S13 E2: Bringing Science and Math to Life for Every Learner

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In this episode of Practical Access, Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines focus on providing science and math tools for teachers working with students of all abilities. They highlight the importance of making abstract concepts like data and computation more engaging and accessible. The discussion features practical, research-backed resources such as the PhET simulations, which have been federally funded and classroom tested for years. The episode is filled with tangible recommendations to help educators bring energy, clarity, and creativity into STEM instruction. 

Key insights include:

Use of Interactive Tools: Teachers can boost student engagement by integrating interactive digital platforms like PhET simulations to make science and math more visual and hands on.

Accessibility through Flexibility: Flexibility in how content is delivered allows students to access science and math in ways that fit their learning style and pace.

Emphasizing Conceptual Understanding: Focus should be placed on helping students grasp the why behind formulas and data rather than just memorizing steps or vocabulary.

Positive Framing Matters: Teachers should model confidence and curiosity in STEM content. Avoid self limiting statements like I am not a math person in front of students.

Start with What Works: Tap into free and research validated tools already available rather than reinventing the wheel. Resources that are time tested can save teachers energy and improve outcomes.

We love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on our Twitter (@KUFLITECenter), Facebook (@Center for Flexible Learning through Innovations in Technology & education), or Instagram (@Practical_Access). 

Resources: 

• Project RAISE: https://www.ucpcfl.org/projectraise
• Blockly: https://developers.google.com/blockly
• Desmos: https://www.desmos.com/

Episode Transcript

Lisa Dieker (00:07):
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa
Dieker.

Rebecca Hines (00:10):
And I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa today I hope that
we're on board with the idea oflet's bring some tools. Let's
bring some tools to theseteachers who are looking for
ways to support kids withdisabilities and of all
abilities when it comes toscience and math.

Lisa Dieker (00:28):
Yeah, so that thought of, how do you help kids
when you get into data andcomputation and and how do you
make it fun and engaging? So I'mgoing to go with my my strongest
one I can recommend, federallyfunded been for years, and
that's PhET it's P, H, E, T,super easy to find. And games,

(00:50):
simulations, you name it, acrossall the following, and I'm just
going to read them to you,because I think it's important
to know physics, math andstatistics, chemistry, earth and
space and biology. And you and Iboth know and they're all
accessible. There are sometranslated ones, even in second
language. But you and I bothknow that gaming is not
something you can quickly findalways in these areas, or you

(01:14):
find one and you're you need topay for it, or what have you. So
we definitely think getting kidsmore engaged through a gaming
model could be very, very fun.
What about you?

Rebecca Hines (01:22):
Absolutely. And I'm going to go in a support
direction. And this doesn't meansupporting kids with
disabilities. It meanssupporting all students. And the
website that I'm recommending iscalled Desmos, and it's a studio
that is free to use online,includes graphing calculators,

(01:49):
matrixes, geometry, creates 3dmodels, visuals. So it's a great
tool to help bring math, youknow, to a more visual space,
but also it is used with kidswith visual impairment. It is it

(02:09):
has more supports for kids withvision impairment than most
tools that are available. Andyou and I both know from
experience, we've had doctoralscholars and other students who
really, really are underservedin a lot of the math and
sciences, especially at veryhigh levels, because the tools

(02:32):
really aren't designed to bringthat kind of visual material to
life. So the readers, thecompatibilities, all of those
things are built in in fact,this particular tool is the one
that is the graphing calculatorthat's built into the SAT so

(02:54):
using Desmos not only prepareskids and gives them an
opportunity for accessibility.
But by investing a little timein showing kids these tools,
allowing all kids to use thesetools, you're helping them
prepare for the SAT. If this isa tool that's available on

(03:15):
there, we should be pre teachingand using this tool in our math
classes, and I really challengeteachers to look at the
accessibility features they arewell described on the website.
And let's not let's not assumekids can't do something. Let's
give them the tools todemonstrate what they can do.

Lisa Dieker (03:36):
Yeah, and I'm going to go to one of the biggest
mistakes I see people makingwith kids with disabilities,
especially in the STEM areas,is, you know, we have this
concept of concrete,representational, abstract, and
after a certain grade level, westop taking the manipulatives
out. I don't think you're evertoo old to have manipulatives.

(03:57):
I'm talking college algebra. Ithink you should have
manipulatives. But a lot oftimes teachers will say, oh,
just draw. Well, first of all,if I have a disability in
drawing that makes me mad, andthat is really not concrete,
that's representational. And sooftentimes when kids are
confused, we draw more, we talkmore, we draw more, when really

(04:18):
we should go back to that verybasic concrete examples. And you
can do things like look at thenumber of blocks on the floor,
or walk around the school orwhat have you, but I think we
miss that quite often and andsometimes that physical
engagement can be a game changerfor students. So that's that's
one that I think we often forgetis a low tech option, but it's

(04:41):
probably one of the mostimportant. Is manipulatives. And
then I love graphic organizers,but I don't love teachers
saying, here's the one you'regoing to use.

Rebecca Hines (04:48):
Right.

Lisa Dieker (04:48):
I love KWS, which is a math it's like KWF for
reading. But again, we did astudy, and that didn't work for
every kid, so don't assume that,oh, I'm going to teach you this
strategy. A lot of thestrategies we teach don't really
work when kids get into advancedmath classes, so be careful the
strategy and the organizer yougive put a lot of student choice
in it, but understand theconcept, whether it be science

(05:11):
or math, what you're buildingon, and whether the kid can lead
with that tool, would be one ofmy thoughts.

Rebecca Hines (05:17):
And I appreciate you. Going back to the old
school, I've seen some fantasticmath results at schools that
incorporate movement, movementin the hallways, you know,
stepping skipping for youngkids, a variety of ways to help
kids really learn fundamentally,the basics of math. But I wanted

(05:39):
to share my other tool that Iwanted to share is one that you
know well, and that is Blockly.
And Blockly is taking us in adifferent direction. This is
it's a visual programming editorby Google that uses a drag and
drop system for teaching basicsof coding and I'm not, I don't

(05:59):
know in and I'm just beingrealistic, Lisa, you know, in
the in that advent of AI as weknow and use it now, I don't
know what kind of coding isgoing to be important in the
future. I do believe knowingBlockly and knowing that we have

(06:23):
used it with kids of allabilities, including small
children with intellectualdisabilities, it teaches
patterning, it teachessequencing and a lot of those
fundamental skills. So I feellike, whether you want to
explicitly teach coding forpurpose to students, or if you

(06:44):
want to use it as a way to helpkids get those conceptual skills
in those areas, I stronglyrecommend it, and we've used it
on Project RAISE as you know,which is a robotics project that
we have done and just nowcompleting with kids with

(07:04):
disabilities, using an AIchatbot to learn to learn coding
so it's easy to use, it'sintuitive. It's a great starting
place. I also would say forparents, it's kind of a starting
place there too. I feel thatit's a tool that can be it, it

(07:25):
can be presented to a child, andhe or she can use not only their
imagination, but somefundamentals of science to air
quote play.

Lisa Dieker (07:41):
Yeah, and I agree 1,000% I think what I love the
most about Blockly, too, andjust Project RAISE, which has
kind of a modified version ofBlockly that's free, is is that
ability to fail. Because reallygood math and science is about
not getting the right answer,but learning how to fail to get
to the right answer. And I thinkthat's what Blockly does really
well, without going you got itwrong, right? It's not, it's not

(08:05):
the game that you, you know, thetypical game we see today where
it ends for you because youdidn't get it right. It allows
you to keep trying and tryingand trying again. I think that
perseverance is something we allvery much value. Well, I have
just one last thought that thatI kind of keeps me up at night
in the STEM area, and that isoftentimes I go to IEP meetings,
or I hear, you know, or my ownson, you know, well, they don't

(08:27):
have a disability in math. No,but if you have a tourettes
reading your science book andyour math book could be hard, so
maybe you need a goal formodified text. Or I have a lot
of friends who have reallysevere language kids with severe
language-based needs. And thereshould be an IEP goal that says,
when there's complex texts inscience, or, you know, they'll

(08:50):
get teacher support or or imageswhen possible, because now, you
know, AI can do that. Or formath, we really have to think
better about word problems, andreally understanding that even
though I have mathematicalknowledge, if I have a
language-based issue,mathematics today is all about
talking and all about criticalthinking, because Copilot,

(09:13):
Khanmigo, Kanaka, anybody cananswer the question for you,
it's the processing if languageprocessing is an issue, I highly
recommend people be thinkingabout IEP goals, not 400 of
them. We don't need more goals,but we need clear, articulated
goals that are meaningful inthose STEM areas. How about you,
Becky?

Rebecca Hines (09:30):
I 1,000% agree.
And to that same end, I think,as you mentioned with the you
know, the lower stakes kinds ofAT or strategies that we can
use. I just want to remindeveryone that if you have kids

(09:50):
who are using communicationdevices of any type, and even if
that means, even if they're notformally using a communication
device, but they are non verbalor struggling verbally, create a
communication board thatincludes your very specific
vocabulary that you're using inyour math lesson or in your

(10:11):
science lesson. So if you'reteaching about the atmosphere,
you want to have something thata child could point to to
respond to a question that youask. It's very difficult to
assess what kids are reallylearning even in the best case
scenario. But for someone who isnonverbal, maybe a low reader,

(10:34):
having something, some kind ofresponse board, whether it's old
school or something that'sprogrammed into a device, make
sure you're giving them accessto the vocabulary that you're
teaching on a on a daily less ona daily format. It's this is

(10:55):
something that special-edteachers can support gen-ed
teachers in creating. It'ssomething that paras could be
taught to help create, but wehave to make sure that kids have
access to respond, and that Iwant to remind us to think about
those kids.

Lisa Dieker (11:17):
And I love that, because one of the things I've
really been pushing in my myteacher prep, and just the
teachers I have the privilege ofseeing is, why not give
everybody those images, so thateverybody sees that? And so now
it's just natural that they.

Rebecca Hines (11:31):
Exactly.

Lisa Dieker (11:32):
Lisa put an image on the board. Let me put that on
the device so.

Rebecca Hines (11:36):
Exactly.

Lisa Dieker (11:36):
Everybody sees it.

Rebecca Hines (11:38):
Ask everybody to point to the answer. You know,
again, that's how you know thatthey understand. You can glance
and see that and then also.

Lisa Dieker (11:47):
Jump to the answer.
I mean, are you a run to the youknow

Rebecca Hines (11:51):
Exactly.

Lisa Dieker (11:52):
I think that's where we're ready to go. So, so
again, I think this goes back toour first session. You know,
inquiry is great, and assistingin modeling data and computation
is great, but think about games.
Think about low-level tech,higher-level tech, and again,
image based and making surethat's a part of the
communication system foreverybody. Well, thank you for

(12:14):
joining us. And if you havequestions, send us a Tweet at
Access Practical or post aquestion on our Facebook at
Practical Access. Thanks.