[Nfb-science] Drawing Diagrams of Circuits in High School Science/Physics

[Mike Freeman]

Dear Li:

I have a MS in physics although I have been a computer programmer for many
years. I also hold an Extra Class amateur radio license and have been
licensed for over fifty years (gawd, has it been *that* long?).

(1) although I didn't have to understand or draw diagrams in high school
physics, I did in college and, of course, had to understand circuit theory
in order to obtain my ham licenses. In general, if sighted science students
are expected to understand and draw circuit diagrams, blind science students
should be expected to accomplish the same task albeit the methods may be
different.

(2) As someone else in this forum said, I see nothing wrong with raised line
drawing kits. Additionally, one can use a perforated wheel with a handle on
it, called a "Ponce Wheel" although I may have the spelling incorrect, which
will, in effect, draw a raised line on the reverse side of the paper in the
same manner as a slate and stylus allows one to manually produce Braille
dots on the opposite side of the paper. In fact, my father wasn't
particularly good at describing circuits so he drew diagrams backward and
they came out correctly as raised diagrams on the opposite side of the
paper. I learned the print electrical symbols that way and learned to read
simple diagrams such as your parallel and series circuits.

However, there's a way to verbally describe diagrams that makes more sense
to some of us old-timers. If you can get ahold of files from the
smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute called the smith-Kettlewell Technical files
or if you can find old issues of a magazine called the Braille Technical
Press, you will see this verbal system in action. I prefer it to raised
diagrams. The geometry of circuits doesn't matter in this system; one
describes components and what and how other components are connected to
them. For example, a Hartley oscillator has a resonant circuit consisting of
a coil and capacitor in parallel with one end hooked to the grid or base of
the amplifier and the other end of the combination going to ground with a
tap on the coil hooked to the cathode or emitter of the amplifier, if I
remember correctly. And a Colpitts oscillator has the same setup except that
instead of a tap, the cathode or emitter is hooked to the point where two
capacitors connected in series are connected, the series-connected
combination being connected in parallel across the coil from grid/base to
ground. (I haven't looked at an oscillator circuit in so long that I may
have a few details messed up but you get the idea). I had an electricity and
magnetism instructor in college who could just read a diagram off like that
if you handed it to him.

That was the way I taught myself electronics and could understand some of
the labs -- the ones my father didn't draw.

(3) AS I say, I had a physics prof who could just stand there and read a
diagram verbally. But this is a skill that some have and others do not. But
for the blind person, it's a real joy to run into one.

HTH!

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-science [mailto:nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Li
Zhou
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 1:30 PM
To: nfb-science at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfb-science] Drawing Diagrams of Circuits in High School
Science/Physics

Hello all,

I am very interested in teaching physics to students with visual
impairments and would appreciate a lot if you can give me some
information regarding the following questions:

1. In high school science, do blind students often need to draw
circuit diagrams when learning the electricity unit (such as series
and parallel circuits)?

2. If yes, besides using raised-line drawing kits and drawing on
braille paper using braille codes, are there any other ways that they
can do it (such as some special tools)?

3. Is there any way for science teachers to draw such diagrams for
their blind students without having to use braille and raised-line
drawing kits?

Thank you very much!

Li

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