![\"Gummy](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/candy2-june21.jpg\")
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When it comes to teaching STEM<\/a>, instructors and students alike rely heavily on viewing images and physical models. But what about students with blindness or visual impairments — how are they to learn these important aspects of the field?<\/p>\n Baylor researchers may have found an answer.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, a Baylor-led study<\/a> published in the journal Science Advances<\/em><\/a> shared\u00a0new research that could solve this issue with an unlikely treat: candy. Dr. Bryan Shaw<\/a>, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and other Baylor faculty found that millimeter-scale gelatin models (like gummy bears; pictured above) can improve the visualization of 3D shapes via the tongue and lips.<\/p>\n \u201cYour tongue is your finest tactile sensor — about twice as sensitive as the finger tips — and it is also a hydrostat, similar to an octopus arm. It can wiggle into grooves that your fingers won\u2019t touch,” explains Shaw. “Nobody had thought to use the tongue or lips in tactile learning. So, we made very small, high-resolution 3D models to see if they could be visualized by mouth.”<\/p>\n The experiment — tested on both college and grade-school students — worked. Asked to identify proteins with first their fingertips, then their mouths, an astonishing 86% of participants were able to do so. What’s more, 41% were more<\/em> likely to remember a protein\u2019s structure by mouth versus sight or touch.<\/p>\n \u201cThis methodology could be applied to images and models of anything — cells, organelles, 3D surfaces in math, 3D pieces of art — any 3D rendering. It\u2019s not limited to STEM, but useful for humanities too,\u201d says Baylor doctoral candidate Katelyn Baumer, lead author of the study.<\/p>\n The Baylor-led breakthrough — inspired by Shaw’s son, Noah, an aspiring scientist who\u00a0lost one of his eyes to a retinoblastoma before his first birthday — has quickly attracted a lot of attention, including from such media outlets as\u00a0Smithsonian Magazine<\/a><\/em>, Nerdist<\/a> and Gizmodo<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope this research helps raise public awareness about these problems,” says Shaw. \u201cThe exclusion of blind kids in STEM is coming to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Dr. Shaw and Baylor researchers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to teaching STEM, instructors and students alike rely heavily on viewing images and physical models. But what about students with blindness or visual impairments — how are they to learn these important aspects of the field? Baylor researchers may have found an answer. Earlier this month, a Baylor-led study published in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-research","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/candy-jun21.jpg\")
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