Resource
Geometry Lesson Plans for Learners Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
These Geometry lessons are designed for middle and high school who are blind or visually impaired and include links to a repository of 3D models for TVIs to use to support student learning.
Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron from Nonscriptum collaborated with Dr. Yue-Ting Siu of San Francisco State Graduate College of Education on the development of 15 open-source lesson plans and a repository of 3D models for teachers of learners who are blind or visually impaired. This is the conclusion of a yearlong project, sponsored by the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, as part of the “3Ps” project.
The lessons cover topics normally covered in middle- and high-school geometry. They will be adding lessons and models, and teaching professional-development webinars for educators in partnership with their collaborators.
The lesson plans are listed below, and the relevant model repository and a teacher’s guide are now available.
- Polygons, Pythagoras and Polyhedrons
- Triangles, their Types and Areas
- Congruent and Similar Triangles
- Sine, Cosine and Tangent
- Inscribed and Circumscribed Polygons
- Slicing Cubes, Prisms, Cylinders and Spheres
- Volume of Sphere, Cone, and Cylinder
- Volume of Pyramids and Prisms
- Conic Sections Introduction
- Surface Area and Nets
- Ellipses and Circles
- Parabolas
- Hyperbolas
- Rotating a 2D Shape
- Coordinate Systems
One-hour Zoom sessions to learn about the models will be listed below as they are scheduled, along with the meeting notes for past sessions.
- Session 1 (meeting notes), introducing the first five lessons.
- Session 2 (meeting notes), introducing Lessons 6-10.
- Session 3 (meeting notes), introducing Lessons 11-15.
Any questions or issues with downloading? Contact them.
They have more information on these topics and additional models in their upcoming book Make: Geometry, which is available for pre-order now. For their other books (including two books of 3D printable math and science models) go to their home page.
This project was supported in part by grant number 90RE5024, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.
