such as astronomy and anatomy, and those ones have tactile pictures. You could probably also get a small skeleton/brain model/puzzle that can be taken apart/put together. As for other sciences, I'm not sure; I think geology could be made pretty accessible also, as I think it's about studying rocks and land. By the way, I'll give you the info on those two books.
"Touch the Stars" is the astronomy book and is available from the National Braille Press at http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/TOUCH.html. The anatomy one is "The Basic Tactile Anatomy Atlas", and is available from The American Printinghouse for the Blind.
Thank you so much, tinkerbell and others!!! I greatly appreciate all of the feedback so far! Also, thanks for telling me about the different labs that don't necessarily have a lab portion and about your instructor's use of models. Generally, when it pertains to anything scientific, I am much more of a tactile learner as well. Thanks for the heads up about the two books! I will definitely look into that!
I am in earth science this time round and am going to have a chat with my teacher and see what we can come up with. I hope i don't need a lot of help and am currently working on drafting an ad for a reader I am not hiring my friends again thats for sure.
Yeah, your right taking two science courses is required in order to graduate. I took biology last fall. Oh my God, i thought i would die. That was the most hardest course ever. High school biology or high school chemistry is nothing compared to college biology. As far as accomodation goes, the only exception i got was that i'm exempted from disection. Thank God i did not disect that pig. The course was really informative and interesting, but it's really really hard.