[Nfb-science] Need Guidance: Several Heavily Visual Labs Coming Up

[Cindy Robinson]

Hi th404,
 
Here I am again: a teacher for the visually impaired. I will address the 2nd tree lab. When you have to learn about how people slash and burn or gather trees to harvest, you can always get two or three different kinds of candles, about a dozen a piece, and put them all on a cake. If it seems too childish, I understand. I complete this lab with my high school students. They practice taking away certain trees to simulate the different methods of harvesting trees. You can also use a variety of pencils in clay. A cake that has icing works better though. 
 
Now to learn of the seedlings, wouldn't it be best to go to the site and get leaf samples of the five kinds of seedlings you need to count. You can then take the time to study them and learn the shape of them as no sighted person can. 
 
There is a 275 page, used book you can get from Amazon.com for one dollar. I recommend it highly. It is about a man, named Geerat Vermeij, that studied shells. He become the leading expert on shells. It is called Privileged Hands. Through his hands, he studied many shells, and even began to notice things that no one else ever had. He could hold a shell and tell you what beach it came from. He noticed some changes of shells no one had ever seen or understood. He became one of the most  accomplished evolutionary biologists of our time and the world's leading authority on an ancient "arms race" among mollusks. The book will help you in that he writes about his views, his practices, his observations, and his family.  It helps you understand that you will learn as every one else, but it will just take a bit longer. Go to the site ahead of time and give yourself that time that you need to do the job well. I know you will be able to complete a grid and surprise yourself. Use two popsickle sticks connected to a string to mark the grid, so you can follow the string to finish the observation. You can go across with the string, sinish that line and move the sticks and string up and repeat. When I was visually impaired, that is the way I marked my garden: with string. Wishing you the best.
 
Cindy Robinson
 
 
 
> From: biologize at hotmail.com
> To: nfb-science at nfbnet.org
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 04:53:25 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Nfb-science] Need Guidance: Several Heavily Visual Labs Coming Up
> 
> 
> 
> Hi. I am a V I teacher. For the tree rings, you need someone to carve out a little line at every yearly ring. You can differentiate the two kinds of wood by burning the denser wood with a little wood burner and carving the spring wood at an angle to mark the ring. I really hope someone can do this for you. Ask for someone at Project Learning Tree for the state department of forestry. The state department of forestry will usually burn and carve wood for you. They promote the study of forests. Good luck. And if you want me to, I will do it for free if you are allowed to give me your college address and specific professor. I will mail it to him. We call them "tree cookies." I am a member of Project Learning Tree here. cindy robinson 
> 
> spring wood is laid down early in the growing season and tends to be lighter and more porous than summer wood which is laid down later in the growing season and tends to be darker and more dense. 
> 
> I will look over the rest tomorrow. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: th404 at comcast.net
> To: nfb-science at nfbnet.org
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 10:26:57 -0800
> CC: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Nfb-science] Need Guidance: Several Heavily Visual Labs Coming Up
> 
> You probably know that during the past quarter, I have been taking an environmental science course at my local community college for a General Studies degree. I'm in the second course in the series, and there are a number of labs coming up that either use chemicals, or are heavily dependent on measurements. I don't know if the lists accept attachments, but I felt the best way to give people an idea of what these labs are like is to send the information about them that I've gotten from my instructor. The instructor and I are not sure how to deal with these labs, but I figured that if you got a look at them, you could give me some ideas on how I might be able to participate and not just sit on the sidelines. So if you have any ideas on how I might deal with these labs, I'm all ears. Thanks.
> 
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