Practical Access Podcast

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

• Season 13 • Episode 2

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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: 

Lisa Dieker:

Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa Dieker.

Rebecca Hines:

And I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa today I hope that we're on board with the idea of let's bring some tools. Let's bring some tools to these teachers who are looking for ways to support kids with disabilities and of all abilities when it comes to science and math.

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, so that thought of, how do you help kids when you get into data and computation and and how do you make it fun and engaging? So I'm going to go with my my strongest one I can recommend, federally funded been for years, and that's PhET it's P, H, E, T, super easy to find. And games, simulations, you name it, across all the following, and I'm just going to read them to you, because I think it's important to know physics, math and statistics, chemistry, earth and space and biology. And you and I both know and they're all accessible. There are some translated ones, even in second language. But you and I both know that gaming is not something you can quickly find always in these areas, or you find one and you're you need to pay for it, or what have you. So we definitely think getting kids more engaged through a gaming model could be very, very fun. What about you?

Rebecca Hines:

Absolutely. And I'm going to go in a support direction. And this doesn't mean supporting kids with disabilities. It means supporting all students. And the website that I'm recommending is called Desmos, and it's a studio that is free to use online, includes graphing calculators, matrixes, geometry, creates 3d models, visuals. So it's a great tool to help bring math, you know, to a more visual space, but also it is used with kids with visual impairment. It is it has more supports for kids with vision impairment than most tools that are available. And you and I both know from experience, we've had doctoral scholars and other students who really, really are underserved in a lot of the math and sciences, especially at very high levels, because the tools really aren't designed to bring that kind of visual material to life. So the readers, the compatibilities, all of those things are built in in fact, this particular tool is the one that is the graphing calculator that's built into the SAT so using Desmos not only prepares kids and gives them an opportunity for accessibility. But by investing a little time in showing kids these tools, allowing all kids to use these tools, you're helping them prepare for the SAT. If this is a tool that's available on there, we should be pre teaching and using this tool in our math classes, and I really challenge teachers to look at the accessibility features they are well described on the website. And let's not let's not assume kids can't do something. Let's give them the tools to demonstrate what they can do.

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, and I'm going to go to one of the biggest mistakes I see people making with 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, we stop taking the manipulatives out. I don't think you're ever too old to have manipulatives. I'm talking college algebra. I think you should have manipulatives. But a lot of times teachers will say, oh, just draw. Well, first of all, if I have a disability in drawing that makes me mad, and that is really not concrete, that's representational. And so oftentimes when kids are confused, we draw more, we talk more, we draw more, when really we should go back to that very basic concrete examples. And you can do things like look at the number of blocks on the floor, or walk around the school or what have you, but I think we miss that quite often and and sometimes that physical engagement can be a game changer for students. So that's that's one that I think we often forget is a low tech option, but it's probably one of the most important. Is manipulatives. And then I love graphic organizers, but I don't love teachers saying, here's the one you're going to use.

Rebecca Hines:

Right.

Lisa Dieker:

I love KWS, which is a math it's like KWF for reading. But again, we did a study, 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 the strategies we teach don't really work when kids get into advanced math classes, so be careful the strategy and the organizer you give put a lot of student choice in it, but understand the concept, whether it be science or math, what you're building on, and whether the kid can lead with that tool, would be one of my thoughts.

Rebecca Hines:

And I appreciate you. Going back to the old school, I've seen some fantastic math results at schools that incorporate movement, movement in the hallways, you know, stepping skipping for young kids, a variety of ways to help kids really learn fundamentally, the basics of math. But I wanted to share my other tool that I wanted to share is one that you know well, and that is Blockly. And Blockly is taking us in a different direction. This is it's a visual programming editor by Google that uses a drag and drop system for teaching basics of coding and I'm not, I don't know in and I'm just being realistic, Lisa, you know, in the in that advent of AI as we know and use it now, I don't know what kind of coding is going to be important in the future. I do believe knowing Blockly and knowing that we have used it with kids of all abilities, including small children with intellectual disabilities, it teaches patterning, it teaches sequencing and a lot of those fundamental skills. So I feel like, whether you want to explicitly teach coding for purpose to students, or if you want to use it as a way to help kids get those conceptual skills in those areas, I strongly recommend it, and we've used it on Project RAISE as you know, which is a robotics project that we have done and just now completing with kids with disabilities, using an AI chatbot to learn to learn coding so it's easy to use, it's intuitive. It's a great starting place. I also would say for parents, it's kind of a starting place there too. I feel that it's a tool that can be it, it can be presented to a child, and he or she can use not only their imagination, but some fundamentals of science to air quote play.

Lisa Dieker:

Yeah, and I agree 1,000% I think what I love the most about Blockly, too, and just Project RAISE, which has kind of a modified version of Blockly that's free, is is that ability to fail. Because really good math and science is about not getting the right answer, but learning how to fail to get to the right answer. And I think that's what Blockly does really well, without going you got it wrong, right? It's not, it's not the game that you, you know, the typical game we see today where it ends for you because you didn't get it right. It allows you to keep trying and trying and trying again. I think that perseverance is something we all very much value. Well, I have just one last thought that that I kind of keeps me up at night in the STEM area, and that is oftentimes I go to IEP meetings, or I hear, you know, or my own son, you know, well, they don't have a disability in math. No, but if you have a tourettes reading your science book and your math book could be hard, so maybe you need a goal for modified text. Or I have a lot of friends who have really severe language kids with severe language-based needs. And there should be an IEP goal that says, when there's complex texts in science, or, you know, they'll get teacher support or or images when possible, because now, you know, AI can do that. Or for math, we really have to think better about word problems, and really understanding that even though I have mathematical knowledge, if I have a language-based issue, mathematics today is all about talking and all about critical thinking, because Copilot, Khanmigo, Kanaka, anybody can answer the question for you, it's the processing if language processing is an issue, I highly recommend people be thinking about IEP goals, not 400 of them. We don't need more goals, but we need clear, articulated goals that are meaningful in those STEM areas. How about you, Becky?

Rebecca Hines:

I 1,000% agree. And to that same end, I think, as you mentioned with the you know, the lower stakes kinds of AT or strategies that we can use. I just want to remind everyone that if you have kids who are using communication devices of any type, and even if that means, even if they're not formally using a communication device, but they are non verbal or struggling verbally, create a communication board that includes your very specific vocabulary that you're using in your math lesson or in your science lesson. So if you're teaching about the atmosphere, you want to have something that a child could point to to respond to a question that you ask. It's very difficult to assess what kids are really learning even in the best case scenario. But for someone who is nonverbal, maybe a low reader, having something, some kind of response board, whether it's old school or something that's programmed into a device, make sure you're giving them access to the vocabulary that you're teaching on a on a daily less on a daily format. It's this is something that special-ed teachers can support gen-ed teachers in creating. It's something that paras could be taught to help create, but we have to make sure that kids have access to respond, and that I want to remind us to think about those kids.

Lisa Dieker:

And I love that, because one of the things I've really been pushing in my my teacher prep, and just the teachers I have the privilege of seeing is, why not give everybody those images, so that everybody sees that? And so now it's just natural that they.

Rebecca Hines:

Exactly.

Lisa Dieker:

Lisa put an image on the board. Let me put that on the device so.

Rebecca Hines:

Exactly.

Lisa Dieker:

Everybody sees it.

Rebecca Hines:

Ask everybody to point to the answer. You know, again, that's how you know that they understand. You can glance and see that and then also.

Lisa Dieker:

Jump to the answer. I mean, are you a run to the you know

Rebecca Hines:

Exactly.

Lisa Dieker:

I think that's where we're ready to go. So, so again, I think this goes back to our first session. You know, inquiry is great, and assisting in modeling data and computation is great, but think about games. Think about low-level tech, higher-level tech, and again, image based and making sure that's a part of the communication system for everybody. Well, thank you for joining us. And if you have questions, send us a Tweet at Access Practical or post a question on our Facebook at Practical Access. Thanks.