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Media Alert
Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960
Fax: 443-287-9920
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July 30, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JHU Contact: Phil
Sneiderman
443-287-9960
Federation Contact: John
G. Paré Jr.
410-659-9314, ext. 2371
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200 Blind Teens to Attend
Sci-Tech 'Slam' at Johns Hopkins
Four-Day Event Will Include Rocket and Weather Balloon
Launches, Gecko Lessons, Windmills
WHEN: |
The National Federation of the Blind Youth
Slam will take place Tuesday, July 31, through
Friday, Aug. 3, 2007. |
WHERE: |
Instruction and social activities will
occur at The Johns Hopkins University's Homewood
campus, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md. A
concluding Youth March for Independence on Friday
afternoon begins at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. While
attending the Youth Slam, students will reside in
Johns Hopkins residence halls. |
WHAT: |
In one of the largest events of its kind,
200 blind and low-vision high school students from
more than 40 states will converge on the Johns
Hopkins University campus to take part in specially
designed non-visual science and technology
experiments and workshops. Blind adult mentors from
throughout the nation will also participate. The goal
is to use innovative teaching techniques to enable
young blind people to complete science and technology
projects and to encourage them to pursue college
degrees and careers in these fields. Students will
learn to build rockets, collect audible data from
weather balloon sensors and sense how live geckos
climb walls without falling. Other classes will focus
on astronomy, biology, robotics and environmental
chemistry. |
WHO: |
The event was conceived and launched by
the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind,
the largest and most influential membership
organization of blind people in the United States.
Graduate students and faculty members from the Whiting School of
Engineering at Johns Hopkins, supported by
National Science Foundation funds, prepared most of
the educational components, adapting lessons so that
they could be presented in a non-visual way. |
WHY: |
Some of the event's goals are:
To demonstrate that the blind are capable of
succeeding in fields, such as science and technology,
which are falsely believed to be closed to them.
To boost the self-confidence of blind youth in
their ability to succeed in whatever endeavors they
choose.
To expose blind youths to positive blind role
models from a variety of backgrounds and
professions. |
MEDIA COVERAGE: |
Media coverage is invited. Please contact
John Paré at the National Federation of the
Blind or Phil Sneiderman at Johns Hopkins. Contact
information is listed above. |
Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the
World Wide Web at
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/
Information on automatic e-mail delivery
of science and medical news releases is available at the
same address.
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Go to
Headlines@HopkinsHome Page
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