Bionic eye module 1

Teacher activity

Teacher introduces unit by asking questions (on Power Point presentation) which push students to consider different aspects of vision from both a typical and vision impaired perspective.

Teacher gives a brief overview of vision impairment.

Teacher resources

• Classroom resources / Bionic-Eye-Introduction-Presentation.pptx (Slides 1-3)

Student activity

Students listen and participate in class discussion.

Teacher activity

Teacher makes clear rules and objectives of brainstorming.

Teacher asks students to work in groups to brainstorm what they know about visual impairment and the challenges faced by visually impaired people.

Teacher resources

• Classroom resources / Bionic-Eye-Introduction-Prentation.pptx (Slide 4 - Question prompts to stimulate student brainstorms)
• Teacher notes / 01-Brainstorming.docx
• Teacher notes / 02-Challenges-Visual-Impairment.docx (For ideas to stimulate discussion on challenges)

Assessment notes

• This task will enable teachers to assess prior knowledge of the topic.
• Formative assessment of the students’ abilities to work in teams and brainstorm ideas can be made by listening to the group discussions and asking questions during this time.

Student activity

Working in groups, students brainstorm to consider the challenges that face visually impaired citizens.

Resources required

• Whiteboard, butchers paper, or online program.

Teacher activity

Teacher asks each group to outline the key points they have discussed.

Teacher writes ideas on the white board and groups related ideas together.

Teacher resources

• Teacher notes / 03-Enhancing-Student-Participation.docx

Assessment notes

• Formative assessment can be made of individual student’s verbal communication skills.

Student activity

Student groups share their ideas with the class and participate in class discussion, helping teacher to group related ideas.

Teacher activity

Teacher distributes vision impairment goggles template and instructions for creation of vision impairment goggles.

Teacher explains that the vision impairment goggles must be constructed, and that the How to create box and whisker plots.mp4 video should be watched for homework.

Teacher resources

• Classroom resources / Materials-for-challenges.docx (Printable template and instructions to make visual impairment goggles).
• Teacher notes / 04-Flipped-Classroom.pdf
• Video: How to create Box and Whisker plots.

Student activity

Students split into pairs and allocate jobs for creating vision impairment goggles. There are two types of goggles and one student per pair should create one type of visual impairment goggles.

Students create goggles for homework.

Students watch instructional video for homework: How to create Box and Whisker plots

Resources required

• Protocol for Making Vision Impairment Goggles.
• Template – Vision Impairment Goggles.

Teacher activity

Teacher provides groups with cards describing Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Teacher asks students to produce visual impairment goggles ‘A’ & ‘B’ (created for homework) and assign which goggles are representative of which disease.

Teacher introduces students to the various challenges to be performed.

Teacher asks students in groups to predict the difficulties of the challenges with both types of visual impairment.

Teacher resources

• Teacher notes / 05-Causes-of-Vision-Impairment.docx
• Teacher notes / 06-Visual-impairment-challenges.docx

Student activity

Student groups read information cards describing Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa and try on vision impairment goggles.

Students discuss the two diseases and assign which goggles are representative of which disease.

Students discuss their predictions of how difficult each challenge will be with the different types of vision impairment and record their predictions on worksheets.

Resources required

• Visual impairment goggles ‘A’ and ‘B’.
• Student cards describing Macular degeneration and Retinitis pigmentosa.
• Student-Worksheets / Vision-Challenges-worksheet.docx

Teacher activity

Teacher to select a number of challenges for the students to perform from the options provided in Teacher notes / 06-Visual-impairment-challenges.docx.

Explain homework jigsaw box plot task. Assign groups to produce plots for the challenge stations, and students who will complete each box and whisker plot that represents control, Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa data for each challenge station. Each student from each challenge station MUST use the same scale on their number lines to represent their data so that their box and whisker plots can be compared in parallel during the next class.

Teacher resources

• Teacher notes / 06-Visual-impairment-challenges.docx
• Teacher notes / 07-Boxplots.docx and Constructing Box and Whisker Plots

Assessment notes

• Formative assessment can be made of students teamwork skills and ability to record data.

Student activity

Students will complete two to three challenge stations and collect data for control, Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa goggles at that station.

Students record results as they perform tasks to station data sheets.

Before moving between stations students should reflect on the difficulties they encountered, the possible ways to overcome them and consider what other senses compensated for the loss of vision at their current station (the challenge station descriptions include questions for reflecting in this way).

On the challenge stations that students finish on, students are told they will need to produce box plots that represent the class data for either the control, Macular Degeneration or Retinitis Pigmentosa data. The data from all of the challenge stations will be represented as box plots. This is a homework task.

All students at the same station must work within the same scale on their number lines.

Resources required

• Student-Worksheets / Vision-Challenges-worksheet.docx
• Classroom resources / Materials-for-challenges.docx (Printable template and instructions to make visual impairment goggles).

Teacher activity

Teacher instructs students to place their box and whisker plots that they produced for homework onto their station worksheet.

Teacher guides students in analysing the parallel box and whisker plots for their stations in order to draw conclusions about their observations.

Teacher resources

• Teacher notes: Guide questions for analysing box and whisker plots.

Student activity

For each challenge station students put their box and whisker plots together.

Students draw conclusions about the difficulty of different tasks with different visual impairments from the class box and whisker plots and rate how difficult each task was to complete with both diseases on their worksheets.

Resources required

• Challenge Station data sheets
• Student-Worksheets / Vision-Challenges-worksheet.docx

Teacher activity

Play short video “What it’s like to go blind”.

Teacher asks students to reflect on their experience of the challenges and to compare them with the visually impaired people using Student worksheet – Reflection Worksheet.

Teacher asks students to discuss their reflections in their groups.

Student activity

Students watch video.

Students reflect individually using Student worksheet – Reflection Worksheet

Students in groups discuss their reflections about their experiences and compare them with those of people living with visual impairment.

Resources required

• Video of person’s experiences living with Macular degeneration: “What it’s like to go blind”.
• Student-Worksheets / Reflection-worksheet.docx

Teacher activity

Teacher guides class discussion around the students’ experiences of the challenges and what they have learnt about visual impairment from their experiences and the information provided during the unit.

Teacher resources

• Teacher notes with suggested methods to encourage every student to participate in the class discussion.

Student activity

All students contribute to the class discussion about their experiences and what they have learnt about living with visual impairment.