Celebrate STEM Day with Mathshare

Today is National STEM Day, a day to celebrate science, technology, engineering, and math education. Did you know that nearly all of the twenty fastest growing occupations in the United States are STEM related? From statisticians to physician’s assistants, more and more career opportunities require a solid foundation in STEM. We believe that all students should have the opportunity to pursue their dream career, and that starts with inclusive science and math education for students of all abilities and learning styles. To celebrate STEM day, we’re shining a spotlight on Benetech’s free, inclusive, education resource, Mathshare, which is paving the way for more students to pursue STEM.

The Challenge

In general, math performance of students in the US is low. In fact, nearly forty percent of students struggle with math knowledge and application skills. Students may have difficulty focusing or have anxiety about making a mistake. Furthermore, hard-to-decipher handwriting and skipping too many steps can make it difficult for students and their teachers to follow their thought process. For students with learning differences like dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, challenges are even more pronounced. They may not be able to practice or learn math due to accessibility of curriculum and math tools. In addition, while many online math tools exist, they skip the step-by-step illustration of how math problems are solved and only provide space for submitting multiple choice responses, making it difficult for teachers to determine whether students understand concepts.

Inclusive Math Tools Provide Personalized Benefit For Every Student

Benetech Mathshare is an inclusive problem-solving tool that makes learning easier. With Mathshare, students can break problems into parts, solve them step by step, and take notes to show their reasoning. This makes it easier for students to stay focused and for teachers to follow their students’ thinking. With built-in word highlighting, sketchpad, speech-to-text inputs and screen reader compatibility, students can choose the features that help them reason through problems and learn more effectively.

STEM Day Problem Set Illuminates Role of Math in Daily Life

Celebrate STEM Day with your students and try Mathshare today, by challenging them with this STEM Day problem set. Targeted towards algebra I students and above, these word problems highlight different situations where STEM problem solving is critical and allow students to show their work as they reason through creative solutions to these real-world situations.