S cience teacher Lisa Ross taps a walnut on one of her high school students ’ desks . She taps a pecan on the next student ’ s desk , and an almond on the next . One by one , she guides them to wrap their nuts in a napkin and bash them open with a mallet to discover what ’ s inside . “ What part of the plant is this ?” she asks . “ The seed !” they answer in unison .
Ross is an instructor at the
Governor Morehead School for the Blind ( GMS ), the 176-year-old residential school in Raleigh , North Carolina , that serves students from kindergarten up to age 21 whose sight ranges from moderate visual impairment to total blindness . Ross , who has a master ’ s degree in zoology from Texas A & M University and a teaching certificate from North Carolina State University , has taught preschool through university-level science . But when she arrived at Morehead in 2019 , she faced a new kind of challenge : how to teach concepts like chemical reactions and the anatomy of a tree without the help of textbooks full of images and diagrams .
“ The ways I taught before were visual and auditory , but now they need to be auditory and tactile , or auditory and kinesthetic ,” she explains . “ The more ways my students can absorb the information , the better .” J
ON CAMPUS Student Prime Y . conducting an experiment , above ; together with science teacher Lisa Ross , he draws water samples from three different location in Pullen Park , across the street from the school , above right ; the auditorium , a center of GMS activity , is housed in stately Lineberry Hall , near right .
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