Geometry

Geometry Lesson Plans for Blind/Visually Impaired Learners

We have been excited to collaborate with Dr. Yue-Ting Siu of San Francisco State Graduate College of Education on the development of open-source lesson plans and a repository of 3D models for teachers of blind and visually-impaired learners. Our work is part of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute "3Ps" project.

The lessons cover topics normally covered in middle- and high-school geometry. We will be adding lessons and models, and teaching professional-development webinars for educators in partnership with our collaborators.  

The lesson plans are listed below, and the relevant model repository and a teacher’s guide are now available.

1. Polygons, Pythagoras and Polyhedrons

2. Triangles, their Types and Areas

3. Congruent and Similar Triangles

4. Sine, Cosine and Tangent

5. Inscribed and Circumscribed Polygons

6. Slicing Cubes, Prisms, Cylinders and Spheres

7. Volume of Sphere, Cone, and Cylinder

8. Volume of Pyramids and Prisms

9. Conic Sections Introduction

10. Surface Area and Nets

11. Ellipses and Circles

12. Parabolas

13. Hyperbolas

14. Rotating a 2D Shape

15. Coordinate Systems

We hosted a series of one-hour Zoom sessions to learn about the models:

• Session 1 (meeting notes), introducing the first five lessons.

• Session 2 (meeting notes), introducing Lessons 6-10.

• Session 3 (meeting notes), introducing Lessons 11-15.

Any questions or issues with downloading? Contact us.

We will also be teaching MAKE: Geometry – Getting Started! online via Maker Campus on November 4, 5:00-7:00 pm PDT.

We have more information on these topics and additional models in our new Make: Geometry book, available for pre-order now. For our other books (including two books of 3D printable math and science models) go to our home page. 

We gratefully acknowledge our sponsor, without whom this would not have been possible. This project was supported in part by grant number 90RE5024, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.