Presenter
Roseanne Hoffmann
American Printing House for the Blind, Louisville, Kentucky
Abstract
APH presents the Tactile Ionic Bonding Kit, a low-tech interactive model system that helps students with vision impairments understand one way atoms can bond to each other. Individual elements, such as sodium, are represented by rectangular manipulatives/subunits made of flexible foam sheets. In addition to large print, UEB or Nemeth braille depict the element’s name, atomic symbol, and atomic number on the surface of each subunit. The subunits are designed like jigsaw puzzle pieces; those with tabs represent atoms with one to three electrons in their outer shell which are available for transfer to atoms that require electrons to satisfy the octet rule. The latter atoms are represented by subunits with one to three notches. As an example, the tab extending from the sodium subunit fits into the notch of the chlorine subunit, thus demonstrating electron transfer resulting in ionically bonded sodium chloride. The Tactile Ionic Bonding Kit prepares the beginning chemistry student for more complex atomic models depicting multiple electron shells, such as Azer’s Interactive Periodic Table Study Set, also available from APH.