[nabs-l] a question about science and tutoring

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi Vejas,
Woe, what a lot of questions. First about tutoring and how a sighted person 
can help.
Of course a sighted person can help. A lot of tutoring is about questions, 
answers and going over material. So they can do this with you. Instead of
them reading to  you, you can read along with them. To look up info though, 
they will have to know the braille page numbers.

You might get an honors student to tutor you or if your parents can afford 
it, hire a private tutor.
Yes I most definitely have had tutoring. I had it in math and science 
classes such as chemistry.
My parents were able to pay a tutor for it. Unfortunately my teachers were 
not much help even though I asked for it after school.

What kind of help depends on your area of difficulty and how you learn. For 
me, I learn kenestetically and haptically; meaning I need to do something or 
touch something to learn it. I just cannot listen and learn it.
So what I did to understand chemistry with my tutor was this and it may work 
for biology:
1. We went over the terms and I wrote definitions in my own words.
2. He explained how to do the formulas and we practiced; I used large print, 
but if you read braille, he/she just dictates what to write down and you 
practice and you read it back to them since they cannot see your work.
3. We just reviewed concepts by explanation. He would give examples of 
stuff; like we studied decomposition and he gave an example of it.
4. When diagrams were needed he explained them and I had a large print copy, 
but yours can be tactile.
5. He quizzed me on concepts and if I missed something I wrote it down and 
studied it more.


With respect to diagrams, your teacher will love them. Some concepts you can 
learn without them. Others you might want to try and use them.
Have a tactile diagram with labels otherwise you don't know what they mean.
Get an explanation with it. Best to have someone explain it as you touch it. 
For instance, touch the ribbosome of the cell and the person says, those are 
ribosomes and they perform xx function.
I think diagrams will help if you have an explanation. Another idea is to 
get
a model made. You can do this with your tutor or teacher after school if 
they will help you.
Make a model out of objects. When I took biology in college we made a model 
of DNA from magnets.
You can use daily objects like popsickle sticks, pipe cleaners straw, and 
beads. If you give us an idea of the specific topics you cannot understand, 
I might be able to suggest ways to learn and build a model of the concept.

I didn't like bio much; a lot of it is memorization. So you might find flash 
cards helpful; write a term on  one side and then write explaination on the 
other side.

Teachers will definitely like diagrams. But they can and should be willing 
to teach you differently by verbal descriptions. And if they cannot, IMO 
they are not a good teacher. When I took bio in college, the professor was 
so much better than high school she explained stuff to me and described 
diagrams and the processes much better.

Ashley
-----Original Message----- 
From: vejas
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 12:14 AM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org ; blindtlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] a question about science and tutoring

Hi,
I'm having some trouble in science.  It's biology and genetics.
My teacher is OK, I guess.
Does it help you to look at diagrams? Usually it doesn't help me,
so I don't bother to look at them because when I have, they have
not helped.
Have diagrams ever helped you, because my science teachers loves
the way diagrams explain stuff? Have you ever needed tutoring?
How was a sighter person able to help you, because it's sometimes
hard to explain stuff you need? I have a test tomorrow.
Thanks for any input.
Vejas

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