Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Students who participated in the Fab@school project may later remember
the written deinition of kinetic energy. Those fortunate few with perfect recall
will, in fact, be able to recite it exactly several years later. However, most stu-
dents are more likely to remember kinetic energy as what made it possible for
the spinning blades of their wind turbine to light up the electronic circuit.
Tactile learning and physical manipulables
Mathematical equations can describe a simple two-dimensional line. More
complex equations describe three-dimensional objects. If it's a challenge to
transfer the same model from written equation to a lat graph, imagine the
challenge of teaching a student the interplay of pressure, volume, and tem-
perature (a thermodynamic equation).
Teachers call a three-dimensional teaching aid a “manipulable.” Physical
teaching manipulables support what's known as “tactile learning.” Tactile
learning is not a learning style. Tactile learning is a vital learning channel.
In tactile learning, rather than seeing a picture of a diagram on a white-
board or a computer screen, students hold a three-dimensional model of a
core concept in their hands, and using their sense of touch, are able to absorb
and process the knowledge. For visually impaired students, tactile learning
is a critical intake channel. If students capture a concept in a design ile and
print a physical manipulable, the shift in medium might help reinforce the
students' new abstract knowledge.
A few years ago, I received an email from Professor Creighton Depew at
the University of Washington's physics department. Creighton was teaching
thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is the study of the interplay of the effects
of pressure, volume and temperature in closed systems. For example, if you've
operated a bicycle pump, you noticed that as you compress the handle the pump
gets warm. When you compress air, you increase its pressure and decrease its
volume, therefore its temperature rises. There's an ongoing, dynamic three-
way interplay between pressure, volume, and temperature.
While most students could see the P-V-T (pressure-volume-temperature)
diagrams Prof. Depew showed in his class, one student, Dave Plassman,
who was visually impaired, had trouble visualizing their complex spatial
relationship. Thirty years ago, to help Plassman grasp the basic principles of
thermodynamics despite his blindness, Dr. Depew hand-shaped a clay model
to represent relationships that other students were able to see on the chalk-
board. The clay model was roughly 4 inches high and 6 inches across its base.
