Roller-coaster Project
To provide a good educational foundation for fellow blind students
who might be struggling with Mathematics.
Roller-coaster
Prototype
Prototype 1
Initally, we wanted to connect various types of graphs conitnuously to create a roller-coaster prototype. Students could feel each different functions that connect together and realize different functions could be used together to solve real life problems.
Before making the physical prototype, we used Fusion 360 program to make a computer simulated version of the magnet pins and the string. Then we used a thick foam board and added magnet pins and string to shape the graph so that the blind would able to feel the graph with their hands.
Feel the
dots
Prototype 2
We quickly found out that the rollercoaster prototype was not plausible since more space was needed between the braile and the graphs. As a result, we decided to enlarge each graph to fit individual pages so that people could focus on one graph at a time and lower the chances of getting confused.
Also since the roller-coaster prototype’s graph had magnet pins and string that were not enough to supply the final project, our team developed a second protoype of “feel the dots.” In this prototype, we used braile technology to indicate individual dots that had their x and y coordinates marked with dotted lines.
Connected
dots
Prototype 3
We figured that using braile technology to indicate individual dots that had their x and y coordinates marked with dotted lines could confuse some people since the function stated in the up left corner in prototype 2 paper was continous while the graph below was discontinous. As a result, we developed prototype 3, where there were also “connected dots” and now could fully represent the strings we wanted to intended to use in prototype 1.
Inversely proportional graphs were also introduced in this section, in addition to the linear graphs presented in previous prototypes. Unlike prototype2, protoytype 3 also introduced the same types of linear and inversely proportional graphs with different slopes, and stated their relation and comparison at the end of each section.
