Construction of an Affordable, Tactile, Didactical and Inclusive Material Aimed to Teach Biology and Biotechnology to Blind and Visually Impaired Students

Abstract

The inclusion process should guarantee teaching and learning of all students including those with special needs. Currently, didactical materials with focus in attending blind and visually impaired students are still in need, especially those for teaching Biology complex themes (e.g. Arthropods). The purpose of this work is to describe the production and the in loco test of a kit containing an accessible, tactile, didactical and inclusive material about Arthropods targeting this public, which allows to explore the biotechnological potential of these animals. The kit was constructed with affordable materials approached in two- and three-dimensional perspectives. We tested it with seven students with visual deficiency from a Brazilian public school. To verify the efficiency of the material, we applied evaluative questionnaires regarding the theme pre- and post-periods from using the material. The results revealed that the use of this didactical material helps the blind and visually impaired student to understand the complexity of Arthropods anatomy and its morphological characterization to apply for biotechnology purposes.