[meteorite-list] Blind Students Touch The Stars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:31 2004
Message-ID: <200203191953.LAA07238_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

I've loaned some of my meteorites from my collection for this
event, and the iron meteorite referred to in this article was a
Canyon Diablo meteorite from Meteor Crater in Arizona.

Ron Baalke

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http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1002,542%257E471404,00.html

Blind students touch the stars

JPL gives tour of solar system on tactile maps

By Lisa Faught
Pasadena Star News
March 19, 2002

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Celia Gordo has never seen the stars, but
she knows how heavy a meteorite is.

The 5-year-old girl, who is visually impaired, learned about the
cosmos firsthand by holding an iron meteorite collected from a crater
in Arizona.

"It was big, but I could carry it because I'm strong," Gordo said.

Blind students touched the stars and toured the solar system at the
Jet Propulsion Lab on Monday in an event designed to help them
"see" the wonders of the universe.

The event was originally to be held at the Mount Wilson Observatory,
but was moved to JPL because of snowy conditions.

Accessible Outdoors, a Pasadena organization dedicated to helping
the disabled experience the outdoors, provided funding for the
students from Annalee Elementary School in Carson to attend the
event, said founder Shari Fleischman.

Sitting in Von Karman Auditorium at JPL, the curious students
flooded the astronomers with questions, like "How do astronauts get
back to Earth?" and "What's in a black hole?"

To help students visualize the solar system, astronomy professor
David Hurd passed out tactile maps outlining the craters of the
moon, the blemishes of the sun and the stars of the constellations.

The maps were cut from thin plastic, then imprinted with a variety of
everyday objects to mimic the features of the universe. Sawdust and
glue formed the crust of the moon and hair from a doll provided the
sun with flames.

The students traced their fingers over the bumpy surfaces of each
map, feeling for the first time what lights up the sky each night. As
they connected the dots, constellations such as the Little Dipper and
Cassiopeia took shape.

"It's really revealing to them because they hear a lot about the
constellations, but have never seen them," said Hurd, of Edinboro
University in Pennsylvania. "Most of them have never ever seen
stars, nor has anyone attempted to bring them within reach."

The students got a sense of the scale of the solar system through a
space walk, starting with the sun on one side of the room and
ending with Pluto at the opposite side.

With orbs representing the planets, students followed the Braille trail
past their home on Earth, beyond the rings of Saturn, to the tiny
speck at the end of the line.

"Pluto is smaller than a Braille dot," said Lorehna Garcia, 12. Their
experiences will be broadcast on "Access Unlimited" on KPFK and
the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service, a special radio station for
the visually impaired.

"Here in L.A., we can't see the stars, so we don't do a lot of
star-gazing. It doesn't take being blind to sort of lose the
connection to the sky and constellations," said Jolie Mason, director
of the LARRS. "But the stars really make a difference in our lives."

-- Lisa Faught can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by
e-mail at lisa.faught_at_sgvn.com.
Received on Tue 19 Mar 2002 02:53:24 PM PST