Exploring online labs with visually impaired students

Exploring online labs with visually impaired students
-FAULKES TELESCOPE -
2nd ScientixConference // 24 –26 October 2014 // Brussels, Belgium

Online lab FaulkesTelescope offers a database of astronomical pictures as well as the opportunity for the students to remotely operate the telescope and to take their own pictures of the cosmos.

Since Astronomy is a very visual science most often visually impaired students are excluded from these activities, so the question is: how can we engage visually impaired students in such activities while promoting collaborative work with their peers?

Telescopes connected to webcams that collected the objects being observed live on site. Then using an image editing software the images were printed in a swelling paper (a special type of paper that allows its inked areas to swell when heated) and then printed in a thermal printer.
This allowed visually impaired participants that attended the event were able to perceive the objects being observed in real time alongside the other participants.

A student who regularly used the FaulkesTelescope during theastronomy sections of his Physics course produced an FaulkesTelescope version of Hubble's tuning fork diagram.

After it was proved that galaxies outside of our own existed, Hubble introduced a way of classifying them according to their appearance, or morphology.
Hubble separated the galaxies into 3 main categories -ellipticals, lenticulars and spirals.
Those galaxies which did not fit into any of these 3 classes were then identified as irregulars.
HubbleʼsTuningForkDiagram

As we move along the top prong of the tuning fork from Sa to Sc, or along the bottom from SBato SBc, the following changes generally occur:
-the disc to bulge ratio increases
-the openness of the spiral arms increases
HubbleʼsTuningForkDiagram

A step by step guide to the participant teachers on how to conduct an in-class implementation of such activity in a joint and enriching experience, allowing visually impaired students to access these online personalisedscientific experiments alongside their classmates.
Mainconcernsare thefollowing:
-In-class implementation;
-Support for teachers;
-Interaction between students;
-Scientific goals for each activity achieved.

For this project, you will need to either plan an observing session in order to obtain images of different types of galaxies with the FaulkesTelescopes, or you will use data available from the data archive or the project web pages.

Use the template of the Hubble Tuning Fork
diagram to use with your own images
and change it accordingly with an editing
software.

High relief images printed in a swelling paper (a special type of paper that allows its inked areas to swell when heated).

The images were taken through H-alfa(a narrow band filter in the red region of the spectrum) and green.

Starburst region details
Structure of the galactic plane
Both the images are quite different.

Combining both images we have a single image representing both features we want to address.

Using PIXLR
http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/
Using Salsa J
http://www.euhou.net

Adjusting simple parameters such as Brightness and Contrast and inverting the image colours, one can easily make a printable tactile image to be explored throughttouch by all.

Spiral, or disk, galaxies consist of two parts -a central bulge which appears quite similar to an elliptical galaxy, and a thin disk of stars which surrounds the bulge.
Spiral galaxies

Since galaxies are randomly orientated to our line of sight in the sky, we see spirals
in various ways, from fully face-on to edge-on.
The bulge of the spiral galaxy can clearly be seen when the galaxy is edge-on, as can the disk.
The spiral arms in the disk of the galaxy are then better viewed when the galaxy is face-on.
Spiralgalaxies

Addressing perspective in spiral galaxies

Spiral galaxies with bars through their centreare called barred spirals (SBa, SBb, SBc), with the a,band c denoting how tightly wound the arms are.
Barred spiral galaxies

Achieve through touch the same scientific content the students have visually. The notion of shape, in this example, is essential.
Elliptical galaxies
Elliptical galaxies do not have spiral arms. They look roughly egg-shaped and are
relatively featureless. Apparent shapes range from almost circular (E0) to quite elliptical (E6)

In-classImplementingandSupportFullsupportfromourteam to allparticipantsfromScientix2.0 Workshop.
Contactus:
Lina Canas
Email: lina.canas@nuclio.ptNUCLIO –Núcleo Interativo de Astronomia / GTTP –GalileoTeacherTraining Program
THANK YOU!

Exploring online labs with visually impaired students

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