Putting the TECH in Math and Science

Learner needs, differentiation, scaffolding, Bloom’s taxonomy, real-life connections — these words point to the top rank of educator priorities. In the dynamic environment of education, which now straddles the virtual and the physical, it can often get tricky to teach and keep learners engaged in Math and Science.

It becomes all the more difficult when there is no blackboard to demonstrate a problem, and individual student intervention is tricky. What if we say that it isn’t?  We only need the right tech tools for it! A deft tech platform – an IB PYP or IB MYP software, for example – could support educators to design activities that promote student curiosity and engagement.

Make Math come alive!

As Math educators, we often struggle with two things: one, making learners develop real-world connections with the subject; and two, understanding where the learning gaps lie. Technology is actually a boon to this struggle!

Different free and open-source tools are available to help make little mathematicians visualize abstract concepts. GeoGebra is one such browser and app-friendly software that brings together geometry, algebra, graphing, statistics, etc in one easy-to-use package. From Pythagoras theorem to calculus, learners can see and learn beyond that one dimension example of their textbooks. They can feed in different dimensions and see the theorem manifest beautifully into geometric wonders! The software also offers over 1 million free classroom activities, simulations, and games in Math & Science.

Another similar tool that you may explore is Desmos. One of the key features that it offers, in addition to GeoGebra’s features and activities, is a display of your student’s work, providing them feedback that allows them to revise their work. Educators can customize GeoGebra and Desmos to suit their needs, integrate them easily with Google Classroom, and enjoy the Math artwork of their learners!

Another common challenge is to write complex mathematical equations digitally, for which we have EquatIO and Mathspace to our rescue! This tool is a Google Chrome extension, with premium features if you have a registered G Suite account, that lets you type math symbols and equations and paste them as images in your worksheets and tests.

If you’re like us for whom a classroom setting of subject charts was really important, you can check out toytheatre.com and mathsbot.com for printables, creative concept visualizations, and much more.

If yours is a school that subscribes to a tech platform like Toddle, you can use the workbook feature in it to create your own neat assessments or attach various kinds of sources and resources from all over. You can also access resources to serve you directly in the classroom, like a list of essential questions for Math, authentic performance tasks for Math, planning for PYP Math, and many, many more – all on Toddle Learn.

Scientific inquiry by simulation

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality becoming the new norm, it has become imperative for our curriculum and pedagogy to upskill our students with critical thinking and analytical thought. Here’s how tech tools can help us:

For a structured lesson plan where there are set concepts to be learned, a tool like PhET simulations can be used. Learners can interact with the platform and learn concepts like motion and atomic chemistry with easy click, drag, and slide. The beauty of this platform is how you can immediately see the reaction of various chemicals and the effects of changes, something learners could only imagine sitting in a classroom. Educators can further nudge students to explore lessons and think of questions and their answers on their own.

In a lesson to encourage greater student agency, with an added ecological perspective, iNaturalist connects you to a million scientists around the world and learns relevant concepts together. Learners will love this app because it allows them to participate in challenges and award them for their contribution with badges like ‘research grade’. While learning, they are contributing data to quality research happening in that particular field. For primary grades, this tool’s ‘Seek’ version works better.

EdTech is the new norm and here to stay. Our old habits of conducting paper-pen tests to assess learners can do away to welcome analytical case studies and engaging projects to actually gauge if our students are ready for the real-time world out there and building their learner profile attributes.