[Electronics-talk] Adaptive technology for science student.

Tue Sep 8 05:03:58 UTC 2009

You'll likely get much better information than this from others in the NFB,
but here's an article I found hanging around on my hard drive to get you
started. 

Penn State Live, PA, USA
Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Blind Penn State graduate chemist developing lab equipment for disabled
students

By Rebekka Coakley

Caption: Cary Supalo and his adviser, DuPont Professor of Materials
Chemistry and Physics Tom Mallouk, received an NSF grant to create equipment
to help visually impaired students gain more independence in the lab.

University Park, Pa. -- In high school, chemistry wasn't something that
interested Cary Supalo. In fact, he hated it. As a blind student, he wasn't
allowed to conduct any experiments -- his lab partner did the work, then
reported the results to Supalo.

His attitude toward the science changed in college. Fulfilling a chemistry
general education requirement at Purdue University, Supalo met some graduate
students who spent a lot more time with him in the lab, sparking his
interest in chemistry. 

Today, Supalo is a Penn State student working on his doctorate in chemistry
education and is developing tools to replicate that extra help he got in the
lab so that other visually impaired high school students will have a better
appreciation for the sciences. 

Supalo's latest project, funded by a $300,000 grant from the National
Science Foundation's Research in Disabilities Education program, was given
to his adviser, Tom Mallouk, DuPont professor of materials chemistry and
physics. It is called "Independent Laboratory Access for Blind and Low
Vision Students in Mainstream High School Science Classrooms."

"There's a big difference working one-on-one with someone who will explain
the concepts to you," Supalo said. "It was great being able to talk about
chemistry and get answers. Chemistry gives you the potential to discover
something new that can change the world."

Mallouk, who is sighted, understands. "Most chemists are fascinated by the
results of an experiment but find it much less fun if someone does it and
tells them what happened," he said. "So that's how we started out on this
project -- developing new tools, taking lab procedures, modifying them
slightly and making them more accessible all while working with high school
students."

Supalo completed his undergraduate degree with a double major in chemistry
and communications because he thought "a scientist should be able to
communicate." He then came to Penn State in August 1999 to get his Ph.D in
inorganic chemistry. When he began his doctoral degree program he ended up
taking a different route than he originally intended.

"Cary was doing a research project but as a blind grad student he was having
difficulty -- research labs aren't really designed for blind people to work
independently," said Mallouk. "A lot of chemistry is visual. It took him
awhile to finish his master's degree, and we thought it would be a more
useful thing if his Ph.D research involved developing enabling tools for
blind people."

Mallouk and Supalo's first grant from the NSF also was for $300,000 and was
awarded in 2004. It allowed them to work with students from the Indiana
School for the Blind, testing software with a computerized voice that
narrates each step of the experiment and instruments that essentially do the
same, which they developed with Rodney Kreuter in the chemistry department's
electronics shop at Penn State. The focus of that work was to improve the
way blind students participate in the chemistry laboratory. The work they
did with the first grant was a success. However, Supalo said 75 percent of
blind students are mainstreamed in public classrooms and he felt the tools
he, Mallouk and Kreuter created could have a greater impact on more
students. Also, new tools were needed to enable a broader range of
experiments, and to extend the project to physics and other laboratory
sciences. 

Supalo is well connected in the national community of blind people, Mallouk
explained. He received e-mails from parents and teachers of students in
public schools who were interested in their work. Thus came the idea of the
second project -- to mainstream the tools and instruct willing teachers on
how to use them through several online training modules. The goal is to make
the tools available as widely as possible, by posting the programs online
for free use and by making inexpensive instruments. 

"There's a real push to get people with disabilities in the STEM (science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) professions," said Supalo.

He explained that people with disabilities have spent their lives
problem-solving challenges to adapt to their surroundings. He thinks the
skills they've developed to do so will enhance a career in one of the STEM
fields.

In addition to helping students who are blind, Supalo said the instruments
will even help sighted students in lecture settings because everyone can
hear the experiment being described, regardless of whether or not their
seats will allow them to see what their professor may be doing. 

Supalo will spend his next three years visiting the schools that are
implementing the instruments in the classroom, collecting feedback from
students and teachers, sending newsletters and encouraging online
interaction between the students and teachers using the instruments.

Contact
  Rebekka Coakley
  rac29 at psu.edu
  http://live.psu.edu
  814-865-5690 

http://live.psu.edu/story/26382
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-----Original Message-----
From: electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steven / PRC
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 9:06 PM
To: Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances
Subject: [Electronics-talk] Adaptive technology for science student.

Dear List,

I am looking for any tools for science student such as reading PH value 
(acid/Alkaline), thermometer for laboratory and more.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Regards !

Steven YIP

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