[Massachusetts-NFB] Fwd: Exploring Whale Foraging Behaviors with Blind and Visually-Impaired Students through Music and 3-d Sculpture Models

[Stephanie P Valdes]

Hello everyone!

I received this email today and wanted to share it with everyone. It sounds like an amazing opportunity. Please share it with other individuals that might benefit from it.

Stephanie Barrera Valdes
President Massachusetts parents of line children
A proud division of the national Federation of the blind of Massachusetts
781-839-0628
Stephanie.p.valdes at gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Terry Wolkowicz <terry at soundexplorations.org>
Date: October 24, 2023 at 6:42:54 PM EDT
To: Stephanie P Valdes <Stephanie.Valdes001 at umb.edu>
Subject: Exploring Whale Foraging Behaviors with Blind and Visually-Impaired Students through Music and 3-d Sculpture Models


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Dear Stephanie,
My name is Terry Wolkowicz, and I am the Education Director for the Massachusetts-based non-profit organization, Sound Explorations. We have partnered with organizations like NOAA, NASA, Woods Hole Oceanographic, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and others to use music as a means to communicate important concepts in marine science and conservation. Currently, I am working with several Boston-area communities of blind and visually-impaired children and adults in a project that combines 3-D sculpture models and music. We have created 3-d sculpture models that illustrate the locomotion and foraging behavior of humpback whales (based on actual whale tag data from whales off our MA coast). Our visually-impaired participants run their hand across these sculpture models to perceive the whale foraging behaviors while a musician performs action-specific melodies that match the same contour and shape of the model. The musician watches closely to keep the musical contours at the same pace as the participant’s hand. Added textures and shapes on the sculpture model illustrate fluke motion, side-roll orientation, swimming direction and lob tail activity. Our participants also have an opportunity to create their own sculpture models and have musicians perform their creations as well. We have partnered with Dr. David Wiley, a NOAA researcher who studies whales right off the coast of Massachusetts, as he also meets with the visually-impaired participants to talk about his work and how we can all work to protect these whales.

I have attached a short video below showing students and adults from the Lowell Association of the Blind participating in the project. We have also visited Perkins School for the Blind and will at the Carroll Center in two weeks. In a partnership with Boston’s Museum of Science, we will be holding a special event on April 24th, Massachusetts Right Whale Day, where will be inviting blind and visually-impaired students from all the surrounding towns to Boston to interact with the 3-d sculpture models accompanied by live performing musicians, and to learn about these magnificent whales from NOAA research ecologist, Dr. David Wiley. The event is free and students will also have free access to all museum exhibits that day.

I was hoping you might help to get the word out to families and teachers who might want to bring their blind or visually-impaired children or students to attend the Whales in Motion exhibit on April 24th at the Museum of Science. We will be reserving time slots so that students will have their own designated time to interact with the sculptures, performing musicians, and to meet with NOAA scientists.

Whales in Motion video preview:
https://vimeo.com/859887534?share=copy

Sound Explorations Website
https://www.soundexplorations.org/


Thanks so much,
Terry



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