U of A professors develop astronomy materials to aid visually impaired students
Steve Kortenkamp, an associate professor of practice in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, with models he helped develop to teach astronomy to visually impaired students.
When Steve Kortenkamp taught his first astronomy class at the University of Arizona as an instructor in 2007, he faced something unexpected.
"The first opportunity that I had to teach at the university in front of a class, one of my students was blind. And that, for me, was a big challenge," Kortenkamp said. "There were very few resources available to sort of help in that situation."
But Kortenkamp, now an associate professor of practice in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in the College of Science, was determined to help. He adapted parts of his curriculum for his student, using audio aids and enlarged or simplified graphics with great success.
"Each time I taught, I tried to develop some new things that I could use in that situation," he said.
Sunggye Hong
The experience ultimately changed his outlook on teaching, Kortenkamp said. In the years since, his efforts have grown into a cross-campus partnership, with associate professor Sunggye Hong in the College of Education, to develop astronomy curriculum materials to aid visually impaired middle and high school students.
Two researchers, similar missions
After joining the faculty full time in 2017, Kortenkamp crossed paths with Hong, who shared his passion for making education – especially science, technology, engineering and math disciplines – accessible for all students. Hong runs the College of Education's program for the visually impaired.
"I'm totally blind due to a congenital glaucoma, and as I was growing, science was a major that not many of my friends and colleagues with visual impairments could choose," Hong said.
Hong's work has sought to address the lack of accessibility and barriers for students with disabilities in science and create opportunities for visually impaired students to become engaged in science fields.
A curriculum designed to assist and inspire
In 2019, with a grant from the National Science Foundation, Kortenkamp and Hong designed a new learning curriculum, which would assist and inspire visually impaired students studying astronomy.
They asked 33 students from middle and high schools across the country to participate in the study; each student had an interest in pursuing science education and STEM careers. The hope, Hong said, was to shape their experience with science and get them excited about a future in STEM fields.
There were two main components to the project. The first was science learning.
"It was kind of like an asynchronous online class," Kortenkamp said. "We would send them packages in the mail, and then we would meet over Zoom."
A former student working on the lunar hemisphere tactile models developed for the course.
The materials included various types of tactile tools including braille, printed textile materials and tactile graphics, as well as assistive technology equipment and audio software. They also included 3D-printed kits of spacecraft, which had been modified or created to be easily assembled without sight.
"They could – by touching – feel a square peg and a square hole, and assemble them, and they would describe the differences that they're feeling," Kortenkamp said. "We also had them create a little video for each segment of the curriculum where they had to teach someone else, using their models."
The second, and perhaps most important, component of the experience was mentorship. Outside of classroom learning, each student was connected with two mentors: a U of A science student and a professional working in a STEM field who was visually impaired.
"We wanted to help them understand that they could work in a field that maybe at first they didn't think they had a chance to," Kortenkamp said. "So, we paired them up with someone working in the field as an engineer or as a scientist of some type. They would virtually shadow them to learn about what their daily life is like, and how their disability influences how they work in their job."
In addition to the virtual curriculum, the students visited Tucson to live on campus for a week of lab tours and other activities.
Opportunities to expand
The program had a profound impact on the students, Hong and Kortenkamp said.
"The data clearly showed that the students were indeed much more closely engaged in science. The motivation was there," Hong said. "We were able to hear from them using their own voices, and from their reactions, we could observe that they were very excited and motivated to participate in science."
Many of the students, Kortenkamp added, are now working their way through programs at universities.
And it wasn't just the students who benefited from the program.
"To some degree with our curriculum, we were able to educate scientists as well," Hong said. "It's not just for visually impaired students to learn about science, it is also an opportunity for the science field to learn about the unique needs of students with visual impairments."
Kortenkamp shared similar sentiments.
"The takeaway I have, as an astronomer, is that I would have never really thought about this kind of stuff if I hadn't encountered that first student in that first class that I was teaching," Kortenkamp said. "It was a very eye-opening experience for me, and it's interesting the way that these techniques can be used by anybody."
Kortenkamp sees a future where his and Hong's ideas can be expanded into a larger program.
"There are very few classes in the sciences that are geared towards visually impaired students, so I'd like to take what we have and modify the curriculum to make it fit into the system we have at the university," he said. "I would like to create a science class that is available for even non-science students, whether they are visually impaired or not."
A version of this article originally appeared on the College of Science website.
