[nfbwatlk] Fw: Youth Slam article in Baltimore Sun 8/14/07

[Mike Freeman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Pare, John
To: Pare, John
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 6:57 AM
Subject: Youth Slam article in Baltimore Sun 8/14/07



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Print story: 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,647521,print.story

Photo's: 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-blindstudents-pg,0,7908259.photogallery?index=1
www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,7861986.story

baltimoresun.com
Blind youths seek a future in science
Camp inspires students toward careers once beyond reach
By Chris Emery

Sun reporter

August 14, 2007

 Dave Wohlers leaned against the cold laboratory bench, gripping a white 
cane. He listened as the three blind girls across the bench struggled 
with their experiment.

"Oh, I dropped the wire," one girl said.

"I'll get it," replied another.

Her stool screeched across the tile floor of the Johns Hopkins 
University chemistry lab as she climbed down to grope for the wire.

The girls were building an electrolytic cell, a power source of the sort 
that might one day fuel ultra-green cars. Such technical projects are 
difficult, even for students with good eyes. But Wohlers showed no pity 
for the 20 or so blind students under his tutelage that morning.

His role as an instructor was to guide and inspire - not to coddle.

The experiment was part of Youth Slam 2007, a science camp sponsored 
this month by the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind that 
attracted about 200 blind students from around the country. It grew out 
of a larger initiative by the Jernigan Institute, a NFB program launched 
in 2004 to foster a culture of self-sufficiency in the blind community. 
Blind children are being pushed to pursue careers that even the most 
optimistic once thought beyond their grasp.

"The big thing is to inspire them to do more than they previously 
thought possible," said Mark Riccobono, executive director of the 
institute.

Bolstering the initiative are new electronic devices that act as a blind 
person's eyes by turning visual information into sound or Braille text.

IPod-sized translators can take photos of printed documents and read 
them out loud. Portable computers known as "notetakers" can store reams 
of information - novels, scientific data and personal reminders - then 
reproduce it instantly as lines of Braille. And talking instruments can 
tell blind scientists the color, temperature and weight of chemical 
compounds.

NFB officials say the combination of technology and hands-on lab 
experience will boost blind students' confidence. Wohlers hopes that 
will help them overcome hurdles similar to those that nearly kept him 
out of science. "If you can feed the thinking by doing it physically," 
he said, "somehow you have a recognition that 'I can do this.'"

Such surety was hard won for Wohlers, who was completely blind by age 8, 
the result of a genetic condition that caused cancerous tumors to form 
on his retinas.

He first developed a keen interest in chemistry while attending a school 
for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. "I loved the competition in the 
classroom," he recalled. "And I loved the idea of synthesizing something 
new that nobody had made before." Aptitude tests also showed he might 
make a good scientist.

But Wohlers had never heard of a blind chemist and neither, it seemed, 
had anyone else. Back then, "blind scientist" sounded like a virtual 
impossibility.

When his high school guidance counselor told him it was too bad he 
couldn't go into chemistry, Wohlers didn't think to ask why he couldn't. 
"I just didn't know anybody who did that," he said. "If you were good, 
you were a teacher. If you were special good, maybe you were a lawyer. 
Otherwise, you were a piano tuner or broom maker, or some other 
manufacturing job."

In 1970, he entered the University of Iowa as an economics and business 
major, thinking it was a practical field for a blind man.

He soon discovered he had made a mistake. "I just couldn't stand reading 
that stuff, and I couldn't motivate myself," he said. "I realized that 
maybe I wasn't following my bliss."

After failing an economics exam, he switched to a double major in 
chemistry and mathematics despite his misgivings about science as a 
career. "There were no guarantees I could do the lab work," he said. "We 
didn't even have microcomputers then. I just had faith that someday 
there would be a solution, that the technology would catch up."

Other students acted as Wohlers' eyes in the laboratory. They handled 
the chemicals, mixed the various reagents and measured the products. 
Wolhers was the brains behind the operation, telling the volunteers what 
to do at each step.

He learned a lesson about science that would carry him through his 
career: The lead scientist doesn't have to do the laboratory grunt work. 
"It quickly became very apparent that chemistry is a cerebral sport," he 
said, "and not hand-to-hand combat."

Wolhers decided he would need to be the boss - managing the ideas, 
people and data, while delegating the bench work to sighted assistants. 
He could be intellectually immersed in the work, if not physically 
connected to research.

But not everyone was convinced a blind man could do science. Wolhers 
discovered this when he applied to the graduate program at Iowa State 
University's chemistry department.

Iowa State was the professional home of Henry Gilman, a pioneering 
organic chemist who had gone blind in 1947, about a third of the way 
through his career. Known as a stern taskmaster who demanded much of his 
graduate assistants, Gilman published more than 500 papers after losing 
his sight. In 1977, he was awarded the Priestley Medal, the American 
Chemical Society's highest honor.

Despite that precedent, Iowa State turned down Wohlers' application. 
"They wrote me back a rejection letter saying they didn't think people 
who are blind can do chemistry," he said. "The recruitment committee 
must not have known Henry was on their faculty."

The chemistry department at Kansas State University saw things 
differently and accepted him into their graduate program.

Wohlers' graduate research focused on inorganic synthesis and 
photochemistry, the study of how light alters a substance's chemical 
properties. As in his days as an undergraduate science major, he 
directed the intellectual orchestra while assistants played the 
laboratory instruments.

"It took longer, no question," he said, "and I didn't produce as much 
work as the next guy, but I did enough to get the job done for a Ph.D."

He parlayed his doctorate into a faculty position in the chemistry 
department at Truman State University in Missouri, where he still 
teaches.

"I'm not the first blind chemist and I'm not the only blind chemist," 
said Wohlers, 55, "but I'm one of the few blind chemists."

He hopes programs such as the Youth Slam will help increase those 
numbers by raising blind students' expectations for themselves and 
giving them hands-on lab experience.

The students in the Johns Hopkins lab that muggy morning were working 
mostly on their own to construct the fuel cells. The three girls across 
the bench from him were making steady progress despite their early 
difficulties.

Two were high school students, both 17 and considering science careers. 
Courtney Lee, from Seattle, wanted to be a chemist, and Colleen McBride, 
from Madison, N.J., thought she would make a good biologist, or maybe a 
doctor.

The third member of the group was Heather Oklak, 20, a blind business 
major at Indiana University who volunteered to act as the younger girls' 
mentor. They found the dropped wiring and combined it with a battery and 
saltwater solution to simulate the storage of energy in a hydrogen fuel 
cell car.

"It's going to smell like chlorine and it's going to bubble," said Oklak 
as they applied electric current to the salt water.

"Oh, yeah, it's working," McBride said. "It smells like a pool!"

"It's sodium chloride," Lee said, "so that makes sense."

After a minute of charging their fuel cell, they hooked it up to a 
talking voltmeter, a device that measures the energy stored in the cell.

"Zero point zero nine four," the machine said in a computer voice.

"What'd it say - 0.049?" McBride asked.

"No, I think it was 0.480," Lee replied.

Standing farther away now, Wohlers remained silent, letting the young 
scientists learn their lessons the hard way.


-------------- next part --------------
----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:JPare at NFB.ORG Pare, John
To:
mailto:JPare at NFB.ORG Pare, John
Sent:
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 6:57 AM
Subject:
Youth Slam article in Baltimore Sun 8/14/07
 
Print story:
 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,647521,print.story http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,647521,print.story
 
Photo's:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-blindstudents-pg,0,7908259.photogallery?index=1
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-blindstudents-pg,0,7908259.photogallery?index=1
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,7861986.story www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.blind14aug14,0,7861986.story
baltimoresun.com
Blind youths seek a future in science
Camp inspires students toward careers once beyond reach
By Chris Emery
Sun reporter
August 14, 2007
http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/35ae/0/0/%2a/z;120985147;0-0;0;12924979;4307-300/250;21928079/21945969/1;;~sscs=%3fhttp://www.print2webcorp.com/news/baltimore/CalRipken/20070722/p01.asp
 
Dave Wohlers leaned against the cold laboratory bench, gripping a white cane. He listened as the three blind girls across the bench struggled with their experiment.
"Oh, I dropped the wire," one girl said.
"I'll get it," replied another.
Her stool screeched across the tile floor of the Johns Hopkins University chemistry lab as she climbed down to grope for the wire.
The girls were building an electrolytic cell, a power source of the sort that might one day fuel ultra-green cars. Such technical projects are difficult, even for students with good eyes. But Wohlers showed no pity for the 20 or so blind students under his tutelage that morning.
His role as an instructor was to guide and inspire - not to coddle.
The experiment was part of Youth Slam 2007, a science camp sponsored this month by the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind that attracted about 200 blind students from around the country. It grew out of a larger initiative by the Jernigan Institute, a NFB program launched in 2004 to foster a culture of self-sufficiency in the blind community. Blind children are being pushed to pursue careers that even the most optimistic once thought beyond their grasp.
"The big thing is to inspire them to do more than they previously thought possible," said Mark Riccobono, executive director of the institute.
Bolstering the initiative are new electronic devices that act as a blind person's eyes by turning visual information into sound or Braille text.
IPod-sized translators can take photos of printed documents and read them out loud. Portable computers known as "notetakers" can store reams of information - novels, scientific data and personal reminders - then reproduce it instantly as lines of Braille. And talking instruments can tell blind scientists the color, temperature and weight of chemical compounds.
NFB officials say the combination of technology and hands-on lab experience will boost blind students' confidence. Wohlers hopes that will help them overcome hurdles similar to those that nearly kept him out of science. "If you can feed the thinking by doing it physically," he said, "somehow you have a recognition that 'I can do this.'"
Such surety was hard won for Wohlers, who was completely blind by age 8, the result of a genetic condition that caused cancerous tumors to form on his retinas.
He first developed a keen interest in chemistry while attending a school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. "I loved the competition in the classroom," he recalled. "And I loved the idea of synthesizing something new that nobody had made before." Aptitude tests also showed he might make a good scientist.
But Wohlers had never heard of a blind chemist and neither, it seemed, had anyone else. Back then, "blind scientist" sounded like a virtual impossibility.
When his high school guidance counselor told him it was too bad he couldn't go into chemistry, Wohlers didn't think to ask why he couldn't. "I just didn't know anybody who did that," he said. "If you were good, you were a teacher. If you were special good, maybe you were a lawyer. Otherwise, you were a piano tuner or broom maker, or some other manufacturing job."
In 1970, he entered the University of Iowa as an economics and business major, thinking it was a practical field for a blind man.
He soon discovered he had made a mistake. "I just couldn't stand reading that stuff, and I couldn't motivate myself," he said. "I realized that maybe I wasn't following my bliss."
After failing an economics exam, he switched to a double major in chemistry and mathematics despite his misgivings about science as a career. "There were no guarantees I could do the lab work," he said. "We didn't even have microcomputers then. I just had faith that someday there would be a solution, that the technology would catch up."
Other students acted as Wohlers' eyes in the laboratory. They handled the chemicals, mixed the various reagents and measured the products. Wolhers was the brains behind the operation, telling the volunteers what to do at each step.
He learned a lesson about science that would carry him through his career: The lead scientist doesn't have to do the laboratory grunt work. "It quickly became very apparent that chemistry is a cerebral sport," he said, "and not hand-to-hand combat."
Wolhers decided he would need to be the boss - managing the ideas, people and data, while delegating the bench work to sighted assistants. He could be intellectually immersed in the work, if not physically connected to research.
But not everyone was convinced a blind man could do science. Wolhers discovered this when he applied to the graduate program at Iowa State University's chemistry department.
Iowa State was the professional home of Henry Gilman, a pioneering organic chemist who had gone blind in 1947, about a third of the way through his career. Known as a stern taskmaster who demanded much of his graduate assistants, Gilman published more than 500 papers after losing his sight. In 1977, he was awarded the Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor.
Despite that precedent, Iowa State turned down Wohlers' application. "They wrote me back a rejection letter saying they didn't think people who are blind can do chemistry," he said. "The recruitment committee must not have known Henry was on their faculty."
The chemistry department at Kansas State University saw things differently and accepted him into their graduate program.
Wohlers' graduate research focused on inorganic synthesis and photochemistry, the study of how light alters a substance's chemical properties. As in his days as an undergraduate science major, he directed the intellectual orchestra while assistants played the laboratory instruments.
"It took longer, no question," he said, "and I didn't produce as much work as the next guy, but I did enough to get the job done for a Ph.D."
He parlayed his doctorate into a faculty position in the chemistry department at Truman State University in Missouri, where he still teaches.
"I'm not the first blind chemist and I'm not the only blind chemist," said Wohlers, 55, "but I'm one of the few blind chemists."
He hopes programs such as the Youth Slam will help increase those numbers by raising blind students' expectations for themselves and giving them hands-on lab experience.
The students in the Johns Hopkins lab that muggy morning were working mostly on their own to construct the fuel cells. The three girls across the bench from him were making steady progress despite their early difficulties.
Two were high school students, both 17 and considering science careers. Courtney Lee, from Seattle, wanted to be a chemist, and Colleen McBride, from Madison, N.J., thought she would make a good biologist, or maybe a doctor.
The third member of the group was Heather Oklak, 20, a blind business major at Indiana University who volunteered to act as the younger girls' mentor. They found the dropped wiring and combined it with a battery and saltwater solution to simulate the storage of energy in a hydrogen fuel cell car.
"It's going to smell like chlorine and it's going to bubble," said Oklak as they applied electric current to the salt water.
"Oh, yeah, it's working," McBride said. "It smells like a pool!"
"It's sodium chloride," Lee said, "so that makes sense."
After a minute of charging their fuel cell, they hooked it up to a talking voltmeter, a device that measures the energy stored in the cell.
"Zero point zero nine four," the machine said in a computer voice.
"What'd it say - 0.049?" McBride asked.
"No, I think it was 0.480," Lee replied.
Standing farther away now, Wohlers remained silent, letting the young scientists learn their lessons the hard way.