exploring online labs with visually impaired students

Exploring online labs with visually impaired students

- FAULKES TELESCOPE -

2nd Scientix Conference // 24 – 26 October 2014 // Brussels, Belgium

Online lab Faulkes Telescope 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 Faulkes Telescope during the astronomy sections of his Physics course produced an Faulkes Telescope 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.

Hubbleʼs Tuning Fork Diagram


As we move along the top prong of the tuning fork

from Sa to Sc, or along the bottom from SBa to

SBc, the following changes generally occur:

- the disc to bulge ratio increases

- the openness of the spiral arms increases

Hubbleʼs Tuning Fork Diagram

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 personalised scientific experiments alongside their classmates.

Main concerns are the following:

- 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 Faulkes

Telescopes, 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 PIXLRhttp://apps.pixlr.com/editor/

Using Salsa Jhttp://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 throught touch 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.

Spiral galaxies


Addressing perspective in spiral galaxies


Spiral galaxies with bars through their centre are called barred spirals (SBa, SBb, SBc), with the a,b and 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 galaxiesElliptical galaxies do not have spiral arms. They look roughly egg-shaped and arerelatively featureless. Apparent shapes range from almost circular (E0) to quite elliptical (E6)


In-class Implementing and SupportFull support from our team to all participants fromScientix2.0 Workshop. Contact us:

Lina Canas

Email: [email protected] – Núcleo Interativo de Astronomia / GTTP – Galileo Teacher Training Program

THANK YOU!


mailto:[email protected]

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