[accessibleimage] Blind students do hands-on work in Central High physics lab

Hopewell Valley News, NJ, USA
Thursday, September 07, 2006

Blind students do hands-on work in Central High physics lab

CAPTION: Shown from left are Central High School physics teacher Lillian Rankel, Helen Stevens, Cary Supalo and Trevor Saunders.

Working long and hard at Hopewell Valley Central High School (CHS) last week was a team of students and teachers dedicated to helping the blind and visually impaired gain a much more hands-on role in science lab work.
"There's been a significant under-representation of the blind and visually impaired working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math," said Cary Supalo in the CHS physics lab. "The limited access they've had to information and lab tools is an important reason why they've been under-represented in these areas of employment.
"In the past, the blind and visually impaired have been partnered with a sighted student for lab work. The sighted student has done all, or very nearly all, the actually hands-on work involved in the labs. We're working to change that."
Mr. Supalo, who has been blind since he was 7, has a master's degree in chemistry from Penn State and is working toward his doctorate. His goal is to teach chemistry at the college level.
"While I was an undergrad at Purdue, I was inspired by the encouragement of teachers and graduate students to study science," he said. "They provided me with a lot of tools - written materials in Braille and raised drawings - to help me do that. I want to help develop new tools to assist blind and visually impaired students do lab work themselves rather than depend on a partner with sight all the time."
In the CHS physics lab on Friday, two blind students and CHS physics teacher Dr. Lillian Rankel were mining the vein Mr. Supalo has made a focus of his ongoing academic career. The students were Trevor Saunders, 16, a Hopewell Valley student who is taking the advanced placement chemistry course this fall; and Helen Stevens, 17, of Pocono Mountain West High School in Pocono Summit, Pa., and a top student like Trevor.
Both Trevor and Helen said that, while they are not sure they want to pursue careers in science, they definitely want to study science in-depth for the foreseeable future. "I guess the fair thing to say now is that I'm very interested in science, but I'm interested in a lot of other things, too and am not really sure what I want to pursue career-wise," Helen said.
"That's right," Trevor said. "What we're doing here will help us make up our minds about things like that."
One thing that's already certain is that both Trevor and Hope have talent and are troopers. "They're both excellent science students," Dr. Rankel said. "And they work hard. They've been here in the lab from 8:30 in the morning until 6 at night three days this week."
In the lab, notched cylinders, beakers and syringes enabled Trevor and Hope to use the proper amounts of liquid substances in experiments on acidity, precipitation of solids into liquids and other areas. There were more sophisticated, computer-based tools at their disposal as well. For example, a computer connected to a scale gave them an auditory signal, in the form of a voice speaking, that told them the weight of a material on the scale. When the desired weight had been reached, they stopped putting material on the scale and proceeded to the next step of the experiment.
"More auditory tools of this type are being developed," Mr. Supalo said. "There's a lot more that can be done. To be sure, what we have so far isn't perfect, but it's a whole lot better than nothing. Like everything in science, it's a work in progress."
Trevor and Hope were enthused and grateful to be part of that progress. "Being blind shouldn't have to keep someone from doing things people can see do," Trevor said as he continued with an experiment on acidity. 


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