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I totally understand the demands on the teacher in terms
of presenting information and having to have a lot of content,
especially under the demands of standardized
testing that's coming.
The scientists have developed national science standards
that the country has adopted.
They were developed by a group of scientists.
ANNOUNCER: Cover of National Science Standards
publication is shown.
FRASER: They cover all the science areas,
and in the life sciences the threads include ecology,
understanding about cells,
understanding about the human body, and others.
And most states now are, in fact, testing students
at certain points along the way, usually at least once
in elementary school, and in some states
it's becoming a requirement to pass an exit test
in the sciences in order to receive a high school diploma.
So one of the things that you notice as you look at these
standardized tests that have been developed and which
are based on what people are teaching...
ANNOUNCER: Video of teacher and students with cell model.
Also, taxidermied bird.
FRASER: ...they're not using three dimensional models.
They don't give you a bird and ask you to talk about
its beak or its claws.
ANNOUNCER: Page of a standardized test
with drawings of cells as shown and compared with
the corresponding page containing raised line drawings
and questions in Braille.
FRASER: They'll give you a drawing, a flat drawing.
And for a student who is visually impaired,
that drawing would be translated into a raised line drawing.
ANNOUNCER: The cover of a Braille biology
test book is shown.
The inside pages contain a two-dimensional illustration
of cells and the corresponding raised line drawings
with questions in Braille.
FRASER: And the information about that drawing
would be provided in Braille, describing what was there.
And a student, then, needs to move, as they become older,
from interpreting a three-dimensional bird
to seeing a diagram of a bird on paper and being...
to understand the symbolic meaning of that.
And this is not easy.
ANNOUNCER: A cell drawing in a textbook is shown
with a similar depiction of a raised line
illustration with Braille text.
FRASER: And a well-designed graphic is very important.
Teachers of the visually impaired
are trained to create tactile graphics that will be meaningful
and can be interpreted clearly by their students.
So the public school teacher can ask assistance
from the teacher of the visually impaired and know ahead of time
what questions might be asked just based on the curriculum.
Very often we look at previous years tests and sort of see,
you know, "What did they ask last year?
What kinds of things might we expect?"
But generally it's the things
that are the most important parts in the standards.