[Blindmath] Question regarding use of normal curve table

[Bente J. Casile]

Jeanne,

 I have tutored several blind students in our Statistics class at my school.  I would make your student a diagram of the curve with the normal standard deviation markings.  For my blind students I used felt on braille paper and did the lines in puff paint to mark -3 through 3 standard deviations.  Your student needs to understand that the normal curve is basically sitting on a number line.  In the cases where we know the mean and standard deviation, that will drive the numbers that are placed in the appropriate positions and where we don't know those values,  we will have the mean at zero and number -3 through 3 to mark standard deviation points.  It is also important for them to make the connection that when  we use the table, we use the z-score (which is basically telling us our distance from the mean on that number line) and the value that we get from the table is the area under the curve to the left of that z score.  The total area under the curve equals one and that is why we subtract from one when we want to find the area to the right.  I know I am not telling you anything about the curve that you don't already know, but I encounter students all the time who fail to make those connections and just see it as a bunch of numbers that make no sense.  I hope this helps.  Feel free to contact me off list if I can be of further assistance to you or your student.


Bente J. Casile
Math Learning Specialist
Disability Support Services
Wake Technical Community College
Raleigh NC
bjcasile at waketech.edu
Mon - Thurs. North Campus Rm 307 Bldg A

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical nuisance."
-- Kenneth Jernigan




-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Osborne, Jeanne via Blindmath
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 7:35 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindmath] Question regarding use of normal curve table

Hi all,

I am teaching Statistics I at a community college in NJ.  I currently have a student with low vison - she uses a magnifier but it only shows one word at a time.  For tests and quizzes, a proctor will administer them, reading many questions.  For questions that involve numbers and/or drawings, the proctor will draw them with a black marker on a larger sheet of paper.

In a few weeks, the class will be learning about the normal curve and will be using the normal curve table.

Any suggestions as to how to help this student would be greatly appreciated.

Jeanne
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