Tactile Chemistry
Tactile strategies for teaching chemistry to students who are blind and visually impaired have been developed by Dr. Lillian A. Rankel, Hopewell Valley Central High School, Hopewell Valley, NJ 08534.
Some of the materials presented here are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants HRD-0435656 and HRD-0726417. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
A Tactile Adaptation Kit, containing many of the materials described below is available from MDW Educational Services. For information about the Tactile Adaptation Kit, email MDWEducationalServices@gmail.com. Click here to download a flyer on the Tactile Adaptation Kit.
Supplies for Tactile Chemistry
Teaching Formulas and Manipulation of Formulas
Use a Chemistry Stencil to Make Magnetic Lab Equipment
Lewis Dot Structures and Valence Electrons
Ionic Bonding
Structures for Organic Compounds
Showing 3-D Organic Structures
To show the three dimensional structure of organic molecules, wedge shaped bonds are cut from the magnetic foam and are 1.5 inches long with one end 1/2 inch wide and the other end 1/4 inch wide. The wide end would be coming out of the plane of the magnetic board and the narrow end is going towards the magnetic board, or behind the magnetic board, as the case may be. Using wedge shaped covalent bonds allows one to be able to show asymmetric carbon atoms (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Ethane Made With Wedge Shaped Bonds to Show 3-D Structure
Aufbau Diagrams
Tactile Equipment Models