Visualizing 3D imagery by mouth using candy-like models

Abstract

Handheld models help students visualize three-dimensional (3D) objects, especially students with blindness who use large 3D models to visualize imagery by hand. The mouth has finer tactile sensors than hand, which could improve visualization using microscopic models that are portable, inexpensive, and disposable. The mouth remains unused in tactile learning. Here, we created bite-size 3D models of protein molecules from “gummy bear” gelatin or nontoxic resin. Models were made as small as rice grain and could be coded with flavor and packaged like candy. Mouth, hands, and eyesight were tested at identifying specific structures. Students recognized structures by mouth at 85.59% accuracy, similar to recognition by eyesight using computer animation. Recall accuracy of structures was higher by mouth than hand for 40.91% of students, equal for 31.82%, and lower for 27.27%. The convenient use of entire packs of tiny, cheap, portable models can make 3D imagery more accessible to students.

Data for all: Tactile graphics that light up with picture-perfect resolution

“…The spatial tactile acuity of fingertips has been measured to be 0.94 mm ( 21 ), and the fingertips can sense nanometer-scale differences in surface roughness ( 22 ). The tactile sensitivity of blind persons might be greater than sighted persons (by ~0.1 mm); however, these enhancements vary from person to person ( 3 ). Likewise, the maximum resolution of the human eye is approximately 1 arc min, i.e., ~0.03 mm at a distance of 10 cm ( 23 ).…”

“…Science educators, researchers, publishers, and policymakers continue to overlook the need to make the graphical data and imagery of science accessible to persons who are blind or have low vision (1)(2)(3)(4). This inaccessibility pairs poorly with aspirations of diversability (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”

On Oreology, the fracture and flow of “milk's favorite cookie®”

“…about how the bite-size, edible protein models developed by Baumer et al 31 would roll down an incline. )…”

Sonification-Enhanced Lattice Model Animations for Teaching the Protein Folding Reaction

“…A picture is worth 1000 words, and so visualization plays an important role in educating students about protein dynamics. This includes methods for teaching about energy landscapes using the funnel picture, combining visualization − with a hands-on mechanical model of folding, watching color changes when proteins fold and unfold reversibly because “seeing is believing”, interacting with computer games that teach protein folding concepts, and creating physical models to help students visualize proteins in three-dimensional space or, if visually impaired, to explore those structures using the hands or mouth …”

“…This includes methods for teaching about energy landscapes using the funnel picture, 9 combining visualization 10−12 with a hands-on mechanical model of folding, 13 watching color changes when proteins fold and unfold reversibly because "seeing is believing", 14 interacting with computer games that teach protein folding concepts, 1 and creating physical models to help students visualize proteins in three-dimensional space 15 or, if visually impaired, to explore those structures using the hands or mouth. 16 One has only to recall the crackle of a Geiger counter, alerting its users to the presence of alpha particles for over 100 years, to recognize that data sonification, too, is an effective tool for discovering, understanding, and communicating the time-dependent behavior of physical phenomena. We are, at the most fundamental level, multimodal creatures, having evolved to navigate our 3D world using redundant, synergistic combinations of sensory inputsvision, audition, proprioception, olfaction, and moreto form an accurate and reliable composite model of our surroundings.…”