| Student Portia Price and her team, the ‘Rocket Queens’, prepare for liftoff. |
The National Federation of the Blind’s (NFB) Jernigan Institute, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, NASA, National Science Foundation, and UPS, held their first ever national Science camp and Leadership Academy for approximately 200 blind high school students from all over the United States. Included in this austere group were five students from NFB’s High School/High Tech Transition to Independence Club. Students spent four days on the Johns Hopkins University campus, living in dorms and participating in a variety of activities focusing on different aspects of science, including rocketry, astronomy, engineering, biology and chemistry. In the process of learning about the fun and challenge of science, these students also built self-confidence, learned independence skills, and connected with blind mentors working in a variety of scientific fields.
Students spent each day in a variety of classes, mostly interactive, in which they built rockets, learned about the art of invention, learned about leadership skills, and debated the ethics of science, among others. For instance, one of our High School/High Tech students built a rocket with a team (which called themselves ‘Rocket Queens’); each team then launched their rockets to see whose rocket could go the farthest. The girls, by the way, were very proud of the fact that the girls’ rockets went farther than any of the boys’ rockets! In a different class, another High School/High Tech student participated in a debate about the pros and cons of surgery that would restore sight.
In addition to building students’ confidence, activities like this help them to explore careers that they previously thought would not be possible for them. For more information on what the students did during this 4-day science immersion experience, be sure to check the Youth Slam website at http://www.blindscience.org/ncbys/Youth_Slam.asp .
| Student Crystal Hardy participates in scientific debate. |
For more information, check out the news article from the Baltimore Sun, Blind Youth See Future in Science.