Website Terms of Use

Description of Site Services; Acceptance of Terms of Use

Welcome to www.amplify.com (together with any successor sites and the Site Services and Company Content (each as defined below), in whole and in part, the “Site”). The Site is operated by Amplify Education, Inc. (“Company” or “we”). The services that Company makes available on or through the Site include education-related articles, information and instructional services, purchasing functionality, support chat functionality and any other features, content, services, functionality and applications offered from time to time by Company on or through the Site (collectively, “Site Services”).

BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SITE, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU ARE OF LEGAL AGE TO ENTER INTO THIS TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) AND YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. BY PURCHASING GOODS AND SERVICES ON THE SITE, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THIS AGREEMENT AS WELL AS ANY ADDITIONAL TERMS OF USE THAT MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE PARTICULAR GOODS AND SERIVICES YOU ARE PURCHASING.

Please read this Agreement carefully. If you are an employee or other representative of a school or other organization who is accessing or using the Site on behalf of such organization, then you are agreeing to this Agreement on behalf of yourself and such organization. We may modify this Agreement at any time in our discretion, and we may provide such modifications to you by any reasonable means, including by posting the revised version of this Agreement on the Site. You can determine when this Agreement was last revised by referring to the “LAST UPDATED” legend at the top of this Agreement. Your access to or use of the Site following any changes to this Agreement will constitute your acceptance of those changes. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any changes to this Agreement shall not apply to any dispute between you and us arising prior to the date on which we posted the revised version of this Agreement incorporating such changes or otherwise notified you of such changes. If you do not agree to be bound by this Agreement, you must not access or use the Site. Your access to and use of certain parts of the Site may require you to accept additional terms and conditions, and may require you to download certain Software or Content (each as defined below).

Jurisdictional Issues

The Site is controlled and operated by Company from the United States, and is not intended to subject Company to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. Company does not represent or warrant that the Site is appropriate or available for use in any particular jurisdiction other than the United States. In choosing to access and use the Site, you do so on your own initiative and at your own risk, and you are responsible for complying with all local laws, rules and regulations. You are also subject to United States export controls and are responsible for any violations of such controls, including any United States embargoes and other federal rules and regulations restricting exports. We may limit the Site’s availability to any person, geographic area or jurisdiction we choose, at any time and in our discretion. Not all products or services described on the Site are available in all states or territories.

Company content

The Site contains information, text, files, images, video, sounds, musical works, computer code, works of authorship, applications, and other materials and content (collectively, “Content”) of Company or its licensors (“Company Content”). The Site (including the Company Content) is protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret and other laws, and as between you and Company, Company owns and retains all rights in the Site. Company hereby grants to you a limited, revocable, non-sublicensable license, during the term of the Agreement, to access, display and perform the Company Content (excluding any computer code) solely for your personal, non-commercial use and solely as necessary to access and use the Site. Except as expressly permitted by Company in this Agreement or on the Site, you may not copy, download, stream, capture, reproduce, duplicate, archive, upload, modify, translate, create derivative works based upon, publish, broadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute, perform, display, sell or otherwise use or transfer any Content. You may not, either directly or through the use of any device, software, online resource or other means, remove, alter, bypass, avoid, interfere with or circumvent any copyright, trademark or other proprietary notice on the Content or any digital rights management mechanism, device, or other content protection or access control measure associated with the Content.

User content

You may not access or use the Site for any commercial purpose. You are responsible for all Content that you post, upload, transmit, e-mail or otherwise make available on, through or in connection with the Site (collectively, “User Content”). Please choose carefully the Content that you make available on, through or in connection with the Site. Company does not control any Content other than Company Content, and as such you may be exposed to offensive, indecent, inaccurate or otherwise objectionable Content by accessing or using the Site. Company is not responsible or liable for any Content or the conduct of any Site user. If you become aware of any misuse of the Site, please report such misuse immediately to Company at general@amplify.com. Company reserves the right (but has no obligation) to monitor the Site, including for inappropriate Content or conduct, and to remove any Content in Company’s discretion and without liability to you or any third party.

Your proprietary rights

You retain any ownership rights that you have in your User Content. You hereby grant to Company and its affiliates, licensees and authorized users, a perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid-up and royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), transferable (in whole or in part), worldwide license to use, modify, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and compilations based upon, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and distribute such User Content on, through or in connection with the Site and/or any other commercial or non-commercial endeavor of Company or any of its affiliates, including in connection with any distribution or syndication thereof to Third Party Services (as defined below), on and through all media formats now known or hereafter devised, for any and all purposes including promotional, marketing, trade and commercial purposes. The exercise of such rights shall not require any further permission or notice, payment or attribution to you or any third party. Company reserves the right to limit the storage capacity made available for User Content.

You represent and warrant that: (a) you own the User Content made available by you, or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this Section, and (b) the posting of such User Content through or in connection with the Site does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person or entity. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person or entity by reason of the use of such User Content.

Use of the site

You agree not to:

  • Post, upload or otherwise transmit or link to Content that is: unlawful; threatening; harmful; abusive; pornographic or includes nudity; offensive; harassing; excessively violent; tortious; defamatory; false or misleading; obscene; vulgar; libelous; hateful; or discriminatory.
  • Violate the rights of others, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, privacy, publicity, contract or other proprietary rights.
  • Harass or harm another person.
  • Exploit or endanger a minor.
  • Impersonate any person or entity.
  • Introduce or engage in activity that involves the use of viruses, bots, worms, Trojan horses, Easter eggs, time bombs, spyware or any other computer code, files or programs that interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment, or otherwise permit the unauthorized access to or use of a computer or a computer network.
  • Interfere with, damage, disable, disrupt, impair, create an undue burden on, or gain unauthorized access to the Site or any Account, or Company’s servers or networks;
  • Restrict or inhibit any other person from using the Site (including by hacking or defacing the Site). Cover, remove, disable, block or obscure the Site (including advertisements on the Site).
  • Use technology or any automated system, such as scripts or bots, to collect user names, passwords, e-mail addresses or any other data from or through the Site, or to circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Site.
  • Send or cause to send (directly or indirectly) unsolicited bulk messages or other unsolicited bulk communications of any kind through the Site. If you do so, you acknowledge you will have caused substantial harm to Company, and that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to measure. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay to Company $50.00 for each actual or intended recipient of such communication.
  • Modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Site.
  • Solicit, collect or request any information for commercial or unlawful purposes.
  • Post, upload or otherwise transmit an image or video of another person without that person’s consent.
  • Use the Site to advertise, promote or engage in any commercial activity (including engaging in sales, contests or sweepstakes) without Company’s prior written consent.
  • Frame or mirror the Site without Company’s express prior written consent.
  • Use the Site in a manner inconsistent with any applicable law, rule or regulation.
  • Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application or other manual or automatic device to retrieve, index, “scrape,” “data mine,” or in any way gather content of the Site or reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site without Company’s express prior written consent. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Company grants to the operators of public search engines the permission to use spiders to copy material from the Site for the sole purpose of, and solely to the extent necessary for, creating publicly-available searchable indices of such material, but not caches or archives of such material. Company reserves the right to revoke these exceptions either generally or in specific cases.
  • Attempt, facilitate or encourage others to do any of the foregoing.

Company reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Company’s discretion, violates this Agreement or attempts to do so, including terminating or suspending a user’s Account or access to or use of the Site, or reporting any User Content or conduct to law enforcement authorities.

You (and not Company) are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all telecommunications, broadband and computer hardware, equipment and services needed to access and use the Site, and for paying all charges related thereto.

User disputes

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Site, providers of Third Party Services (as defined below) or any other third parties with whom you interact on, through or in connection with the Site.

Purchases

Company may make available products and services for purchase through the Site, and may use third-party suppliers and service providers to enable e-commerce functionality on the Site. You may only purchase products and services that appear on the Site and that are delivered to an address located in the United States. You may only purchase products and services for personal, non-commercial use by you, your educational institution or students of your educational institution. We may limit quantities or refuse any order for any reason or no reason, including if we have reasonable cause to believe an order is for onward sale or resale other than through distribution channels approved by us. We make no promise that products or services available on the Site are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States, and purchasing products or services for delivery to or use in territories where their contents are unlawful is prohibited. If you choose to purchase products or services from locations outside the United States, you do so at your own risk. It is your responsibility to ascertain and obey all applicable local, state, federal and international laws (including minimum age requirements) in regard to the possession, use and sale of any product or service made available through the Site.

If you wish to purchase any product or service made available through the Site, you may be asked to supply certain information relevant to your transaction, including your credit card number, the expiration date of your credit card, your billing address and your shipping information. YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO USE ANY CREDIT CARD(S) USED IN CONNECTION WITH ANY TRANSACTION. By submitting such information, you grant to Company the right to provide such information to third parties for purposes of facilitating the completion of transactions initiated by you or on your behalf. Verification of information may be required prior to the acknowledgement or completion of any transaction. While it is our practice to confirm orders by e-mail, the receipt of an e-mail order confirmation does not constitute our acceptance of an order or our confirmation of an offer to sell a product or service.

Details of the products and services available for purchase are set forth on the Site. All prices are displayed exclusive of all taxes and shipping/freight charges. Available payment methods, methods of shipping and shipping charges (including charges for expedited shipping, if available) are detailed on the Site. Company may also collect and remit sales tax on your purchase as required by United States law. If you are a tax-exempt entity, please enter the appropriate information where requested on your order form and we will not collect sales tax on your purchase.

Generally, credit and debit cards are not charged until we either ship the product(s) or confirm store availability (at which time you will be charged only for the products we have actually shipped along with any applicable taxes and shipping charges). However, we may pre-authorize your order amount with your credit or debit card issuer at the time you place the order, which may have an effect on your available credit line. When paying for a preorder with a debit card, you will be charged at the time you place your preorder. Please contact your credit or debit card issuer for more information. If you ordered a special delivery product, you will be charged once a delivery time is confirmed. For digitally delivered orders, your credit or debit card will be charged at the time that you initiate the download of the product.

All purchases made through the Site are made pursuant to a shipment contract. As a result, risk of loss and title for products purchased through the Site pass to you upon delivery of the products to the carrier. You are responsible for filing any claims with carriers for damaged and/or lost shipments. Please note that all shipping addresses must be compliant with the shipping restrictions contained on the Site.

Products, services and specifications

All products and services described or depicted on the Site, and all related features, content, specifications and prices, are subject to change at any time without notice. Certain weights, measures and similar descriptions are approximate and are provided for convenience purposes only. Packaging may vary from that shown. We make reasonable efforts to accurately display the attributes of our products, including the applicable colors; however, the actual color you see will depend on your computer system, and we cannot guarantee that your computer will accurately display such colors. The inclusion of any product or service on the Site at a particular time does not imply or warrant that such product or service will be available at any time. Occasionally, the manufacture or distribution of a certain product or service may be delayed for a number of reasons. In such event, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of the delay and keep you informed of the revised delivery schedule. By placing an order, you represent that the products and services ordered will be used only in a lawful manner. All DVDs and similar products are sold for private, non-commercial home use (where no admission fee is charged), non-public performance, or classroom or instructional use only, and may not be duplicated.

Return and exchange policy

Unless otherwise specified in the terms associated with a particular product, you may return or exchange any product purchased through the Site within fourteen (14) days of receipt, by calling our customer service hotline, 1–800–823–1969, in the event that the purchased product is defective or you received the wrong product. Except for the foregoing, you may not return, cancel or exchange any product or service. Certain jurisdictions may provide additional statutory rights. Nothing herein is meant to limit your return or cancellation rights under local law. In the event that a return or exchange is due to an incorrect order or faulty product, we will be responsible for the shipping costs associated with such return. We will ship a replacement product upon receiving your defective or incorrect product and verifying the reason for the return or exchange.

Accuracy of information

We attempt to ensure that information on the Site is complete, accurate and current. Despite our efforts, the information on the Site may occasionally be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. We make no representation as to the completeness, accuracy or currency of any information on the Site. For example, products or services included on the Site may be unavailable, may have different attributes than those listed, or may carry a different price than that stated on the Site. If an item’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation. Items in your “Shopping Bag” reflect the current price displayed on the item’s product detail page. Please note that this price may differ from the price displayed when the item was first placed in your Shopping Bag. In addition, we may make changes in information about price and availability without notice.

Chemicals, agricultural materials, and other hazardous materials

Certain products made available through the Site may include chemicals, agricultural materials or other material that may be subject to regulations or restrictions with respect to import or export, or to whom we may sell such material or where or how such material may be used. It is your responsibility to read and abide by all warning notices that accompany any products that you purchase. In addition, we reserve the right to request additional information from you, verify your identity, limit sales to certified educational or research institutions, or cancel or delay your order if required by law or if we believe it is necessary or advisable. Due to special shipping and handling requirements, freight companies routinely impose a surcharge on each package of hazardous material shipped. In such event, we will add such surcharge to your order.

Registration and account security

You may have the ability to create an account on or through the Site (an “Account”). If you submit registration information to create an Account, you represent and warrant that all information submitted to Company in connection with such registration is complete and accurate, and that you will update such information if it changes. If you create an Account, you are responsible for all use of your Account, and for maintaining the confidentiality of the information used to access your Account (including user name and password). You agree not to share your user name or password with anyone, or use anyone else’s Account at any time. You agree to notify Company immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of, or access to, your Account (including your user name and password). You acknowledge that the reuse of your password in connection with accounts on other websites increases the risk that the security of your Account may be compromised.

The Site may make available, or third parties may provide, links to other websites, applications, resources, advertisements, Content or other products or services created, hosted or made available by third parties (“Third Party Services”), and such third party may use other third parties to provide portions of the Third Party Service to you, such as technology, development or payment services. When you access or use a Third Party Service, you are interacting with the applicable third party, not with Company, and you do so at your own risk. Company is not responsible for and makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the Third Party Services or the providers of such Third Party Services (including the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by such Third Party Service or the privacy practices of any third party). Inclusion of any Third Party Service or a link thereto on the Site does not imply approval or endorsement of such Third Party Service. Company is not responsible or liable for the content or practices of any Third Party Service or third party, even if such Third Party Service links to or is linked by the Site, and even if such Third Party Service is operated by an affiliate of Company or a company otherwise connected with us or the Site

Feedback

Unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing, if you provide us with any ideas, proposals, suggestions or materials (“Feedback”), whether related to the Site or otherwise, you hereby acknowledge and agree that (a) your provision of any Input is gratuitous, unsolicited and without restriction and does not place Company under any fiduciary or other obligation; and (b) any Feedback is not confidential and Company has no confidentiality obligations with respect to such Feedback.. You hereby grant to us a world-wide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable and fully sublicensable (through multiple tiers) license, without additional consideration to you or any third party, to reproduce, distribute, perform and display (publicly or otherwise), adapt, modify and otherwise use and exploit such Feedback, in any format or media now known or hereafter developed, and you hereby represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to grant the foregoing license. We may use Feedback for any purpose whatsoever without permission or notice, compensation or attribution to you or any third party. You are and remain responsible and liable for the content of any Feedback.

Privacy

Please review the Privacy Policy for the Site, available at http://www.amplify.com/privacy, to learn about our information collection, usage and disclosures practices with respect to information collected by us through the Site. Please note that certain products or services made available by us, other than the Site, may be subject to different privacy policies. In addition, the Site’s Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible or liable for, the information collection, usage and disclosures practices of any third party or Third Party Service.

Disclaimers

THE SITE, USER CONTENT, THIRD PARTY SERVICES, AND ALL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SOLD THROUGH THE SITE (COLLECTIVELY, THE “SITE PRODUCTS”) ARE MADE AVAILABLE “AS-IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” AND COMPANY DOES NOT GUARANTEE OR PROMISE ANY SPECIFIC RESULTS FROM USE OF THE SITE PRODUCTS. COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN PARTICULAR, COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT THE SITE OR USER CONTENT OR THIRD PARTY SERVICES, OR YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE THEREOF, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE SITE PRODUCTS THAT VIOLATES ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION. CERTAIN STATE LAWS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. IF THESE LAWS APPLY TO YOU, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS, EXCLUSIONS, OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MIGHT HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.

Under no circumstances will Company or its affiliates be responsible for any loss or damage, including property damage, personal injury or death, resulting from use of the Site, Products, problems or technical malfunction in connection with use of the Site, Products, attendance at any Company event or the conduct of any Site users, whether online or offline. Your use of the Site, Products is solely your responsibility and at your own risk. The User Content and Third Party Services do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Company or its affiliates.

Limitations on liability

IN NO EVENT WILL COMPANY OR ITS AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFIT DAMAGES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SITE PRODUCTS, EVEN IF COMPANY OR ONE OF ITS AFFILIATES HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO COMPANY FOR THE SITE PRODUCTS.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Company, its affiliates, subcontractors and other partners, and each of their respective officers, agents, partners and employees, from any losses, costs, expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees), liabilities, claims or demands, due to or arising out of your use of the Site, your breach or alleged breach of this Agreement, your violation or alleged violation of any rights of another, or any Content that you post or otherwise submit on, through or in connection with the Site.

Termination

This Agreement remains in full force and effect while you access or use the Site. If you create an Account, you may terminate your Account at any time, for any reason, by contacting us at general@amplify.com. Company may terminate or suspend your Account and/or your access to or use of the Site at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice or explanation, and without liability. Upon any such suspension or termination, your right to access and use the Site will immediately cease, and Company may immediately deactivate or delete your Account and all files and other information associated with it, and/or bar any further access to such files and other information. Company shall not be liable to you or any third party for any suspension or termination of your Account or of access to or use of the Site or any such files or other information, and shall not be required to make such files and other information available to you after any such suspension or termination. Sections 2, 5, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, and 26 shall survive any expiration or termination of this Agreement.

U.S. export controls

All software made available in connection with the Site (“Software”) may be subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from or through the Site or otherwise exported or re-exported in violation of U.S. export laws.

Governing law

The terms of this Agreement are governed by the laws of the State of New York, U.S.A., without regard to its conflicts of law provisions, and regardless of your location.

Arbitration

EXCEPT FOR DISPUTES THAT QUALIFY FOR SMALL CLAIMS COURT, ALL DISPUTES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STATUTE, FRAUD, MISREPRESENTATION OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, WILL BE RESOLVED THROUGH FINAL AND BINDING ARBITRATION BEFORE A NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR INSTEAD OF IN A COURT BY A JUDGE OR JURY, AND YOU AGREE THAT COMPANY AND YOU ARE EACH WAIVING THE RIGHT TO TRIAL BY A JURY. YOU AGREE THAT ANY ARBITRATION UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL TAKE PLACE ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS; CLASS ARBITRATIONS AND CLASS ACTIONS ARE NOT PERMITTED AND YOU ARE AGREEING TO GIVE UP THE ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION.

Arbitration procedure

Any arbitration under Section 23 above will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules and Supplementary Procedures for Consumer-Related Disputes (“Supplementary Procedures”), as amended by this Agreement. The Supplementary Procedures are available online at http://www.adr.org/aaa/ShowPDF?doc=ADRSTG_015820. The arbitrator will conduct hearings, if any, by teleconference or videoconference, rather than by personal appearances, unless the arbitrator determines upon request by you or by us that an in-person hearing is appropriate. Any in-person appearances will be held at a location which is reasonably convenient to both parties with due consideration of their ability to travel and other pertinent circumstances. If the parties are unable to agree on a location, such determination should be made by the AAA or by the arbitrator. The arbitrator’s decision will follow the terms of this Agreement and will be final and binding. The arbitrator will have authority to award temporary, interim or permanent injunctive relief or relief providing for specific performance of this Agreement, but only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by the individual claim before the arbitrator. The award rendered by the arbitrator may be confirmed and enforced in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, nothing in this Agreement will preclude you from bringing issues to the attention of federal, state, or local agencies, and, if the law allows, they can seek relief against us for you.

Employment opportunities

Company may, from time to time, post Company employment opportunities on the Site and/or invite users to submit resumes to Company. If you choose to submit your name, contact information, resume and/or other personal information to Company in response to such employment listings, you are authorizing Company to use this information for all lawful and legitimate hiring, employment and other business purposes. Company also reserves the right, at its discretion, to forward such information to Company’s affiliates for their legitimate business purposes. Nothing in this Agreement or contained on the Site will constitute a promise by Company to review any such information, or to contact, interview, hire or employ any individual who submits such information.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that any material residing on or linked to from the Site infringes your copyright, please send (or have your agent send) to Company’s Copyright Agent a notification of claimed infringement with all of the following information: (a) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works; (b) identification of the claimed infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material on the Site (such as the URL(s) of the claimed infringing material); (c) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an e-mail address; (d) a statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent or the law; (e) a statement by you that the above information in your notification is accurate and a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed or are authorized to act on such owner’s behalf; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. Company’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can be reached as follows: Copyright Agent, Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201; Facsimile: 212-796-2311; Attn: Legal. Company’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can also be reached electronically at: legal@amplify.com. Company reserves the right to terminate infringers’ and suspected infringers’ Accounts or their access to or use of the Site.

Notice for California residents

Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following consumer rights notice: If you have a question or complaint regarding the Site, please contact us by writing to Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 or by calling us at 212–213–8177 or sending a fax to 212–796–2311. California residents may reach the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs by mail at 1625 North Market Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (916) 445–1254 or (800) 952–5210.

Other terms

This Agreement does not, and shall not be construed to, create any partnership, joint venture, employer-employee, agency or franchisor-franchisee relationship between you and Company. You may not assign, transfer or sublicense any or all of your rights or obligations under this Agreement without our express prior written consent. We may assign, transfer or sublicense any or all of our rights or obligations under this Agreement without restriction. The failure of Company to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The Section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. References to and mentions of the word “include,” “includes,” “including,” or “e.g.” will mean “including, without limitation.” References to “discretion” will mean “sole discretion.” This Agreement operates to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of this Agreement is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from this Agreement and does not affect the validity or enforceability of any remaining provisions. Without limitation, you agree that a printed version of this Agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. Company will not be responsible for failures to fulfill any obligations due to causes beyond its control.

Please contact us at legal@amplify.com with any questions regarding this Agreement.

Website Privacy Policy

Last Modified:  February 2026

Update: February 2, 2026: This Privacy Policy has been updated to address additional rights for individuals in the European Union/UK.

Below is the Website Privacy Policy for the amplify.com site (“Privacy Policy”). For purposes of clarity and as further outlined below, this Privacy Policy does not apply to student data. You can visit this page to read about the principles and policy governing student data collected and maintained on behalf of our school customers.

We advise you to read this Privacy Policy in its entirety, including the jurisdiction-specific provisions in the appendix. Our Notice at Collection for California Residents is available in the Notice for our California Customers.

Who We Are / What This Privacy Policy Covers

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we may collect through your use of this website (the “Site”).

This Privacy Policy does not apply to Amplify’s handling of:

  • student data or other information collected from users of Amplify’s products that support classroom instruction and learning, which are governed by our Customer Privacy Policy.
  • staff or applicant data that we process in accordance with our staff or applicant privacy notice, respectively.

If you have any question as to what legal agreement or privacy policy controls the collection and use of your information, please contact us using information below in the Contact Us section.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to our Website Terms of Use, which governs your use of the Site.

Our Role: We are the controller of all personal information (as defined below) that we receive through our Site and can be reached by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

1. What personal information do we collect?

When you visit and / or interact with our Site, we may collect the following information about you that, alone or in combination, could be used to identify you or your device (“personal information”):

  • Contact Information, such as name, district / school name, professional affiliation, title / role, email address, shipping address, address and phone number.
  • Account Information, such as customer user login and password. 
  • Demographic Information, such as age and gender.
  • Information You Submit, such as information voluntarily provided on message boards, feedback sections, and other public areas of the Site.
  • Site Activity Information, which is collected when you access and interact with the Site, we and our Service Providers (as defined below) may collect certain information about those visits. For example, we or our Service Providers may receive and record information about your computer and browser, including your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Site from a mobile or other device, we may collect a unique device identifier assigned to that device, or other characteristics of the device hardware, operating system and configurations for that device. On certain pages of the Site, we may use third party tools to help us look at mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, data or text entered, and the pages you visit.
  • Location Information, such as state, country and / or zip code, which we use to help us customize your experience, as well as to help us facilitate your privacy rights.
  • Audio, electronic, visual, or similar information: such as customer service interactions, call recordings, chat transcripts, files you attach, and email, text, or other correspondence.

If you make a purchase through our online store, you may provide payment and other information directly to our third party e-commerce platform to complete your purchase.

We ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any government identifiers (such as social security numbers) or information related to racial or ethnic origin, health, or criminal background on or through the Site or otherwise.

2. Where/How do we collect personal information?

Amplify may collect personal information directly from you at various points, including the following:

  • Product Information and Newsletters. When you submit a request to obtain information about our products, services or other informational material or subscribe to one of our newsletters, you may be asked to submit information such as name, professional affiliation, email address, company name, address and phone and details on your query or interests in our products and services. This information is collected to help us process your request.
  • Customer Support. When you submit a form to contact our customer service, you may be asked to submit information such as name, e-mail, district, customer user login and password and details on your query. In addition, some features of our Site, such as our customer live chat functionality or other customer service systems may allow you to voluntarily provide personal information to us. This information is collected to help us process your request. Please only provide what is needed to facilitate the support request.
  • Product Orders. If you use e-commerce areas of our Site to order our products, we request information from you on our order form. To purchase products through the Site, you must provide contact information (such as name and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill your orders. We will also use this information to contact you to confirm your order or to inform you of any issues or delays.
  • Registration. You may be asked to submit information to use certain parts of the Site (such as posting comments on certain areas of the Site), register for an event or webinar, or view restricted content that may be available on the Site. For instance, you may be asked to provide your name, email address and event or webinar-related preferences to help us process your registration or content request.
  • Public Areas and Discussion Forums. Any information you share in public areas, such as message boards or feedback sections, becomes public. Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any personal information that you expect to keep private.
  • Contests and Sweepstakes. When we run a contest or sweepstakes relating to the Site or Amplify, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest/sweepstakes will specify how the information gathered from you for your entry will be used and disclosed.

As you visit or use our Site, we may collect Site activity information through cookies and similar technologies.

  • Cookies, Pixels, and Other Tracking Technologies. Cookies and other tracking technologies (such as pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology) are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They allow the website or mobile app to remember your actions and preferences over a period of time. We use the following types of cookies:
    • Strictly necessary cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site. These cookies are not generally stored beyond the browser session and are less likely to include personal information. This category of cookies cannot be disabled.
    • Functionality Cookies – We use these cookies so that we recognize you on our Site and remember your previously selected preferences. These cookies are stored on your device between browsing sessions but expire after a pre-defined period. These cookies enable our Site to “recognize” you when you use our Site, including your preferences such as your preferred language , time, and location. A mix of first party (placed by us) and third-party cookies (placed by third parties) are used.
    • Analytics Cookies – These cookies help us and our Service Providers compile statistics and analytics about users of the Site, including Site Activity Information. For example, we use Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with the Platform. Google Analytics uses cookies to track your interactions with the Site, then collects that information and reports it to us. This information helps us improve the Site so that we can better serve you. To learn more about Google Analytics, visit https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en. If you wish, you can opt-out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available on https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
    • Advertising Cookies – We use these cookies to collect information about your visit to our Site, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address. We sometimes share some limited aspects of this data with third parties for advertising purposes. We may also share Site Activity Information collected through cookies with our advertising partners. This means that when you visit another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our Site.

For information on how to opt-out of these technologies, please see What Choices Do You Have? below.

  • Social Plugins. Certain areas of our Site permit you to utilize social media functionality, such as the Facebook “Like” or Google “+1” buttons (“Social Plugins”). To use a Social Plugin, you must authorize the third-party provider of that Social Plugin, e.g. Facebook or Google, to access, collect, and/or disclose your information related to your use of that Social Plugin, subject to that company’s privacy policies, which may differ from this Privacy Policy. In addition, such providers may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on the Site, and they may notify your connections on their social networking platform about your use of the Site. Such services may also employ unique identifiers that allow your activity to be monitored across multiple websites for purposes of delivering more targeted advertising to you.

Amplify also receives information from other sources.

  • Information from Other Sources. We may supplement any information we collect via this Site with information from publicly or commercially available sources.

3. How do we use personal information?

We may use any personal information and other information we collect from and about you for the following purposes and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy:

  • To provide and manage the Site. We use the personal information we collect from and about you to provide the Site and features to you, including to measure and improve its services and features, to personalize your experience by delivering relevant content, to deliver marketing messages, to allow you to comment on content, to provide you with customer support, and to respond to inquiries. We may also use and disclose aggregate or anonymous data about your use of and activity on the Site to assist us in this regard and for any other purpose.
  • To contact you. Amplify may periodically send promotional materials (e.g., newsletters) or notifications related to the Site and to Amplify’s business to the contact information you provided to us at registration.
  • To improve our products and services. We may use your personal information for our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products and services, enhancing the Site, improving our services, identifying usage trends, and determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.
  • For marketing and advertising. We may use your personal information to help us market our products to you or your school district.

4. To whom do we disclose personal information?

We may disclose any personal information and other information we collect from and about you for the following purposes and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy:

  • To share with our affiliated education companies. Amplify may share your personal information with Amplify’s affiliated education companies for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
  • To allow service providers to assist us. We may engage third party service providers, agents and partners (“Service Providers”) to perform functions on our behalf, such as analytics, credit card processing, shipping or stocking orders and providing customer service. We may disclose your personal information to such Service Providers to enable them to assist us in these efforts.
  • To allow our marketing and advertising partners to assist us. We may engage marketing and advertising partners to help us market and advertise our products and services, including via digital ads sent in connection with your visit to the Site. We may disclose Site Activity information, as well as contact information and other aggregate insights to such partners to enable them to assist us in these efforts.
  • To protect the rights of Amplify and our users. There may be instances when Amplify may disclose your personal information, in situations where Amplify has a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary or appropriate in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, operations, or property of Amplify, our parents, subsidiaries or affiliates or our or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements, including our terms of use); (ii) protect the rights, safety, privacy, security or property of users of the Site or others; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) comply with the law or legal process, including laws outside your country of residence; (v) respond to requests from public and government authorities, including those outside your country of residence; or (vi) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
  • To complete a merger or sale of assets. If Amplify sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of its assets or is otherwise involved in a merger, transfer or other disposition of all or part of its business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), Amplify may transfer your personal information to the party or parties involved in the transaction.

5. What rights and choices do you have?

Opt-out of Marketing Communications. If you want to stop receiving promotional materials from Amplify, you can follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email. There are certain service notification emails that you may not opt-out of, such as notifications of changes to the Site or policies. If you have additional questions, please contact us using information below in the Contact Us section.

Opt-of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. There are a few ways to opt out or delete cookies.

  • On Your Browser. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, but your browser may permit you to change your settings to notify you of a cookie being set or updated, or to block cookies altogether. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information. Please note that by blocking any or all cookies you may not have access to certain features, content or personalization that may be available through the Site. Please also note that you must opt out separately on each device (including each web browser on each device) that you use to access our Site if you wish to opt out, and if you clear your cookies or if you use a different browser or device, you will need to renew your opt-out preferences.
  • Interest-Based Advertising. Some advertisers and marketing companies participate in the self-regulatory programs of the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) and European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (“eDAA”) in connection with online interest-based advertising. DAA and eDAA provide consumers with the ability to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from their program participants at the following links:

What Rights Do You Have?

6. Security

Amplify uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard personal information in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification.

7. Data retention / Deletion

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law. Even after we have deleted your personal information from our systems, copies of some information from your account may remain viewable in some circumstances – where, for example, you have shared information with social media platforms and other unaffiliated services. We may also retain backup information related to your account on our servers for some time after cancellation for fraud detection or to comply with applicable law or our internal security policies. Because of the nature of caching technology, your account may not be instantly inaccessible to others, and there may be a delay in the removal of the content from elsewhere on the Internet and from search engines.

8. Data Storage and Transfers

We are a United States Company, and our servers are hosted, managed, and controlled by us in the United States. If you are outside of the United States, we use industry standards to protect your data when it leaves your country of residence and your data will always be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy, Applicable Laws and our Agreement regardless of the storage location.

Additionally, where we transfer your personal information to service providers outside of the United Kingdom (UK), European Economic Area (EEA), or other region that offers similar protections, we use specific appropriate safeguards to contractually obligate such service providers to protect personal information in accordance with Amplify’s commitment to privacy and security and applicable data protection laws.

If you have questions or wish to obtain more information about the international transfer of your personal information or the implemented safeguards, please contact us using the contact information below.

9. External third-party services

The Site may be linked to sites operated by unaffiliated companies, and may carry advertisements or offer content, functionality, games, newsletters, contests or sweepstakes, or applications developed and maintained by unaffiliated companies. Amplify is not responsible for the privacy practices of unaffiliated companies, and once you leave the Site via a link or enable an unaffiliated service, you are subject to the applicable privacy policy of the unaffiliated service.

10. Updates to this policy

Amplify may modify this Privacy Policy. Please look at the Last Revised Date at the top of this Privacy Policy to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site. If you do not wish to be bound by the terms of the revised Privacy Policy, you must discontinue your use of the Site.

11. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@amplify.com
Mail: Amplify Education, Inc.
55 Washington St.#800
Brooklyn, NY, 11201
Phone: (800) 823-1969
Attn: General Counsel

Appendix – Supplemental Disclosures

1. Notice for our California Customers

We retain your personal information for as long as you are an active user of our Site or continue to have an account with us, and in accordance with our legal obligations (which may require us to hold information to provide financial and other reporting and to defend against potential claims). If you are a California resident, please see below for information about your rights pursuant to California law.

Personal Information We Collect
How We Use Personal Information
Contact Information
  • To provide you with customer support and respond to inquiries.
  • To contact you with promotional emails (e.g. newsletters) or notifications related to the Site
  • To help us verify the identity of our user
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Account Information
  • To provide and manage the Site
  • To improve our products and services
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Payment Information
  • To complete your payment of purchases made through the Site
  • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
  • For security and fraud prevention
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Information You Submit
  • To provide the Site and features to you, including to allow you to comment
  • To improve our products and services
  • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection.
Site Activity Information
  • We sell or share information about your Site activity with third parties for targeted advertisements on and off of Amplify. We also use this information to:
    • To provide and manage the Site
    • To improve our products and services
    • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
    • For security, safety, and due diligence purposes
    • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection
Location Information
  • We use location information , such as state, country and / or zip code, which we use to help us customize your experience, as well as to help us facilitate your privacy rights.
Inferences
  • We may make inferences about your interests and personal preferences (such as the content you like to consume). We also use this information to:
    • To personalize your experience on the Site
    • For internal operations (e.g. to improve and update our products)
    • As otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection

Some of the information described above may be considered “sensitive” under the laws of certain jurisdictions (including payment information and account login credentials (“Sensitive Information”). Whether information is Sensitive Information will depend on the laws of your jurisdiction. We only use Sensitive Information, such as payment information and account credentials for necessary or reasonably expected purposes – specifically, to provide you with our Services (i.e., fulfill purchases and to allow account logins).

Shine the Light

California’s Shine the Light law (Civil Code § 1798.83) permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not share personal information, as defined by California’s Shine the Light law, with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

Notice of Financial Incentive 

 As part of our services, there may be opportunities for you to complete surveys and questionnaires. As an incentive for completing the survey or questionnaire, you can voluntarily provide your personal information, which in turn enters you into a raffle drawing or enables us to provide you with other benefits, discounts, offers, or deals that may constitute a financial incentive under California law (“Financial Incentive”). The categories of personal information required for us to provide the Financial Incentives include: contact information and any other information that you choose to provide when you complete the survey.

Participation is voluntary and you can opt out at any time before your survey is complete.

The value of the personal information we collect in connection with our Financial Incentives is equivalent to the value of the benefit offered.

2. Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights

Residents of certain U.S. states have the following rights, regarding your personal information (each of which are subject to various exceptions and limitations):

  • Access. You have the right to request, up to two times every 12 months, that we disclose to you the categories of personal information collected about you, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the categories of personal information sold or shared, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information, the categories of third parties with whom personal information was shared, and the specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
  • Correct. You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information collected from you. 
  • Deletion. You can request that we delete your personal information that we maintain about you.
  • Opt-out (Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information). Under several U.S. state privacy laws, consumers have the right to opt-out of the “sale” of their personal information (defined very broadly to include situations where we provide personal information to partners who provide advertising services to us) and the “sharing” of personal information in connection with the display of targeted advertising across third party websites. While we do not sell your personal information, we do share it in connection with our advertising efforts. Please also note that we do not knowingly sell or share the Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age.

We also honor the Global Privacy Control, a browser-based opt-out signal. We do not respond to other browser-based signals that do not meet applicable state law requirements, which may include older Do Not Track signals.

  • No Discrimination. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
  • Appeals. You have a right to appeal decisions concerning your ability to exercise your consumer rights. 
  • Submission of Requests. You may exercise the above rights by emailing us at privacy@amplify.com. Note that we may deny certain requests, or fulfill a request only in part, based on our legal rights and obligations. For example, we may retain personal information as permitted by law, such as for tax or other record keeping purposes, to maintain an active account, and to process transactions and facilitate customer requests.
  • Authorized Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent identifies himself/herself/itself as an authorized agent and can show written permission from you to represent you. We may contact you directly to confirm that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf or confirm your identity.
  • Verification. Whether you submit a request directly on your own behalf, or through an authorized agent, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.
3. Notice for European Economic Area and United Kingdom Customers

As detailed at the beginning of our Privacy Policy (under the section titled “Our Role”), Amplify acts as a controller with respect to personal information collected as you interact with our Site.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We rely on the following lawful bases for our processing activities:

  • Consent;
    • We obtain your consent to collect and process device and usage data via cookies on our Site to understand how individuals use our Site and to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns.
  • Pursuant to a contract with the user of our Site;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to provide and manage our Site, including payment processing, where this is required in order for us to perform our obligations under our contract with you.
  • To comply with our legal obligations;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our Site where we are complying with security requirements under data protection and cyber and information security law.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to comply with our legal obligations which includes, for example, to access, retain or share certain personal information where we receive a valid request from a government body, law enforcement body, judicial body regulator or similar, to deal with legal claims and prospective legal claims, and to ensure we are complying with applicable laws.
  • When we have a legitimate interest in doing so, which is not outweighed by the risks to the individual. We rely on our legitimate interest to process all categories of personal information:
    • to provide, manage, and improve the Site where such activities are not strictly required under our contract, including personalizing your experience on the Site.
    • to ensure the safety and security of our Site where this is important but not required under the data protection law or cyber and information security laws.
    • to respond to queries or otherwise communicate with you in relation to our Site and the operation of our business where this is not strictly required under a contract with you.
    • internal research and certain marketing purposes (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to K–12 students.

Your Data Subject Rights

If you are located in the EEA/UK, you have the following rights, subject to certain exceptions:

  • Right of access: You have the right to ask us for confirmation on whether we are processing your personal information and access to that personal information.
  • Right to correction: You have the right to have your personal information corrected.
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information.
  • Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw consent that you have provided.
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
  • Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request the limiting of our processing under limited circumstances.
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to receive the personal information that you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit that information to another controller, including to have it transmitted directly, where technically feasible.
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information

To exercise any of these rights, contact us as set forth in the section entitled “Contact Us” above and specify which European privacy right you intend to exercise. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. Please note that we store information as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, and may continue to retain and use the information even after a data subject request for purposes of our legitimate interests, including to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and enforce our agreements.

Complaints

If you have any issues with our compliance, you have the right to lodge a complaint with an EEA or UK supervisory authority. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach a data protection regulator, and would welcome you directing an inquiry first to us. To do so, please contact us by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

Acceptable Use Policy

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) products support classroom instruction and learning and include Amplify CKLA, Amplify ELA, Amplify Science, Amplify Desmos Math, Desmos Math, Boost Reading, Boost Math, mCLASS, Mathigon, services at classroom.amplify.com (for creating and assigning activities) and student.amplify.com (for use of the activities or curricula as directed by an instructor), and any other product or service that links to this Acceptable Use Policy (together, the “Products”). This Acceptable Use Policy (the “AUP”) provides the general terms and conditions applicable to your use of the Products. By accessing, downloading, or using the Products, you agree to be bound by the terms of this AUP. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this AUP supersedes or limits your rights under the terms of any other agreement you or your institution have entered into with Amplify regarding the use of Products. In the event of any conflict between the AUP and the terms and conditions of an applicable agreement that you or your institution have entered into with Amplify, the terms and conditions of such agreement shall control.

Our Products are geared towards K–12 students, educators, and staff who use the Products as authorized by their School District or State Agency (each as defined in the Privacy Policy (defined below), and together, “School”) (“Authorized School Users”). Student Data (defined below) is owned and controlled by the School, and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”) for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. In addition, we rely on the School acknowledging that it is acting as the parent’s agent and consenting on the parent’s behalf to process personal information of students under the age of 13 (“Child Users”) in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). 

Schools may provide authorization in two ways: 

(1) by the School agreeing to our Customer Terms and Conditions located at amplify.com/customer-terms or another agreement between Amplify and the School, as applicable; or 

(2) by an educator, staff member, or agent of a School (“Educator”) agreeing to this AUP. If you are an Educator and wish to use the Products in your classroom, you represent and warrant that the use of the Products in your classroom has been authorized by your School, and that you are authorized to accept this AUP on behalf of the School.

In each case, we provide these Products solely for the benefit of the School and for no other commercial purpose. We require all Schools to review our Privacy Policy, available at amplify.com/customer-privacy (“Privacy Policy”), and to make a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of Child Users.

We also provide limited opportunities for individual users to sign up for a restricted account for at-home use of our Products (together, with Authorized School Users, “Authorized Users”). Please see Additional terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts (Section 18) for additional information.

1. License

Subject to compliance with this AUP, you are granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Products. You understand that your use of the Products does not confer to you any intellectual property rights held by Amplify or its licensors. Unless otherwise indicated, any future release, update, or other addition to functionality or content of the Products will be subject to this AUP. 

2. Restrictions

You may access and use the Products solely for non-commercial instructional and administrative purposes. Guidelines for such purposes may be set forth at http://amplify.com/amplify-program-usage-guidelines and additional guidelines may be detailed in materials associated with the Product You are accessing. Further, You may not, except as expressly authorized by Amplify: (a) copy, modify, translate, distribute, disclose, or create derivative works based on the contents of, sell, or otherwise exploit, the Products, or any part thereof; (b) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer the Products, or otherwise use the Products to develop functionally similar products or services; (c) modify, alter, or delete any of the copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices in or on the Products; (d) rent, lease, or lend the Products or use the Products for the benefit of any third party; (e) avoid, circumvent, or disable any security or digital rights management device, procedure, protocol, or mechanism in the Products; (f) use any content from the Products, including but not limited to text, images, videos, assessments, lesson plans, or code, as input or training material for any machine learning or artificial intelligence system, including large language models, neural networks, or other algorithmic models, for any purposes, commercial or non-commercial; or (g) permit any Authorized User or third party to do any of the foregoing. You also agree that any works created in violation of this section are derivative works, and, as such, You agree to assign, and hereby assign, all right, title, and interest in such works to Amplify. The Products and derivatives thereof may be subject to export control laws, restrictions, regulations, and orders of the U.S. and other jurisdictions (together, “Export Laws”). You agree to comply with all applicable Export Laws, and will not, and will not permit Authorized Users to, export, or transfer for the purpose of re-export, any Product to any prohibited or embargoed country in violation of any U.S. export law or regulation. Further, You represent that You are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, subject to sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or included on any restricted party list maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security. The software and associated documentation portions of the Products are “commercial items” (as defined at 48 CFR 2.101), comprising “commercial computer software” and “commercial computer software documentation,” as those terms are used in 48 CFR 12.212. Accordingly, if You are associated with the U.S. Government or its contractor, You will receive only those rights set forth in this Agreement in accordance with 48 CFR 227.7201-227.7204 (for Department of Defense and their contractors) or 48 CFR 12.212 (for other U.S. Government licensees and their contractors).

3. Use of the products

In connection with your access to and use of the Products, you agree not to: (a) post, upload, or otherwise transmit or link to content that is: unlawful; threatening; harmful; abusive; pornographic or includes nudity; offensive; harassing; excessively violent; tortious; defamatory; false or misleading; obscene; vulgar; libelous; hateful; or discriminatory; (b) violate the rights of others, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, privacy, publicity, contract, or other proprietary rights; (c) harass or harm another person; (d) exploit or endanger a minor; (e) impersonate any person or entity; (f) introduce or engage in activity that involves the use of viruses, bots, worms, Trojan horses, time bombs, spyware, or any other computer code, files, or programs that interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment, or otherwise permit the unauthorized access to or use of a computer or a computer network; (g) interfere with, damage, disable, disrupt, impair, create an undue burden on, or gain unauthorized access to the Products or any account (as defined below), or Amplify’s servers or networks; (h) restrict or inhibit any other person from using the Products (including by hacking or defacing the Products); (i) remove, disable, block, or obscure any portion of the Products; (j) use technology or any automated system, such as scripts or bots, to collect user names, passwords, email addresses, or any other data from or through the Products, or to circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Products; (k) send or cause to send (directly or indirectly) unsolicited bulk messages or other unsolicited bulk communications of any kind through the Products; (l) solicit, collect, or request any information for commercial or unlawful purposes; (m) post, upload, or otherwise transmit an image, audio recording, or video of another person without that person’s consent; (n) use the Products to advertise, promote, or engage in any commercial activity (including engaging in advertising, sales, contests, sweepstakes, or other promotions) without Amplify’s prior written consent; (o) frame or mirror the Products without Amplify’s express prior written consent; (p) use the Products in a manner inconsistent with any applicable law, rule, or regulation; (q) use any robot, spider, search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device to retrieve, index, “scrape,” “data mine,” or in any way gather content of the Products or reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Products; (r) attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to do any of the foregoing. In addition to the foregoing restrictions, your use of the Products may also be subject to an additional acceptable use policy provided to you by your School, as applicable. You are responsible for meeting the hardware, software, telecommunications, and other requirements listed at amplify.com/customer-requirements.

4. Intellectual property

The Products and any Product logo, and certain other of the names, logos, and materials displayed in the Products, may constitute trademarks, trade names, or service marks (“Marks”) of Amplify or other entities. You are not authorized to use any such Marks. Ownership of all such Marks and the goodwill associated therewith remains with Amplify or those other entities. The content provided to you in the Products, including the software, graphs, text, and graphics, is protected under copyright laws, is subject to other intellectual property and proprietary rights and laws, and is owned by Amplify or its licensors. Your access to the Products does not transfer to you or any third party any rights, title, or interest in or to such intellectual property rights. You may not use the content of the Products, in whole or in part, to train or fine-tune any machine learning or artificial intelligence model or system, including for research, product development, commercial services, or any other purpose, commercial or non-commercial. Such use constitutes unauthorized derivative work and a violation of Amplify’s intellectual property rights. Your rights to make use of the Products are limited to those provided under this AUP, any additional terms as may be agreed upon between your School and Amplify, and any available exceptions under applicable intellectual property laws. Amplify Products are protected by patents (see amplify.com/virtual-patent-marking).

5. Account information

Your authentication to enable your access and use of these Products is based in part upon information supplied by you. You are required to (a) provide accurate information to Amplify and promptly report any changes to such information, (b) not share or allow others to use your account, (c) maintain the confidentiality and security of your account information, and (d) use the Products solely via such authorized accounts. You may not share your credentials (i.e., username and password) to access the Products with anyone except the person for whom that account was created. You agree to notify Amplify immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or related authentication information. Amplify will not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of your account.

6. Student data

The parties acknowledge and agree that in the course of providing the Products, Amplify may collect, receive, or generate information that directly relates to an identifiable current or former student of a School (“Student Data”). Student Data may include personal information from a student’s “educational records,” as defined by FERPA. Student Data is owned and controlled by the School and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of FERPA for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. Individually and collectively, Amplify and School agree to uphold our obligations, as applicable, under FERPA, COPPA, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”), and applicable state laws relating to Student Data privacy. Amplify’s Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, and disclosure of Student Data collected or stored on behalf of the School under this AUP. The School is responsible for providing notice or obtaining appropriate consents under applicable laws to authorize Authorized School Users’ use of the Products, including making a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of Child Users. Please see Additional Terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts (Section 18) for additional information.

7. Confidentiality

You acknowledge that in connection with these terms, Amplify may provide you with certain sensitive or proprietary information (“Confidential Information”), including software, source code, assessment instruments, research, designs, methods, processes, customer lists, training materials, product documentation, know-how, or trade secrets, in whatever form. You agree (a) not to use Confidential Information for any purpose other than use of the Products in accordance with the AUP, and (b) to take all steps reasonably necessary to maintain and protect the Confidential Information of Amplify in strict confidence. Confidential Information shall not include information that, as evidenced by your contemporaneous written records: (i) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of your own; (ii) is rightfully known to you prior to the time of its disclosure; (iii) has been independently developed by you without any use of the Confidential Information; or (iv) is subsequently learned from a third party not under any confidentiality obligation.  

8. User materials

You represent, warrant, and covenant that you have all the necessary rights, including consents and intellectual property rights, in connection with any data, information, content, and other materials provided to or collected by Amplify from you or on your behalf in connection with your use of the Products, including materials and content that you post, upload, transmit, email, or otherwise make available on, through, or in connection with the Products (“User Materials”), and that except as otherwise agreed by your School and Amplify, you retain any ownership rights that you have in your User Materials. You hereby grant to Amplify and its affiliates, licensees, and authorized users, a perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid-up, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), transferable (in whole or in part), worldwide license to use, modify, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and compilations based upon, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such User Materials in connection with the Products, subject to Amplify’s Privacy Policy. You and your School are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, completeness, quality, legality, and safety of such User Materials. You further represent and warrant that the posting of such User Materials through or in connection with the Products does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, or any other rights of any person or entity. Amplify and your School reserve the right (but have no obligation) to monitor the Products, including for inappropriate content or conduct, and to remove any content in their discretion without liability to you or any third party. Further, Amplify reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Amplify’s discretion, violates this AUP or attempts to do so, including terminating or suspending a user’s account or access to or use of the Products, or reporting any content or conduct to law enforcement authorities. You are solely responsible for creating and maintaining your own backup copies of your User Materials. Amplify is not responsible for any loss, theft, or damage of any kind to any User Materials. 

9. Feedback

If you provide us with any ideas, proposals, or suggestions related to the Products (“Feedback”), you hereby acknowledge and agree that your provision of any Feedback is gratuitous, unsolicited, and without restriction, and does not place Amplify under any fiduciary or other obligation. You hereby grant to Amplify a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, and fully sublicensable (through multiple tiers) license to reproduce, distribute, perform and/or display (publicly or otherwise), adapt, modify, and otherwise use such Feedback, in any format or media now known or hereafter developed, and you hereby represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to grant the foregoing license.

10. Third party links and services

The Products may make available, or third parties may provide, links to websites, software, applications, resources, advertisements, content, or other products or services created, hosted, or made available by third parties (“Third Party Services”). When you access or use a Third-Party Service, you are interacting with the applicable third party, not with Amplify, and you do so at your own risk. Inclusion of any Third-Party Service or a link thereto within the Products does not imply approval or endorsement of such Third-Party Service. Amplify does not control any content that is not Amplify content, and as such, you may be exposed to offensive, indecent, inaccurate, or otherwise objectionable content in the course of accessing or using such Third-Party Services linked from the Products. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Products, providers of Third-Party Services, and any other third parties with whom you interact on, through, or in connection with the Products. AMPLIFY IS NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICES, INCLUDING THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, COMPLETENESS, QUALITY, LEGALITY, USEFULNESS, OR SAFETY OF, OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS RELATING TO, SUCH THIRD-PARTY SERVICES. ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF SUCH THIRD-PARTY SERVICES MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND INFORMATION COLLECTION, USAGE, AND DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES. THIS AUP DOES NOT CREATE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND ANY PROVIDER OF THIRD-PARTY SERVICES, AND NOTHING IN THIS AUP WILL BE DEEMED TO BE A REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY BY AMPLIFY WITH RESPECT TO ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICE.

11. Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that any material residing on or linked to from the Products infringes your copyright, please send (or have your agent send) to Amplify’s Copyright Agent, by email, fax, or regular mail, a written notification of claimed infringement with all of the following information: (a) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works; (b) identification of the claimed infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material on the Products (such as the URL(s) of the claimed infringing material); (c) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an e-mail address; (d) a statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent or the law; (e) a statement by you that the above information in your notification is accurate, and a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed, or that you are authorized to act on such owner’s behalf; and (f) your physical or electronic signature. Amplify’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can be reached as follows: Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington Street #800, Brooklyn NY 11201; Attn: Copyright Agent. Amplify’s Copyright Agent for notification of claimed infringement can also be reached electronically at legal@amplify.com. Amplify reserves the right to terminate infringers’ and suspected infringers’ accounts or their access to or use of the Products.

12. Changes to the products

Amplify may, without prior notice, change any Product or stop providing any features of any Product. We may permanently or temporarily terminate or suspend your access to any Product features without notice for any reason, including if in our sole determination you violate any provision of this AUP. Upon termination, you continue to be bound by this AUP.

13. Warranty disclaimer

PRODUCTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND BY AMPLIFY. AMPLIFY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY AS TO TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE. YOU ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR SELECTING THE PRODUCTS TO ACHIEVE YOUR INTENDED RESULTS AND FOR THE ACCESS AND USE OF THE PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE PRODUCTS. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, AMPLIFY MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR FREE FROM INTERRUPTIONS OR OTHER FAILURES OR WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. AMPLIFY IS NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE INCLUDED IN PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, COMPLETENESS, QUALITY, LEGALITY, USEFULNESS, OR SAFETY OF, OR IP RIGHTS RELATING TO, SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE. ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND INFORMATION COLLECTION, USAGE, AND DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES.

14. Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, RELIANCE, OR COVER DAMAGES, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST BUSINESS, OR ANY OTHER INDIRECT DAMAGES, EVEN IF AMPLIFY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMPLIFY’S ENTIRE LIABILITY TO YOU ARISING OUT OF PERFORMANCE OR NONPERFORMANCE BY AMPLIFY OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AUP, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE CLAIM FOR SUCH DAMAGES IS BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, WILL NOT EXCEED $100 IN AGGREGATE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE PRODUCTS THAT VIOLATES THIS AUP OR ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION.

15. Termination

Amplify may terminate or suspend your access to the Products at any time for any reason, including if Amplify believes that you have violated the AUP or have engaged in conduct that violates applicable law or is otherwise harmful to the interests of Amplify, any other Amplify user, or any third party. Upon termination, you will: cease using the Products and return, purge, or destroy all copies of any Products and, if so requested, certify to Amplify in writing that such surrender or destruction has occurred. Sections 3–13, 16, and 17 will survive the termination of this Agreement.

16. Governing Law

This Agreement will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the U.S., state of New York, without giving effect to the choice of law rules thereof.

17. Additional terms for iOS apps

By downloading any Products through Apple, Inc.’s App Store (“iOS Products”), you agree that the following additional terms apply to your use of our iOS Products:

  1. This AUP is not a legal agreement with Apple, Inc. (“Apple”). As between Amplify and Apple, Amplify (not Apple) is responsible for the iOS Products and the contents thereof.
  2. The license to use the iOS Products under Section 3 above is limited to use (i) on iOS devices that you or your School owns or controls, separate from and in addition to any specific technical requirements for any iOS Product, and (ii) as permitted by the Usage Rules set forth in Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
  3. You must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the Products.
  4. Without limiting Section 13 above and solely as between Amplify and Apple, you acknowledge that: (i) Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the iOS Products; (ii) Amplify (not Apple) is responsible for addressing any claims of yours or of any third party relating to the iOS Products or your possession and/or use of the iOS products, including but not limited to (1) product liability claims, (2) any claim that the iOS Products fail to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement, and (3) claims arising under consumer protection, privacy, or similar legislation; (iii) in the event of any failure of the iOS Products to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price for the iOS Products to you; to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the iOS Products, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty will be Amplify’s sole responsibility; and (iv) in the event of any third-party claim that the iOS Products or your possession and use of the iOS Products infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights, Amplify (not Apple) will be responsible for any investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of any such intellectual property infringement claim.
  5. You represent and warrant that: (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  6. Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary thereof.
  7.  Any questions, complaints, or claims with respect to the Products should be directed to: 

Email: privacy@amplify.comMail: Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St. #800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201

18. Additional terms for Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts.

a. Mathigon updates: Amplify no longer offers accounts for Child Users, but we will continue to allow Child Users to access their active legacy Mathigon accounts where verifiable parental consent was obtained. We will continue to protect personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

b. Mathigon and Amplify Classroom:

i. School Use:

  1. Educators: If you are an Educator, you can create a Mathigon or an Amplify Classroom account using any existing email or through an existing third-party account (e.g. Google, Microsoft). Go to https://mathigon.org/signup#teacher  to sign up for Mathigon. Go to classroom.amplify.com to sign up for Amplify Classroom.
  2. Students can also sign up using a unique class code provided by an Educator. Educators are responsible for gaining appropriate authorization or permission from their School to use the Products with students, including Child Users, before providing their unique class code or linking the Products to a third-party service like Google Classroom. For such use in the school context, we do not request additional consent from parents in accordance with the “school official” exception under FERPA and relevant COPPA guidance. For more information, visit our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and disclose personal information and data through the provision of our Products in schools. 

ii. Outside of School Use: If you are an individual user using the Products at home or otherwise outside of the school context, you are prohibited from collecting or providing any personal information from students or minors. You are permitted to access the platform for instructional purposes, but you may not enroll or roster minors, create accounts for minors, or input any personal information of minors into the Product.

19. Updates to this policy

We may change this Acceptable Use Policy in the future. For example, we may update it to address changes in our product offerings, or to address changes in the law or best practices. If we make changes that materially impact your legal rights or use of our products, we will provide prominent notification to you (e.g. via the Site or by email).  Otherwise, we will post any updates to the policy with an updated “Last Revised Date” and all changes will become effective immediately. Please check the Last Revised Date to confirm if the policy has been revised.

Last Modified: February 2, 2026

1. Scope

These Customer Terms and Conditions are a legal agreement between Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) and the local education agency or authority, school district, school network, independent school, or other regional education system (“Customer”) for the license and use of one or more of Amplify products or services (the “Products”), as specified in the receipt, price quote, proposal, renewal letter, or other ordering document containing the details of this purchase (the “Quote”). These Customer Terms and Conditions, all addenda, attachments, and the Quote, as applicable (together, the “Agreement”), constitute the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof. The provisions of this Agreement will supersede any conflicting terms and conditions in any Customer purchase order, other correspondence or verbal communication, and will supersede and cancel all prior agreements, written or oral, between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof.

2. Agreement Acceptance

This Agreement becomes effective at the earliest of the following: (i) issuing a purchase order, shipment request, or payment against the Quote; (ii) accessing, downloading, or using the Products; or (iii) otherwise accepting this Agreement. This term of the Agreement will be as specified in the Quote and may be renewed or extended by mutual agreement of the parties. Customer represents and warrants that: (1) Customer is of legal age to accept this Agreement; (2) Customer is authorized to accept this Agreement and to access and use the Products; and (3) Customer’s use of the Products will comply at all times with Amplify’s Acceptable Use Policy available at amplify.com/acceptable-use (“AUP”). The Customer may not access, download, or use the Products if the Customer does not agree to this Agreement.

3. License

Subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement, Amplify grants to Customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use, and permit Authorized School Users, as defined below, to access and use the Products in accordance with the AUP, for the duration specified in the Quote (the “Term”), and for the number of Authorized School Users specified in the Quote for whom Customer has paid the applicable fees to Amplify. “Authorized School User” means the K–12 students registered or authorized for instruction with Customer and the educators, agents and staff members who use the Products as authorized by Customer who Customer permits to access and use the Products subject to the terms and conditions of the Agreement, solely while such individual is so employed or so registered. Each Authorized School User’s access and use of the Products will be subject to the AUP in addition to the terms and conditions of the Agreement. Violations of this Agreement or the AUP may result in suspension or termination of the applicable account.

4. Restrictions

Customer may access and use the Products solely for non-commercial instructional and administrative purposes. Guidelines for such purposes may be set forth at
https://amplify.com/amplify-program-usage-guidelines/ and additional guidelines may be detailed in materials associated with the Product the Customer is accessing. Further, Customer may not, except as expressly authorized by Amplify: (a) copy, modify, translate, distribute, disclose, or create derivative works based on the contents of, sell, or otherwise exploit, the Products, or any part thereof; (b) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer the Products, or otherwise use the Products to develop functionally similar products or services; (c) modify, alter, or delete any of the copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices in or on the Products; (d) rent, lease, or lend the Products or use the Products for the benefit of any third party; (e) avoid, circumvent, or disable any security or digital rights management device, procedure, protocol, or mechanism in the Products; (f) use any content from the Products, including but not limited to text, images, videos, assessments, lesson plans, or code, as input or training material for any machine learning or artificial intelligence system, including large language models, neural networks, or other algorithmic models, for any purposes, commercial or non-commercial; or (g) permit any Authorized School User or third party to do any of the foregoing. Customer also agrees that any works created in violation of this section are derivative works, and, as such, Customer agrees to assign, and hereby assigns, all right, title, and interest in such works to Amplify. The Products and derivatives thereof may be subject to export control laws, restrictions, regulations, and orders of the U.S. and other jurisdictions (together, “Export Laws”). Customer agrees to comply with all applicable Export Laws, and will not, and will not permit Authorized School Users to, export, or transfer for the purpose of re-export, any Product to any prohibited or embargoed country in violation of any U.S. export law or regulation. Further, Customer represents that it is not a party subject to sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control or included on any restricted party list maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security. The software and associated documentation portions of the Products are “commercial items” (as defined at 48 CFR 2.101), comprising “commercial computer software” and “commercial computer software documentation,” as those terms are used in 48 CFR 12.212. Accordingly, if Customer is the U.S. Government or its contractor, Customer will receive only those rights set forth in this Agreement in accordance with 48 CFR 227.7201-227.7204 (for Department of Defense and their contractors) or 48 CFR 12.212 (for other U.S. Government licensees and their contractors).

5. Reservation of Rights

SUBSCRIPTION PRODUCTS ARE LICENSED, NOT SOLD. Subject to the limited rights expressly granted hereunder, all rights, title, and interest in and to all Products, including all related IP Rights, are and will remain the sole and exclusive property of Amplify or its third-party licensors. “IP Rights” means, collectively, rights under patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws, and any other intellectual property or proprietary rights recognized in any country or jurisdiction worldwide. Customer must promptly notify Amplify of any violation of Amplify’s IP Rights in the Products, and will reasonably assist Amplify as necessary to remedy any such violation. Amplify Products are protected by patents (see amplify.com/virtual-patent-marking). Amplify reserves the right to update or modify the Products at any time and to discontinue the Products upon reasonable notice.

6. Payments

In consideration of the Products, Customer will pay to Amplify (or other party designated on the Quote) the fees specified in the Quote in full within 30 days of the date of invoice, except as otherwise agreed by the parties or for those amounts that are subject to a good faith dispute of which Customer has notified Amplify in writing. Customer will be responsible for all state or local sales, use or gross receipts taxes, and federal excise taxes unless Customer provides a then-current tax exemption certificate in advance of the delivery, license, or performance of any Product, as applicable.

7. Shipments

Unless otherwise specified on the Quote, physical Products will be shipped FOB origin in the US (Incoterms 2010 EXW outside of the US) and are deemed accepted by Customer upon receipt. Upon acceptance of such Products, orders are non-refundable, non-returnable, and non-exchangeable, except in the case of defective or missing materials reported to Amplify by Customer within 60 days of receipt. In such case, Customer may not return Products without Amplify’s written authorization.

8. Account Information

For subscription Products, the authentication of Authorized School Users is based in part upon information supplied by Customer or Authorized School Users, as applicable. Customer will and will cause its Authorized School Users to (a) provide accurate information to Amplify or a third-party service as applicable, and promptly report any changes to such information, (b) not share login credentials or otherwise allow others to use their account, (c) maintain the confidentiality and security of their account information, and (d) use the Products solely via such authorized accounts. Customer agrees to notify Amplify immediately of any unauthorized use of its or its Authorized School Users’ accounts or related authentication information. Amplify will not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of accounts created by or for Customer and its Authorized School Users. 

9. Confidentiality

Customer acknowledges that, in connection with this Agreement, Amplify has provided or will provide to Customer and its Authorized School Users certain sensitive or proprietary information, including software, source code, assessment instruments, research, designs, methods, processes, customer lists, training materials, product documentation, know-how, or trade secrets, in whatever form (“Confidential Information”). Customer agrees (a) not to use Confidential Information for any purpose other than use of the Products in accordance with this Agreement and (b) to take all steps reasonably necessary to maintain and protect the Confidential Information of Amplify in strict confidence. Confidential Information shall not include information that, as evidenced by Customer’s contemporaneous written records: (i) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of Customer; (ii) is rightfully known to Customer prior to the time of its disclosure; (iii) has been independently developed by Customer without any use of the Confidential Information; or (iv) is subsequently learned from a third party not under any confidentiality obligation. 

10. Student Data

The parties acknowledge and agree that in the course of providing the Products to the Customer, Amplify may collect, receive, or generate information that directly relates to an identifiable student of Customer (“Student Data”). Student Data may include personal information from a student’s “educational records,” as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”). Student Data is owned and controlled by the Customer and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of FERPA for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. Individually and collectively, Amplify and Customer agree to uphold our obligations, as applicable, under FERPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”), and applicable state laws relating to student data privacy. Amplify’s Customer Privacy Policy at amplify.com/customer-privacy (“Privacy Policy”) will govern collection, use, and disclosure of Student Data collected or stored on behalf of Customer under this Agreement. In addition, Amplify has entered into the data privacy agreements listed at amplify.com/privacy-security aligned with state and national templates to facilitate compliance with applicable state laws and help expedite Customer’s student data privacy documentation process. Customer is responsible for providing notice and obtaining appropriate consents under applicable laws to authorize Authorized School Users’ use of the Products, including making a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of users who are under the age of 13.  

11. Customer Materials and Requirements

Customer represents, warrants, and covenants that it has all the necessary rights, including consents and IP Rights, in connection with any data, information, content, and other materials provided to or collected by Amplify on behalf of Customer or its Authorized School Users using the Products or otherwise in connection with this Agreement (“Customer Materials”), and that Amplify has the right to use such Customer Materials as contemplated hereunder or for any other purposes required by Customer. Customer is solely responsible for the accuracy, integrity, completeness, quality, legality, and safety of such Customer Materials. Customer is responsible for meeting hardware, software, telecommunications, and other requirements listed at amplify.com/customer-requirements

12. Warranty Disclaimer

PRODUCTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND BY AMPLIFY. AMPLIFY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY AS TO TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE. CUSTOMER ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY FOR SELECTING THE PRODUCTS TO ACHIEVE CUSTOMER’S INTENDED RESULTS AND FOR THE ACCESS AND USE OF THE PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE PRODUCTS. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, AMPLIFY MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR FREE FROM INTERRUPTIONS OR OTHER FAILURES OR WILL MEET CUSTOMER’S REQUIREMENTS. AMPLIFY IS NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE INCLUDED IN PRODUCTS, INCLUDING THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, COMPLETENESS, QUALITY, LEGALITY, USEFULNESS, OR SAFETY OF, OR IP RIGHTS RELATING TO, SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE. ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF SUCH THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND SOFTWARE MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND INFORMATION COLLECTION, USAGE, AND DISCLOSURE PRACTICES OF THIRD PARTIES.

13. Limitation of Liability

 TO THE EXTENT SUCH LIMITATION IS NOT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE TO CUSTOMER OR TO ANY AUTHORIZED SCHOOL USER FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, RELIANCE, OR COVER DAMAGES, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA OR LOST BUSINESS, OR ANY OTHER INDIRECT DAMAGES, EVEN IF AMPLIFY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TO THE EXTENT SUCH LIMITATION IS NOT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMPLIFY’S ENTIRE LIABILITY TO CUSTOMER OR ANY AUTHORIZED USER ARISING OUT OF PERFORMANCE OR NONPERFORMANCE BY AMPLIFY OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE CLAIM FOR SUCH DAMAGES IS BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, MAY NOT EXCEED THE AGGREGATE OF CUSTOMER’S OR ANY AUTHORIZED USER’S DIRECT DAMAGES UP TO THE FEES PAID BY CUSTOMER TO AMPLIFY FOR THE AFFECTED PORTION OF THE PRODUCTS IN THE PRIOR 12-MONTH PERIOD. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL AMPLIFY BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE PRODUCTS BY AN AUTHORIZED SCHOOL USER THAT VIOLATES THIS AGREEMENT OR ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION.

14. Termination

Without prejudice to any rights either party may have under this Agreement, in law, equity, or otherwise, a party will have the right to terminate this Agreement if the other party (or in the case of Amplify, an Authorized School User) materially breaches any term, provision, warranty, or representation under this Agreement and fails to correct the breach within 30 days of its receipt of written notice thereof. Upon termination, Customer will: (a) cease using the Products, (b) return, purge, or destroy (as directed by Amplify) all copies of any Products and, if so requested, certify to Amplify in writing that such surrender or destruction has occurred, (c) pay any fees due and owing hereunder, and (d) not be entitled to a refund of any fees previously paid, unless otherwise specified in the Quote. Customer will be responsible for the cost of any continued use of the Products following termination. Upon termination, Amplify will return or destroy any Student Data provided to Amplify hereunder. Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing will require Amplify to return or destroy any data that does not include Student Data, including de-identified information or data that is derived from access to Student Data but which does not contain Student Data. Sections 3–14 will survive the termination of this Agreement.

15. Miscellaneous

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Last Modified: February 2, 2026

S5-01. Investigating math anxiety in the classroom

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Season 5 is here! This season, we’ll be talking all about math anxiety: what it is, what causes it, and what we can do to prevent or ease this anxiety in the math classroom. To launch this very important theme, we sat down with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, associate professor of educational psychology at Ball State University.
 
As someone who’s been studying math anxiety for more than a decade, he had some interesting research and advice to share on why math anxiety affects so many students (and adults), and tips for how to start reducing it.
 
Listen now and don’t forget to grab your MTL study guide to track your learning and make the most of this episode!
 
Enjoy this episode and explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

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Dan Meyer (00:01):
Hey, folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. I’m one of your hosts, Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:05):
And I am your other host. I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson. Season five! Hello!

Dan Meyer (00:11):
Bethany, how are you doing? How have you been spending the long break between our recording sessions?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:16):
As much as I loved sharing content from previous seasons, I am so thrilled that we’re back for season five. I have been, you know, chasing a toddler. I think he’s already tired of me saying, “Ooh, can we count that?” He’s like [sighs] “One two, one two.” Like, he’s done already.

Dan Meyer (00:36):
Too much counting. Yeah, I worry about that so much, that my love of mathematics might be perceived by my kids as smothering. Yeah, I worry about the same. We shared with you folks some bangers of reruns, in my humble opinion. Some great guests. But, we’ve been excited—me and Bethany—to hop back on the mics, on the ones and twos, and explore some new ideas together.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:01):
Well, I loved our season talking about joy in mathematics. And personally I could…like, we could turn this whole podcast into joy in mathematics. However, we’re kind of going a different route. Because if you ask folks why they don’t feel joy in mathematics, a lot of times at the root of that is some really intense math anxiety. So this whole season, we’re going to be delving into math anxiety. Exploring what it is, who has it, why do we think it happens, what do we think we can do about it, and how can we navigate through it, so that we can experience that joy in math? These are questions that we’re gonna explore over the course of the season. Dan Meyer, how do you feel about that?

Dan Meyer (01:49):
It feels big and it feels personal. I mean, as we shared in our math stories back from season…whatever it was, math anxiety was a huge part.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:59):
It was last season, Dan.

Dan Meyer (02:00):
Last…? I mean, who can remember? Big part of your journey. I’ve had some very punctuated but intense moments of anxiety in math class. And socially, we have built math up to be this incredibly powerful thing. You know, restricting movement on economic ladders, preventing people from getting into careers they want. Whether or not they have much to do with math class, math anxiety is a really large part of educational but also social life. And yeah, I’m really excited to explore it with you. We’re bringing on some really excellent guests. Some researchers, yes. But not just researchers! Also people who practice in the field and know firsthand what it looks like to resolve issues of anxiety with students.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:45):
Yeah, you’re right, Dan. My math story contained quite a bit of math anxiety, so I am particularly invested in this season. I mean, I still navigate math anxiety. And, you know, many of us do, and let’s talk about it. And let’s—I love that you reminded me. We’re gonna have a lot of great researchers all throughout the season, and a lot of times folks feel like the research happening, there’s sometimes a gap between researchers and what’s actually happening in the classroom. Not in all cases, but a lot of times. Right? And I remember a lot of conversation about the latest research when I was in grad school, but unless you’re actively studying something, sometimes we don’t know what’s happening. Right? We’re really focused on what’s happening right in front of us in our classroom. So let’s take some of that research; let’s break it down; let’s talk to some of the folks who are thinking about this for the bulk of their day, right?

Dan Meyer (03:41):
Yep. So we got our first guest coming up in a moment here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:45):
So to kick off this season, we’re starting episode one by talking to Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University. And he’s been researching math anxiety for more than a decade. He’s worked with so many amazing folks in the field. He’s worked with students, he’s worked with teachers, with educators…I’m just so excited to talk to him. If you look up math anxiety, you see his name as one of the folks who is really thinking about this at so many different angles, and we get to talk to him. So enjoy our conversation with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez.

Dan Meyer (04:29):
We are so excited to have Dr. Gerardo Ramirez on the show with us. Dr. Ramirez is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University. Thanks so much for joining us.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (04:40):
Yeah, thank you for inviting me to talk about math anxiety.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:43):
So with your interview, Dr. Ramirez, we are actually launching the season. We’re gonna be talking about all different aspects of math anxiety, and it feels pretty perfect that you are first guest of the season, because of the sheer breadth of research and conversations you’ve had about math anxiety. Could you start us off kind of telling us a story of how did you get interested in studying math anxiety? Or why, you know, why did you dive into this topic that, you know, I think a lot of folks might…like, if you’re on a plane, and you say, “Oh, I study math anxiety,” what kind of reaction are you gonna get?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (05:24):
Oh, sure. Yeah. I think most people are actually very interested because they all have their own story about feeling anxious about math, or just being anxious about evaluation situations that involve math. And, yeah, they wanna share those stories. People feel quite comfortable talking about their anxiety about math, for some reason. But for me, I started off, when I was in undergrad, I was studying to take the GRE quiz. I was hoping to go into a psych program. But I wasn’t exactly sure what direction yet. As I took some of the practice tests, there’s some situations in which I was very nervous about taking the practice test. And I just noticed that I did really poorly on some of these exams. And so I became very interested in issues like choking under pressure, which means when you underperform relative to what you expected to perform. And so, as I was researching these issues, I started to come across this whole field of math anxiety. And I saw that while there are some people who choke under pressure during tests, there are other people who just have a strong general fear of mathematics.

Dan Meyer (06:29):
That’s really helpful. I can imagine you’re doing a lot of free psychology sessions, free therapy for people on airplanes when they bring to you their own stories of math. So let’s thank you for your service in that sense. I’m super-curious. So Bethany and I have both taught math. We both have seen firsthand what it looks like when a student is anxious in math class, though maybe we don’t have kind of the clinical language to describe it. And I’m curious, from a clinical sense, how do we define math anxiety?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (06:57):
Sure. So first off, math anxiety is not something that you would find in the DSM, for instance. But we generally define that as a fear or apprehension to situations that involve math. So it doesn’t have to necessarily be educational situations. It could be someone asks you a math-related question during a party, or you have to calculate the tip at a restaurant, for instance. It doesn’t have to be about schooling situations, although that’s obviously where it seems to matter a lot for many people. So it is basically a fear or apprehension to situations that involve math. And I think distinguishing the term “fear” from “anxiety” is really important here. A lot of times people use those terms interchangeably, and the term “fear” is obviously within our definition of math anxiety. But oftentimes what differentiates anxiety from fear is that, anxiety is—think of it like a recipe. Anxiety is fear plus a little bit of unknown. OK? So if, for instance, if you hated snakes, and they threw a snake at you, you’d be in intense fear. Whereas if you hated snakes and they said, “There is a snake in the room, but I’m not gonna tell you where,” that’s gonna cause anxiety. And so the reason why we call it math anxiety is because a lot of times people experience this fear for a possible unknown future that involves math or possible unknown evaluations that people might have about your competence, because of math. And so for a lot of kids, they feel anxious about how they’re gonna do on a test or whether they’re gonna be able to pass a class or whether they’ll be able to understand what you’re saying in your lessons, for instance. And so the anxiety component really gets at fear of something that’s unknown, but related to mathematics situations.

Dan Meyer (08:47):
Math is somewhere in the ceiling right now. Perhaps I might be surprised with a math situation!

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (08:52):
Yeah. yep.

Dan Meyer (08:52):
So I have this tendency to assume that every other subject that we teach has it better and easier than math does. It’s not true. I know this is not true. But I’m kind of curious here. Is math anxiety, like, part of a general just set of anxiety around schooling itself? Like, is there a reading anxiety, a writing anxiety, and does that all just flow from the same kind of fount of anxiety around schooling or situations about learning? And what makes math special in this regard? If it is its own special anxiety, for instance?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (09:27):
There are different…so some people obviously suffer from generalized anxiety. Right? And so they would, you know, feel anxious both for evaluative and non-evaluative situations. But in the research that we’ve done and that other people have done, there are differences between things like reading anxiety, math anxiety; I’ve also studied spatial and creativity anxiety. A lot of times what we’re trying to do in these studies is we measure all of the above, and we try to show that, look, math anxiety predicts math situations above and beyond these other things. So yeah, we definitely distinguish those things. And so what’s special about math is that, well, I think the symbolic nature is a big part of it. The abstract symbolic nature is just not as tangible to students. They can’t touch it. And so it doesn’t allow ’em to use their full cognitive faculties to play with it, as you might see, for instance, in science. Or it doesn’t allow people to relate math to their own interests the way you might see, for instance, in English. So maybe I hate reading novels, but I’m interested in zombies and you give me a book on zombies, well, ok, great, you’ve connected my personal assets to the topic. Whereas with math, either that’s harder to do or instructors don’t do such a good job of setting that connection up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:46):
Also, I think, you know, I’ve heard of students being really anxious, let’s say, during a reading session, when teachers used to do—hopefully they’re still not doing it—the popcorn reading, where you just randomly call on a student to read out a sentence. Right? But you don’t really hear students or adults talking about, “Oh, no, no, no, I don’t read; I don’t mess with reading.” You know? Whereas with math, you do hear, “Oh, I’m not a math person. Oh no, no, no, don’t ask me any math questions.” And that is such a distinction.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (11:18):
Yeah. And I think a lot of that’s because it’s just so common. As an adult, to be nervous about reading is kind of an uncommon thing. So people feel a stigma around admitting that. But math is something that everyone feels like they’re inadequate in. And so there’s a lot of comfort in telling you how they’re just one of the many people who don’t like math. And that, you know, can have a lot of different consequences and outcomes. I think on the one hand, I think for a lot of kids it becomes a normalized message that if you fear math, that’s OK, join the club. Right? But we have to be careful about that, ’cause a lot of math anxiety researchers will oftentimes say, part of what leads to math anxiety is adults normalizing that it’s OK to be scared of math. So I think a lot of times adults, teachers, for instance, math teachers, they’ll tell kids, “You know, if you’re scared, that’s OK.” And so a lot of the math anxiety community says, “No, no, no, you’re not supposed to do that.” But my recent view is different. I view that as a form of validation. Because math is hard. And so telling kids, “Hey, look, it’s actually easy if you just try,” I don’t think that’s true. It’s actually just hard. And I think even if it was easy, to the kid, it feels hard! And I think something that’s not really well-studied right now in our field is the value of validating people’s math negative math experiences. We don’t want to validate that, ’cause we think that we’re gonna reinforce that. But actually, I think the opposite. I think when you validate people’s negative math experiences, it helps ’em to feel that they can handle it. They can start to take control over their own emotions.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:52):
I love that. And I, I actually, I think that’s so powerful, what you’re talking about, that validation. I taught kindergarten, and I vividly remember being in a parent-teacher conference and that parent saying, “Oh, I wasn’t a math person either,” right? Or, you know, their language and their experience with their own math schooling, their anxiety about math was actually impacting their students’ experience of math. Or the conversation that, when I would go to talk about a math assessment, let’s say, you could see the parent actually tensing up. And there was this moment of validation, that I felt like we needed to make space for that in the conversation with the parents, right?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (13:38):
Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:38):
Like, this is a real thing. And we are working on teaching students that math is something that gets to—your experience with math gets to look all sorts of different ways. And it’s OK if we, you know, make a mistake, or if we kind of only get this part, but we’ve really got that part. Or let’s talk about it; let’s write about it. So I really feel like that that validation is something that’s so missing. And instead of the validation, like you said, you see folks being like, “Oh yeah, me neither. I’m not a math person either.” Right?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (14:10):
Yeah. I think…part of the reason why people are comfortable sharing this because they’re looking for validation also. When they say, “Oh, I’m not a math person,” you know, I think they’re hoping that, you’ll say like, “Yeah, me neither,” or “Of course not, ’cause math is terrible.” Right? They’re looking for validation, not to reinforce their perspective, but to feel that it’s OK not to be a math person. And I think that’s one of the techniques that I’m trying to work on in my research right now, is to provide evidence that actually people will work harder when you validate their math experience. You don’t have to tell them a positive story per se. If your current story is “Math is hard and I’m very, very anxious; I’m scared,” then we can just validate that and help you work through that. And it actually will strengthen our relationships. Because if you’re a student and you’re struggling with math and I tell you, “Yeah, it’s hard; it’s OK to struggle with math,” that makes you feel seen. And that’s gonna lead you to want to ask me more for help, because I’m someone who understands you. And that’s a great, you know, remediation opportunity.

Dan Meyer (15:14):
A common thread that I think I’m seeing here in several answers is that math sometimes asks students to disassociate part of themselves. Where success in math oftentimes means working from an a level of abstraction with symbols, like you said, that can feel alien. Like, who am I here? And in the same way, I love that you’re proposing we validate and reassociate people with a very deeply felt part of themselves that is anxious about mathematics.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (15:44):
Yeah. I mean, I think that’s what validation’s supposed to do, right? So a lot of us, when we feel these strong emotions, we wonder, “Is this even a real thing? Are other people feeling this? Is there something wrong with me?” So we feel the emotions, but we can’t actually deal with them, because we wonder if they’re legitimate. And so when someone says, like, “Yeah, this is hard,” it crystallizes that emotion. And once something is made real, you can actually choose how you want to deal with it. Some kids are gonna deal with it by staying anxious. But some people are gonna choose to deal with it by saying, “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now; I have to take this math test, so I’m just gonna think positive.” And that’s great. If the kid can end up saying that to themselves, that’s much more effective than me telling the kid, “Hey, you just gotta think positive. You’re gonna start the test anyway.” And so we want the kid to make meaning of their experience, and the way we do that is by crystallizing their emotions through validation.

Dan Meyer (16:36):
Yeah. I love that. And so what you’re proposing there, I think, sounds like, a solution, like a post-talk solution after students are feeling anxiety.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (16:43):
Yes.

Dan Meyer (16:43):
To validate and empathize.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (16:45):
Yes.

Dan Meyer (16:45):
And over the course of our season, we hope to explore a lot about solutions to math anxiety that are preventative, that reduce the odds of anxiety arising, through instruction and curriculum, before it arises. And I’m just wondering if you’ve seen anything that would hint at either specific or general words of wisdom you wanna share with the educators, about not just addressing it after the fact, but preventing math anxiety before it arises?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (17:14):
To be honest, at this point, I haven’t seen enough evidence for me to recommend anything concretely as an intervention for math anxiety, or an intervention to prevent its development. All I can really do here is rely a lot on the more broad cognitive-behavioral research on anxiety, which says that one of the ways we prevent people from developing anxiety is by helping them to make more positive appraisals of challenge situations. So a lot of times, when kids are challenged, they don’t know how to interpret that. “What does it mean that I’m struggling with this thing?” And so that’s where I think a lot of teachers can help students’ interpretations of that. ‘Cause if you leave kids to their own devices, they’re gonna think, “I’m struggling because I’m stupid. I’m struggling because I’m not good enough. I’m struggling because my dad is right; I’m gonna be a failure.” You know? They’re going to impose an interpretation to a challenge situation regardless. And so, as teachers, one thing we can do is we can help shape that interpretation and say, “What does it mean to struggle with math? People will say it means you’re stupid. That’s one interpretation. What’s another one? It means that your brain is working really hard to think through something. That’s another interpretation. What’s better? What do you think is more helpful?” And then, helping students to see how interpretations matter to how you ultimately feel about something. And that’s a very metacognitive way of thinking about things. So yeah, I would say that one way to prevent it is to help students to take more positive interpretations of their experience. But another way, and I think a more successful way, I think, is to give students early experiences where they feel efficacious dealing with math. One of the ways you do that, for instance, is by obviously making sure that the students understand the material—but that’s obvious; people are trying to do that. One of my favorite recommendations is to keep reassigning assignments, the same exact assignment, for, say, three weeks, back-to-back. So if in week one you do the homework assignment, you do OK, you don’t do so great, when week two you do it, you give the exact same assignment, and now the student can see like, “Wow, OK, this was much easier.” And then, week three, you give the exact same assignment; now the kid’s feeling really confident. And the reason why that’s great is because it helps kids to see that they’re growing in confidence. A lot of times kids don’t get to see that because we’re constantly throwing new assessments at them. And so they’re never seeing that growth. All they’re seeing is a new challenge, a new challenge, a new challenge. So I think we need to set up situations where they can feel that they’re growing, when we keep the assessment static. That can be a formative assessment, for instance—doesn’t have to be a summative assessment.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:55):
That feels so powerful and it feels like it really connects to that validation piece, right? We are actually helping to create a culture in our math classroom where we might struggle with something, but we keep revisiting it. And it’s not so much to reach mastery, but as Dr. Megan Franke — we talked to her about this partial understanding and about pulling on those threads of things that you do understand, so that you can build your confidence…build, not just confidence, but build your…I guess, kind of get your footing, right? You’re saying, “Well, I do understand this. I see how this works.” And if I’m revisiting an assignment, I feel like that would give me permission to like, “Hey, I don’t have to have this figured out on the first pass. You know?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (20:44):
Yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, I’m gonna give you a silly analogy, but I think it works. You know, a lot of times people will have nightmares, right? And they’ll keep having the same nightmare over and over again, right? And so one reason that we suspect this happens is because they haven’t worked through whatever that nightmare’s supposed to be about. So if, say, I’m scared of driving, I may be having the same dream about driving and crashing over and over. And we keep having these nightmares. And I think math anxiety is kind of like a waking nightmare, where you keep rehashing something because you haven’t had the chance to finally address that dragon. You know? And so if someone was having a lot of fear over driving, then one behavioral approach would be, you know, to work with a therapist to actually get behind the wheel and maybe drive around the same track over and over until you feel comfortable at that, and then the nightmares stop. Well, the same thing is true, I think, about math, math and math anxiety, is that you wanna give people these opportunities to feel confident by going back to that original experience that caused them to feel anxious, and saying, “This one assignment that we did in week three that really freaked you out, let’s try it again now in week five. How was that?” “Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. It was still kind of annoying.” “OK, we’ll we’ll come back to it.” “Now it’s week seven. Now let’s go back to that assignment. How is it now?” “That’s actually…it wasn’t that terrible.” And that gives people the opportunity to reflect on how they’ve grown past that nightmare.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:05):
I have to say, Dan talked about you being like a therapist. I’m like, wait, “How did you know, Dr. Ramirez? I did have this recurring dream! I did! And I had to face it. No, but I had such intense math anxiety in high school and it was debilitating. And the biggest thing for me, I thought I was the only one. I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought, “Why can’t I figure this out?” There wasn’t a conversation about “Here are some tools,” or “Here are some, some, some…”. Like, “This is OK, for you to feel scared about this or overwhelmed!”

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (22:41):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:42):
You know, I think often when we talk about how widespread math anxiety is, I think a lot of folks automatically jump to high schoolers or college students avoiding math courses. But we see this in really young kids.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (22:56):
Yeah. So people are…people are just constantly making meaning of themselves, regardless of the age range. And that’s true even with young kids; they are trying to figure out who they are. Right? And so one of the things you see oftentimes with young kids is you ask ’em, “What are you good at?” And they say, “Everything!” And that’s their attempt to, you know, make meaning of themselves. But sometimes they’re not good at everything. Sometimes they actually struggle in math. And I think even early on, they have to make meaning of that. They say, “Well, I’m good at everything except math.” And how do you make sense of that? Well, why not math? “Oh, because math is terrible. It’s not for everybody. You know, it’s not something that I like.” And so, yeah, in a lot of the studies that we did early on, we basically went into these first-grade classrooms with the purpose of trying to assess whether we can actually show variability in kids’ math anxiety, even early on. In other other words, do kids even report feeling anxious about math situations? Or do they tell us that they’re great at everything? And what we found was that in fact, a good chunk of kids are, again, perfectly willing to tell you that “No, certain situations involving math make me very anxious.” Counting or addition, or doing a problem on the board. And the way we do that is by—I think there are probably more sophisticated ways that can be done, but this is the best we have at this point—is we go in there and we ask them, we show them a bunch of smiley faces and anxious faces. And we say, “I want you to tell me how you feel about these different situations that involve math.” And so we say, “If you feel kind of nervous, I want you to point to this face. If you feel very nervous, point to this face.” And we basically will read to them situations. We’ll say, “How would you feel if your teacher asked you to open up your new math textbook and you saw all the numbers inside of it?” And they’ll point to the really nervous face. So right now, those are some of the more reliable assessments for math anxiety among young kids. And that work showed us that even young kids are self-reporting math anxiety.

Dan Meyer (24:51):

Obviously this is worth our study, because we would hope people would not feel anxious in general, and especially if we have a mandated…kids are mandated to be in math classes for their entire childhood. So I see the need for this study, these studies. I’m curious: What are the consequences, though? Like what, what correlates with math anxiety? What are other reasons why we should care about math anxiety and work to remediate it?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (25:16):
Oh, sure. So it correlates with their actual math performance. It can correlate when they choose to do homework. Right? So a lot of times, the parents report having to fight with their kids over math homework a lot. And you also oftentimes see a lot of frustration over mathematics specifically. And so it can, you know, not only affect their academic ongoing outcomes, like math tests and math assignments, but it can also affect their relationship with their parents. So if every time you come home, your dad’s screaming at you because you haven’t done your math homework, and when he asks you to solve the problem in front of them, you don’t remember, ’cause you were checked out, ’cause you’re so stressed out, that’s gonna cause a really negative experience. You know, a lot of times people grow up and they still remember their dad screaming at them over the math homework. You know, it’ll affect your relationship with your teacher. So if you’re making me feel incompetent, if you’re stressing me out, you’re not the kind of person I wanna come to for help. So it can predict relational outcomes as well as academic outcomes. And down the line, of course, when it affects students’ opportunities to get into things like AP classes, it affects students standardized test performance and their choice of colleges, as well as scholarship opportunities.

Dan Meyer (26:29):
Once you show that it correlates to performance, then that opens up a whole range of other correlations that are pretty important, it sounds like. Whether that’s career options or, you know, post-secondary education and the like.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (26:40):
Yeah. And a lot of times, when people are choosing a career at college, a lot of times students will make a decision specifically based on what career has less math requirements or less math courses. So I think this finding needs to be verified further. But, there’s some studies showing that, for instance, elementary ed teachers, one factor that feeds into the decision to go into elementary ed is the math requirements are very low in elementary ed. So that can…obviously it’s not what we wanna hear, because these are our first formal math teachers, right? For our kids.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:16):
It feels so powerful, the impact that math anxiety can have, not only while you’re in, let’s say, elementary school, high middle school, high school, but then the impacts beyond that in terms of your career. And I shared this last season, when we talked about our personal math story, but I know when I was navigating the deepest part of my math anxiety, I really felt like, maybe this is a reason I can’t be an elementary school teacher. Because I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able…not that I wouldn’t understand the math for fourth grade, fifth grade, but that there was something about my ability to teach it or understand it or develop a love and passion for it that I wouldn’t be able to do. And I really had to reclaim it in my own way. But, you know, something that I think is so powerful about your research is just the applicability — not only to the field of mathematics, but folks’ everyday lives. And the way that you have talked in the past about math being a gatekeeper…I have a family member who, brilliant American Sign Language interpreter. I mean, amazing. Like a dance with her fingers. I could just watch it all day. And she actually didn’t complete the program because she couldn’t complete the math requirements. And I remember talking to her about like, “Well, have you gone to the free tutoring? Have you gone to, you know, this or that?” But it was a paralyzing fear, you know? So Dr. Ramirez, what do you wish educators understood about math anxiety? Or the research about math anxiety? Or maybe even the general public at large, what do you wish folks understood about math anxiety?

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (28:58):
Oh, I think that a lot of students, they struggle with math. And I think we wanna normalize that struggle as much as possible. We want to create a culture where it’s OK to do math slow; it’s ok to take your time. And I know that’s not possible with a lot of these requirements that a lot of math teachers have to do. But I think if we want to prevent math anxiety, we have to create opportunities to tell better stories. So that’s ultimately what I tell people is, why do people develop math anxiety? Because they had experiences that challenged their competency and they told a negative story. And so making space to reflect in math classrooms about what does it mean to go slow in math, or what does it mean to make mistakes, and then helping kids to tell better stories, I think it’s really the best thing we can do as math educators. ‘Cause you know, your job is not to be a therapist ultimately. You know, there’s only so much math teachers can do. But I think one of the most powerful things we can create is setting up students’ experiences where they feel confident, and they can tell better stories, so they can have better dreams about math.

Dan Meyer (30:06):
Really appreciate this introduction to math anxiety. It’s been a fantastic kickoff to our season. Dr. Ramirez, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez (30:14):
Sure. Thank you.

Dan Meyer (30:16):
Thank you folks so much for listening to that conversation with Dr. Gerardo Ramirez, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Ball State University.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:25):
Dan, OK, if not for your frantic signaling, I would’ve probably asked another 20 questions. I need to know what you thought .

Dan Meyer (30:34):
I found it interesting at all points. And especially I think I started to understand a little bit better where the anxiety comes from for some students. I got a little bit here, which is that I think math, more than other disciplines, involves alienation. Check that word. You like that? Alienation? I’m into it. I’m feeling it. It’s like…to get good at math, to be successful in math, you gotta, as a kid, lose your attachment to the world you understand. And I mean, “got to” as in like, “you are asked to” — many times, unfortunately, by curriculum and instruction. Which is to say, you’re turning things you can hold onto into numerals. Right? You’re turning the world and its patterns that you can see and touch into Xs and Ys. And I just don’t know that other disciplines deal with that as much. Maybe I’m wrong and just guilty of, you know, “grass is always greener” syndrome here. But I think that’s an experience that kids have in math. And I thought that Dr. Ramirez got at that when he’s talking about the need to validate a student’s experience of anxiety. Like, in treating anxiety, sometimes we alienate people further by just like saying, “Oh, no, no, no, it’s just like, you need to, you know, drill yourself more, practice more,” and kind of invalidate that. So this feeling of alienation, I think permeates a lot of math instruction. I’m looking forward to learning more about that with our future episodes

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:00):
Alienation. That’s interesting. I definitely felt, I definitely felt isolated and alone many times in my math journey, when I was having my…you know, in high school, when I was feeling like, “Clearly everyone can look at tan, sign, cosign, and that means something to them.” Right? I think it’s really interesting, because I’m thinking about the other disciplines; I’m running through them, and I’m like, even in science, which can seem abstract, so oftentimes there’s these experiments that accompany these concepts, where you’re like, “Look at this concept made real in front of you.” Right? . And so yeah, that’s really interesting.

Dan Meyer (32:39):
You’re always one step away from blowing something up! Or, you know, dissecting something that’s tangible to you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:46):
Yeah. That’s really interesting. I did really love how he brought up the abstract. And how, I think, even validating it…he talked so much about validation. Which to me was like, YES. If somebody just said, “Hey, it’s not only possible to have math anxiety, but it also doesn’t mean that you don’t belong here.” If somebody had said that, it would’ve literally changed the trajectory, you know? And I wonder what those conversations could look like in our classrooms, where teachers celebrate that. Like, WHOA, this is a new way to think of this. This is a new way. Asking how many, or what do you notice for this image, through a mathematical lens, or looking…we talked to Alison Hintz and Antony Smith, like mathematizing books, like looking through these lenses — it’s an invitation to step into this other world, right? But there’s not only one way to do it. And I think oftentimes it’s like that anxiety of “Am I gonna say the right thing?” or “Am I gonna notice the right thing?” Right? How do we create that space more, where there’s so many possibilities and we want kiddos to notice what they notice, right?

Dan Meyer (33:54):
You gotta become a certain kind of person to be successful in math class. I feel like is part of the implied deal. Where you’ve gotta—like how you said—say a certain thing or think about a certain thing a certain kind of way. You’re trying to become someone who is not necessarily you. Which I think is fundamentally an experience of alienation, separating you from important parts of yourself.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:19):
I will never, ever dive into mathematics on the scale and level that you have with your PhD. You understand math in a way that my brain just…I won’t get there, right? And yet I’m allowed to call myself a mathematician, with all of my deep dives in elementary math and my love of early numeracy and thinking about how we start thinking about counting and numbers. Right? It’s like, if we make more space for what mathematicians can look like, and what is your personal relationship with math…I mean, that to me feels really exciting. ‘Cause I think we both have something to offer each other.

Dan Meyer (35:03):
I think I have never found early math more interesting than when I talk to early math educators. And learn just like all the different ways that students come to understand a concept that I had thought was simple. Like addition of whole numbers. Whoa! There’s a lot of ways kids do that work, and their brains think those thoughts. And, yeah. That’s a good word there you’re offering us and our listeners.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:27):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m really excited about this season. I think there’s — again, there’s no way we’re gonna cover all facets of math anxiety. But I think having the chance to explore it over the course of a season is going to be really fascinating. And really, I hope, destigmatize it and open up the conversation for our listeners. And, you know, if you listeners…we wanna know what you thought of this episode. Do you have any particular questions? Do you have questions related to math anxiety? Questions related to this episode? We are in development for this season, so we’re gonna do our best to get those questions answered. You can keep in touch with us in our Facebook discussion group, Math Teacher Lounge Community, and on Twitter at MTLshow.

Dan Meyer (36:14):
Next time, we’re gonna go deeper into the causes and consequences of math anxiety.

Dr. Erin Maloney (36:20):
It’s not just the case that people who are bad at math are anxious about it. It’s actually that the anxiety itself can cause you to do worse in math. And that for me is really exciting, ’cause it means that if we can change your mindset, then we can really set you on a path with several more options available to you.

Dan Meyer (36:41):
Til next time folks,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:41):
Bye.

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What Dr. Gerardo Ramirez says about math

“A lot of students struggle with math, and we want to normalize that struggle as much as possible. We have to find opportunities to tell better stories and reflect on our experiences.”

– Dr. Gerardo Ramirez

Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Ball State University

Meet the guest

Dr. Gerardo Ramirez obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he studied the  role of teachers and parents in shaping the math attitudes of their students, as well as reappraisal techniques to help students cope with anxiety during testing situations.

Dr. Ramirez is currently an associate professor at Ball State, where he examines the role of frustration, empathy, and cultural capital in shaping students’ success and persistence.

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About Math Teacher Lounge

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

S1-09: Supporting K–8 science students in the digital world: Ricky Mason

Podcast cover for "Science Connections," Season 1, Episode 9, featuring "Ricky Mason" discussing K–8 science education. Includes a globe illustration and decorative science-themed elements.

In this episode, Eric sits down with Ricky Mason, chief executive officer of BrainSTEM. Ricky shares his passion for inspiring students into science careers, and his path from an engineering career with organizations like the Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Central Intelligence Agency to starting BrainSTEM, an education program that develops creative digital tools to enable all teachers and students to dive deeper into STEM content. Ricky and Eric talk about representation in science classrooms and the importance of embedding fun within K–8 science content! Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Ricky Mason (00:00):

I feel like comfort is where dreams go to die. And I’m still dreaming every night. So I’ll wake up, chasing them.

Eric Cross (00:08):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Ricky Mason. Ricky is an engineer whose career included lead roles at the Department of Defense, NASA, and the CIA. Ricky transitioned to education as an adjunct faculty at the University of Kentucky. And while there, he founded BrainSTEM, an edtech company that developed a 3D virtual reality metaverse for STEM education. Today, BrainSTEM serves public school districts, private schools, and nonprofits. And in this episode, we discuss what led Ricky to creating BrainSTEM Metaversity, and how he’s using the metaverse to transform STEM learning for students. And now please enjoy my conversation with Ricky Mason. How did you, so like maybe going back doing your origin story, maybe you can talk about it, but brother, you don’t sleep. Talk about keep making moves, your hashtag, I mean, I was looking at your LinkedIn profiles, looking at your details. You get after it. I was getting tired just reading it. I was like John Hopkins, electrical engineering, real estate, starting companies. You must have that gene where it’s like four hours of sleep and then you’re like, ready to go.

Ricky Mason (01:19):

Yeah, man. My mom told me if I didn’t stay busy, then I’m in trouble. So when I was about 14, she told me that. I said, well, Mama, I guess I’m gonna stay busy then. And yeah, man, that’s just been my life. I feel like if I don’t keep making moves, then I’m in trouble. So, feel like comfort is where dreams go to die and I’m still dreaming every night. So I’ll wake up chasing them.

Eric Cross (01:44):

I feel like a kindred spirit with you. So, were you always interested in STEM like, was there something like a moment or a year where you remember you were like, this is my jam. This is what I’m gonna get into.

Ricky Mason (01:57):

Yeah, man. When it really clicked for me was in the fifth grade. I was at a school assembly and an IBM engineer came in and he brought a robot and he programmed it with punch cards right on the stage. And I got the opportunity to come up andyou know, put one of the punch cards in the robot to program it. And I asked him, I’m like, what is your job? He said, I’m a robotics engineer. And I went home right after that assembly and I said, Mom, that’s what I wanna do, become a robotics engineer. And my mom would take me to the libraries. Well, I felt like I was getting outta bible study on Wednesdays by going to the library. So I went there and I started researching robots.

Ricky Mason (02:39):

And at the time the robots that were popular were all being sent to space. And it was the spiritless. It was being sent to Mars. And I said, Mom, well, I guess I gotta become an astronaut if I’m gonna be a robotics engineer. And that’s kind of what set me out on that dream. And my mom started trying to find outlets for me to get involved in STEM, but it was really tough to find those outlets, you know, especially in that fifth to eighth grade range here in Kentucky. So that was kind of where it started for me man, when I knew that yeah, engineering is what I wanna do.

Eric Cross (03:14):

What does an electrical engineer do? I imagine there’s different types of specialties, but like, was there something that you specialize in that you focused on or was it, is it just kind of like a generalist field?

Ricky Mason (03:23):

Yeah, so I would say, yeah, man, it’s a huge field. So you could be doing anything from, you know, power, like power coming into your house. So those large power systems all the way down to nanotechnology and microchips. I like to tell people I’m a real full stack engineer, so my wheelhouse is kind of from the PCD, the little green computer chips, all the way to the cloud. Over my career, I’ve had some pretty cool jobs. One of those things was I was a test engineer for the army. So I got to test weapons up at Aberdeen Proving Ground for the Army. So I got to drive those weapons and test them before they went to theater there. After that,I worked at United Launch Alliance down at Cape Canaveral where I launched five rockets.

Ricky Mason (04:07):

So I was a part of the electrical ground systems team there where we were responsible for all of the electrical systems on the rocket while it was on the pad. Somonitoring the temperature of the rocket, the fuel, the entire system for safety while it was on that pad. And then finally I worked at the CIA as a computer engineer building data centers and as a data center architect for some of our remote systems and virtualizing our systems. So kind of had a broad spectrum of things there. And then finally coming back to the University of Kentucky as a research engineer and faculty. I developed drone technology for monitoring crops. So flying drones over crops with LIDAR, just like self-driving cars with high-definition cameras to pull in data about those crops, to help farmers determine about pesticides fertilizers, and the overall health of their crops from a remote location.

Eric Cross (05:10):

It’s so neat to hear you talk about it and to see how this is all built up to what you do now with BrainSTEM. How would you explain what BrainSTEM is? I know that’s your, that’s kind of your baby right now and what you’ve been working on a few years.

Ricky Mason (05:23):

Yeah, man, we started BrainSTEM in 2019 officially, but I would say BrainSTEM has been almost 10 years in coming. While I was in undergrad, I played football at the University of Kentucky. But I got hurt going into my sophomore year and that kind of shattered my dreams of football. And that’s when I really got back into engineering. One of my professors asked me to come to a robotics competition and I saw these third graders and sixth graders programming robots. And I’m like, oh my God, they’re programming robots! And I had no idea how to code or what to do with these things. And where was this a when I was a kid? And so I immediately bought one of those robots and taught myself how to program it <laugh> and then we started a robotics team in Lexington,there at a church.

Ricky Mason (06:10):

And we got a sponsorship from Lexmark to start that team. And that was kind of my first leap into STEM and teaching STEM and creating programs for students in STEM. I did that in undergrad and like I said, fast forward 10 years later, I’m teaching at the University of Kentucky and we’re struggling to recruit STEM students. Why aren’t students going into STEM? I hear too many adults tell me, oh man, I wish I would’ve done engineering, or I started out in engineering, but I left engineering or I wish I could go back to school for engineering or learn to code. And I’m like, I asked them like, why didn’t you do this? What happened? And often it’s like, it was the math. It was, oh, I didn’t get into it until I was in college. And I’m like, well, that’s the key.

Ricky Mason (06:52):

I knew I wanted to do this in the fifth grade. And I started with a plan in the fifth grade to achieve these goals and dreams. And I started doing that research and realizing that the same problem existed that I had. There was no outlet for kids to get involved in STEM, and so many kids have an affinity for STEM an early age. So we started BrainSTEM to provide access to STEM education and exposure STEM careers, STEM professionals, and just to STEM fields as a whole, because too often kids may know about the term, engineer, or the term, scientists, but they don’t really know what those people do or have a strong connection with the field or have any hands-on projects that they kind of done around those things or met anyone like me.

Ricky Mason (07:42):

I didn’t meet an engineer until I was in college. So that has really been impactful for some of the students that we’ve been able to touch. I had a family reach out to me. They moved to Lexington from California and they were like, man, I really want my ninth-grade son to get involved in engineering. So we started a weekend program with that one student and it went amazing. Like we competed in science fairs, we applied for different college programs and things like that. So it became an entire like mentorship program. And I’m proud to say that a year ago, he actually graduated with his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from your side of town, UCSB. It was just awesome to actually see this come full circle. And that’s kind of one of the first things that we did before we actually formalized as BrainSTEM University.

Eric Cross (08:34):

What will be like your elevator pitch for a teacher? If you were gonna say, this is what BrainSTEM does. I have the luxury of going through it on the site, but since we’re on a podcast, how would you kind of pitch it to people letting them know, like what, what does it do? Who does it serve?

Ricky Mason (08:47):

Yeah. So BrainSTEM provides STEM curriculum and STEM magnets for schools and nonprofits looking to increase access to STEM for K through 12 students. We also have launched our BrainSTEM Metaversity, a metaverse product for teachers to take their 2D Google classroom and convert it into a 3D metaverse classroom where students can collaborate during a 3D class. So all of your students show up as their avatars that they can select from our inventory of 150 avatars, and enjoy class in a 3D gameified Minecraft like World.

Eric Cross (09:26):

So I made my avatar by the way. It’s kind of tight, I have to say, it’s kind of tight. Hey, I’m gonna share. So those of you in the podcasts I’ll share it so you can see it. You’re not gonna be able to see it right now, but since I have the man himself I gotta share it with him just so I can get a reaction. So can you see that?

Ricky Mason (09:43):

Yeah. <laugh> That’s so good.

Eric Cross (09:44):

I feel like I wanna look like him though. I want him in real life. Like I want be able to switch to looking like my avatar

Ricky Mason (09:52):

<Laugh>

Eric Cross (09:54):

That was the first thing that I jumped on, when I went on your site, was making the avatar and I had so much fun doing it. I actually took longer than I probably wanna admit cause I was like customizing everything

Ricky Mason (10:03):

Yeah, man. It’s so fun. And that’s exactly what, you know, when you can show up as the person you want, it changes your whole being. I’ve seen kids that are quiet in class. They show up as their avatar and they’re talkative, they’re asking questions, they’re moving around the room, interacting with other kids. I feel like it’s almost like a superpower just to put your avatar on.

Eric Cross (10:25):

So what is something that a teacher could have their students go and learn or do if they, if they signed up,

Ricky Mason (10:31):

Let’s kick it off. So how we started with the metaverses, was teaching coding. So our first class was Minecraft and Python coding in the metaverse. So students showed up in the metaverse with our virtual instructor, that instructor led a lecture in the metaverse and then those students could collaborate on their Python games. So, they created and built the game in Python. We shared those games in the metaverse and we have our leaderboards that are in the metaverse, as they’re completing these challenges, including these games, then sharing them back in the metaverse with other students and getting that feedback on their game. So we’ve seen huge excitement from students when I can come back in and see my friend’s work. Like too often, students don’t get to see their work and that’s motivation to do better when I’m like, Jim’s gonna see my work. It’s amazing to see that motivation when students are sharing their work with other kids and not just their parent or just them and the teacher or seeing their grades. It’s been really cool to see.

Eric Cross (11:33):

You have that genuine audience too. Like that real-time feedback. And then like an authentic audience for students that makes everything seem, it takes it up a notch.

Ricky Mason (11:42):

Yeah, man. And then as we have built on this platform, so like you said with that avatar, so think if you created a really cool looking avatar and other students wanted to be that avatar, we have a way of sharing that avatar back into the world and in the inventory so that other students could then be your avatar. Or, if you create a world, we could then share that world back into the inventory, so the teacher could have class in a world that you created.

Eric Cross (12:07):

They’re creating content, not just consuming it. They’re actually creating content that could be shared across like grade levels or students.

Ricky Mason (12:14):

Well, we’re gonna say right now it’s just within your classroom. Eventually yes, we want students to be able to share that across school districts. At least we think that data will be probably limited to those kinds of realms as far as schools go. But you’ll be able to share this across sixth grade. We’ll be able to see what everyone in the sixth grade is doing in their STEM class or their game development class or their history class, per se, even if they’re giving back a presentation or what we have here in JCPS is backpack skills of success, where students are presenting on things that they’re learning that relate back to core competencies that the district is focused on. And I think that sharing those in the metaverse and doing those in the 3D world will be an awesome experience for students.

Eric Cross (12:56):

Are you seeing anything else as far as those skills that we see that are needed in coding? Is there something that the VR adds that was distinct from maybe just a kid with a Chromebook in his class that it’s just him in isolation doing the coding? Was there any like aha moments or surprises when they’re in the VR world doing this?

Ricky Mason (13:13):

I think the biggest thing is we could actually show them real examples of code working in other ways. Sofor example, if we’re working through loops, we can show them something looping. We can relate these functions to real-world things happening in the VR world so that they can see and better relate the actual concept with visuals, if that makes sense. So, you’re in loop Allen the whole time you’re learning about loops. You’re immersed in that kind of world. What we’ve seen is students really start to, you know, they it pick up and it clicks a lot faster because some of these concepts are so abstract for students to understand, when we can relate them to things in that world that they see that are in front of them, that they can grasp before we go to okay, type in “while” “”parentheses” <laugh> they can thenrelate that and pick up on those clues a lot better after they’ve seen those things in the world.

Eric Cross (14:09):

So they can actually visualize it in the metaverse. Whereas outside of it, it’s more just, just text-based coding and they’re not isolated. Like the first thing I’m thinking about is how like, with my own students, when they’re learning Sratch or Python, it’s not easy to share back and forth because they all are on individual accounts and they’d have to go on a different computer, or we’d have to find some way to publish it. And then all the kids would have to access it. But it sounds like in the metaversity classrooms, it’s easy for students in that same class to see each other’s work. Am I getting that right?

Ricky Mason (14:37):

Yeah. So most of our classrooms are limited to 24 students and in some of our breakout classrooms, we limit them to about eight students. Everybody can share their screen, so students can share their screen in the metaverse. They can share their video in the metaverse. They can share documents in the metaverse. They can share their, like I said, their code or anything that they want to share with other students. They can kind of do that. So it’s been a really cool product, I think, for students to almost find independence to work within a group, in an online setting. As they’ve been working through these problems online and remote it’s been really cool to see how they use the metaverse and break out. Even in a class, they can go off into a section because it’s all spacial. If you walk away, I can’t hear your conversation. So they can go into a little section within a metaverse class and have their own breakout. And a teacher can walk over to them. Okay. You guys are working over here. Let me walk to my next group. Just like in class. So it’s been really cool to see those students use the metaverse like that.

Eric Cross (15:41):

Just listening to you talk about this. One of the exciting things about emerging technologies or taking what the private sector does, and someone with a mind like yourself, and go, how do I use this for education? Like, that’s something that like excites me and you’ve run with it. But I just thought about, you’re doing an hour of code, you’ve created this metaverse, and you can bring in somebody, a professional into the metaverse, but they’re in, you know, the Bay area, but they could be a software engineer for Tesla or Google or anybody. Could they move around the metaverse and take a look at different students’ work and interact in that way.

Ricky Mason (16:17):

Yeah, man, we get in there. We make metaverse selfies. I drop Lambos in the metaverse, we take picture with Lambos. We have scavenger hunts in the metaverse. It’s a really awesome experience. And that’s one of the big things I think that is so powerful, is like you said, we could have that engineer, that celebrity, we could have Travis Scott, you know, in the world meeting thousands of kids motivating them because they met their STEM goals. They met their, you know, their testing school goals or whatever. These are things that kids really care about. If I get the Travis Scott avatar or the Elon Musk avatar, because I completed the Elon Musk rocket challenge, like that’s huge for me to show up in class as that avatar, like it’s just like Fortnite and it’s bringing all of those mechanics into the classroom.

Eric Cross (17:07):

When I hear you talk about the metaverse and I hear you talk about the potential of where you want to go with it, I think about my own students, and I think about, how they would really have a genuine interest and desire to want to do this and probably be doing it when they don’t have to, like at home at night wanting to go back into it and interact. And, you’re also building this virtual community. I mean, are you seeing that like, cause I’m hearing that?

Ricky Mason (17:28):

Yeah, man, building that community is huge. And I often tell people all the time, I want the STEM community to be just like the basketball community, the football community. I want students to have that camaraderie built around them for learning STEM and participating in STEM activities and competitions. Because when you see students out there at a robotics, they have the same zeal, the same, you know, everything that you find at a football competition. So we just have to get behind them and back those events with the same enthusiasm that we back sports. And that’s the environment that I want to create for STEM students and for that STEM community, because I longed for that community when I was in school. And like I said, I had it in football, but I wanted both. I wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted my robotics guys and my football guys to show up together here at the competition and have a good time.

Eric Cross (18:23):

You’re absolutely right. Like robotics STEM, these things, community helps fuel like people’s interest and working together. And it brings people from the outside who are seeking that community. Like, hey, my friends are doing this, I wanna kind of check it out. That’s how we recruit a wider swath of our population into it. So it’s not this kind of very narrow channel of folks who are going into STEM.

Ricky Mason (18:45):

If you can’t find that community. I mean for me, I felt like I was the only one playing football who was interested in robotics. So I never told anybody because I didn’t feel like that related to anybody within my vicinity. So I kept that to myself and that’s the biggest thing. I think if we get these kids just talking more about their interests, because a lot of them are interested in robotics and space and these STEM topics, but they don’t have anyone that’s really nudging them or asking them or piquing their interest in those spaces and saying, hey man, it’s okay to, you know, learn about robots. It’s okay to geek out on space. <Laugh> So that’s been my goal and that’s kind of why I felt like this was the time in my career for me to kind of do this, be a face for STEM education and inspire kids to chase their goals and dreams. Over my career, I’ve had some really cool jobs, but I felt like I could keep doing cool jobs, but I’m like at the right age to still connect with those students and inspire them to chase their dreams. And that’s why I feel like right now, man, it’s just an opportune time to get these students involved in STEM.

Eric Cross (20:01):

We don’t get that. Oftentimes, when we’re solely doing the cool job or simply in the private sector, we don’t get those experiences as much as we do when we’re able to actually serve our community or students or take our passion, our skill set, and use it to serve another person. I hear that like, as you describe what you’re doing now is like, there’s something beyond just, you know, the using your skills and doing cool stuff, but there’s something I hear. That’s helping people and actually doing something you believe in that resonates deeply in you. And I can hear it as you talk about it.

Ricky Mason (20:30):

It’s been just amazing to actually chart out that journey. Like I said, and like tell kids, like, no man, I’m from right up the block from you, cause I mean, I’m building this back at home in my hometown. And that’s the reason why I kind of came back to kind of do that in my hometown, because I really want to, you know, relate to those students and inspire, you know, students here. Nobody thinks about technology coming out of Kentucky and that’s been a gift and a curse, I guess, with launching BrainSTEM in Kentucky. When I first started, I said, we’re a STEM education company, people are asking me what is STEM? So, that was where we started out with this in 2019, all the way to, you know, hey, in 2020, we’re gonna launch a metaverse. A metaverse! What is that? It’s been amazing to try to change the minds of not only Kentuckians about STEM and the importance of STEM, but the world that a metaverse company is coming outta Kentucky. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (21:31):

The work that you’re doing and, it exists beyond you and you probably know this, but as a Black science educator out here in San Diego … We don’t see people who look like all of us in this work often, and I saw that you had created something, a network group, network and chill. And that was one of the things, we had touched on community, but I thought that that was so huge because we need each other.

Ricky Mason (21:55):

I feel like that was the biggest thing for us in engineering. Like I showed up to my first internship and I’m like, I mean, my boss was cool. Everything else was cool, but I just didn’t feel like, hey, this is a community for me. And I almost changed my major because of that. But I’m glad that I didn’t, it’s huge to have more of us represented in, in these spaces.

Eric Cross (22:16):

And you know, in engineering, especially when we look at the disproportionate, you know, men versus women. Like it’s not, you know, it’s not just culture, but it’s, you know, gender, all of these different things. And if we’re gonna change it, I think a program like yours that gets exposure to all kids and then giving them choice. What advice would you give to students? Or what advice I should say, do you give to students now? When you see like your younger self in the different kind of K12 grades who are thinking about their futures or they’re thinking about STEM, what do you say to them?

Ricky Mason (22:46):

So my biggest advice, man is start now. Whatever that big thing is, that big dream is that you have, what is that now? You’re thinking about planes. You’re thinking about robots. You’re thinking about RC cars, whatever that is. Let’s start now. Let’s get your hands on an RC car. Let’s take it apart. Let’s start coding. Let’s start thinking about those problems now. But the biggest thing is, is getting kids used to solving tough problems. Typically, most students that have an affinity for, you know, STEM — and you just know that that kid’s gonna go into, STEM — they’re problem solvers. They’re typically looking and seeking those tough problems and seeking opportunities to learn. That’s where I feel like it’s parents’ jobs to provide that environment to foster, that zeal. A five-year-old kid, we started our STEM program with them at the beginning of this month.

Ricky Mason (23:39):

The first day I came in after I told him I was a rocket scientist. And now he’s like, well, I wanna be a pilot. I said, if you pay attention to this class, we’re gonna get you started on your way to being a pilot. And he knows all the parts of a rocket and he knows a rocket needs an oxidizer. And he knows the fuselage, the wings, the wing flaps. He knows all the different parts of the plane and how the forces, the drag, the lift, the weight, he knows how those are working cause we talked about those in class and he has so much more confidence and it came all to fruition when a kid said, wow, I thought it was gonna be really hard to be a robotics engineer. And I’m like, no, that’s not gonna be that hard. That is exactly what we set out to do when we started BrainSTEM, was to break down those barriers and those walls and build that confidence and say, look man, you can do this. It’s easy.

Eric Cross (24:26):

Society doesn’t help much either because one of our terms, right, if something’s really hard, or if something’s not hard, we say it’s not rocket science. That implies that rocket science is really hard and inaccessible. If kids would hear that it kind of instills in their brain, okay. It’s really hard, it’s probably too hard for me. To that point to parents, it sounds like a lot of just exposure, like giving students the opportunity to be able to be exposed to these things and letting them create wonder from it.

Ricky Mason (24:51):

Yeah, man. I often tell parents we’re gonna set kids up to go pro no matter what,

Eric Cross (24:56):

And those skill sets transfer, whether they decide to go into coding or they decide to manage a bank, you’re still gonna be dealing with people. You’re still gonna be problem-solving. You’re still gonna have to come up with creative solutions to things. It sounds like through a program like this, they learn those skills early.

Ricky Mason (25:12):

Yes. And I think that one thing that parents don’t think about … We talk about all the STEM and we want smart kids, but we need those soft skills also within STEM. So those competitions, getting them involved in those communities with STEM students is really huge in presenting their ideas because oftentimes, you know, our STEM guys, we’re in a lab working and that’s where we love and that’s where we wanna be because we haven’t, you know, been prepared to talk and present our ideas. So I think that’s a huge part of what we have to teach our STEM students. And we do that by providing that community and those opportunities for them to, you know, do that.

Eric Cross (25:47):

Thinking about where you are now, looking back on your K-12 education, were there any teachers that stood out to you or that inspired you as I even just say that, can you think of a particular teacher or one or two?

Ricky Mason (26:00):

When I think about my teachers, my teachers really taught me to solve those tough problems and those subjects that you don’t kinda like <laugh>, cause I was always a great student, but my teachers helped me to focus on those subjects that I didn’t so much, you know, enjoy. So I enjoyed math and science, but English social studies, like why do I have to be here? I had two teachers during my high school career that really supported me in that regard, and helping me to be the best student all aroundfrom like I said, STEM to English and social studies, and making me realize that I have to be a well-rounded student if I’m gonna be truly successful. As far as engineering, man, I would say one guy, my teacher, Nick Bazar up at John Hopkins. During my master’s there, I had a really cool project. I got to do data forensics on a real live murder case. <Laugh> That was really inspiring because I’m like, wow, this is real life where my coding skills are being used in a jury trial <laugh>. And so that was a really cool experience to partner with my professor to kind of do that. I mean, that was just mind blowing that I got to help with that and that, I mean, he was using his programming skills to help solve a murder case.

Eric Cross (27:22):

What’s the best way for people to connect with you and follow your journey? And if a teacher’s interested and they’re listening to this and they’re hearing, okay, this metaverse coding thing sounds awesome, I want to get involved, I wanna know more, where can people go? What steps should they take to be able to get connected to you and what you’re doing?

Ricky Mason (27:40):

Yeah. So you can check us out at brainSTEMu.com, that’s brainSTEM, the letter “u” dot com and on all social medias, we’re BrainSTEMu or BrainSTEM University. Teachers, right now, we are doing our free course for teachers. So sign up at brainstemu.com. You can sign up for your class to get into a free metaverse experience, just so you can kind of check it out and get your class into the metaverse and see how your students like the metaverse, how you like teaching in the metaverse and convert one of your 2D lessons from Google classroom into a metaverse classroom. For me, I’m Ricky Mason, 5 0 2 on all social media platforms. So you can just type that in Ricky Mason502 and get with me there.

Eric Cross (28:28):

Nice. Well Ricky, I wanna thank you for sharing your story and creating BrainSTEM. And then for, I know you’re a man of tremendous talents and skills and accomplishments, and you’re focusing all that on not only being back in your community, but also creating something for younger versions of you and opening up opportunities that they might not otherwise have, as you said, folks are like, what is STEM? And that is exactly where we need those seeds planted. So thank you for doing that.

Ricky Mason (28:55):

Oh man, this is awesome. I appreciate you, man for hosting this podcast and providing this platform and sharing the message of, you know, educators and people in the space.

Eric Cross (29:07):

Thanks so much for joining me and Ricky today. Make sure to support Science Connections by subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts. And you could hear more from Ricky in our Facebook group, Science Connections the community, where you can check out all the exclusive content. Until next time.

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What Ricky Mason says about science

“We just have to get behind [students] and back them with the same enthusiasm that we back sports…because I longed for that community when I was in school.”

– Ricky Mason

CEO, BrainSTEM

Meet the guest

Ricky Mason is the dynamic CEO and founder of BrainSTEM, an ed-tech company that developed a metaverse for education. His corporate career included lead engineer roles at the DoD, NASA, and CIA. Ricky transitioned to education as adjunct faculty at the University of Kentucky. While there, he started BrainSTEM to bring innovative technology and an inspirational curriculum to STEM education. Today, BrainSTEM serves public school districts, private schools, and nonprofits.

Follow Ricky on all social media @rickymason502

Portrait of a smiling man with a beard and short hair, wearing a white shirt, against a gray background.

About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

Customer Privacy Policy

Last Modified: January 23, 2026 | Update History

Most recent update: This Privacy Policy has been updated to address additional rights for individuals in the European Union/UK.

We advise you to read this Privacy Policy in its entirety, including the jurisdiction-specific provisions in the appendix. Click here to review Our U.S. Notice At Collection.

Customer Privacy Policy: K–12 Schools

Who We Are

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify”) is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Amplify’s programs provide teachers with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of each student and use data in a way that is safe, secure, and effective.

Our Products and Services

Amplify’s products support classroom instruction and learning and include Amplify CKLA, Amplify ELA, Amplify Caminos, Amplify Science, Amplify Desmos Math, Boost Reading, Boost Math, mCLASS, Mathigon, associated professional development and tutoring services, and services at classroom.amplify.com (for creating and assigning activities) and student.amplify.com (for use of the activities or curricula as directed by an instructor), and any other product or service that links to this Privacy Policy (together, the “Products”).

Our Approach to Student Data Privacy 

In the course of providing the Products to Schools and their Authorized School Users, Amplify collects, receives, generates, or has access to Student Data (defined below). We consider Student Data to be confidential and we collect and use Student Data solely for educational purposes in connection with providing our Products to, or on behalf of the School as described in this Privacy Policy and our Agreements (defined below). We work to maintain the security and confidentiality of Student Data that we collect or store, and we enable Schools to control the use, access, sharing, and retention of Student Data.

Our Products are geared towards K–12 students (“Students”), and the educators, agents and staff members who use the Products as authorized by their School (“Educators”). Information that directly relates to an identifiable Student (“Student Data”) is owned and controlled by the School, and Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”) for the purpose of providing the Products hereunder. In addition, we rely on the School acknowledging that it is acting as the parent’s agent and consenting on the parent’s behalf to process personal information of Students under the age of 13 (“Child Users”) in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).

Our collection and use of Student Data is governed by our Agreements with Schools, including this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”), and applicable laws which may include FERPA, COPPA, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”), as well as other applicable federal, state, and local privacy laws and regulations (“Applicable Laws”). As noted above, with respect to FERPA, Amplify receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of FERPA for the purpose of providing its Products, and such Student Data is owned and controlled by the School.

Schools may provide authorization in two ways:

  1. by the School agreeing to our Customer Terms and Conditions located at amplify.com/customer-terms or another written agreement between Amplify and the School, as applicable; or
  2. by an Educator agreeing to the Acceptable Use Policy located at amplify.com/acceptable-use-policy/ (“AUP”) on behalf of the School as outlined in the AUP.

In each case, we collect Student Data and provide these Products solely for the use and benefit of the School and for no other commercial purpose. We require all Schools to review this Privacy Policy, available at amplify.com/customer-privacy, and to make a copy of the Privacy Policy available to the parents or guardians of Child Users.

We also provide limited opportunities for individual users to sign up for an account for use of our Products at-home or otherwise outside of the authorization of a School (“Home Users”). See the Appendix–Supplemental Disclosures for additional information that applies to our Home Users.

What This Privacy Policy Covers 

This Customer Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how Amplify collects, uses, and discloses personal information through the provision of Products.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “you” and “your” means Authorized Users (defined below).

This Privacy Policy does not apply to Amplify’s handling of:

  • information collected from users of Amplify’s company website, which is governed by our Website Privacy Policy.
  • job applicant data that we process in accordance with our applicant privacy notice.

There may be different contractual terms or privacy policies in place with some Schools. Such other terms or policies supersede this Privacy Policy for information collected or released under those terms. If you have any questions as to which legal agreement or privacy policy controls the collection and use of your personal information, please contact us using the information provided below. Unless expressly superseded, this Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the Agreement that governs your use of the Products.

Our Role

Amplify as a processor/service provider: Our School customers are the controllers of Student Data (as well as certain other Educator personal information to the extent required by law or Amplify’s agreement with the School) (together “School Data”).

Amplify acts as a processor/service provider for our School customers with respect to School Data, which means when we use School Data, we do so solely on the instruction of the School. School Data is subject to the School’s privacy policies; therefore, you will need to contact the School directly if you have any questions or would like to exercise your rights with respect to School Data.

Amplify as a controller: We are the controller of all other personal information we collect from non-Student Authorized Users (“Amplify Data”) and can be reached by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

Policy

1. Definitions

Capitalized terms not defined in this section or elsewhere in this Privacy Policy will have the meaning set forth by Applicable Laws.

Agreement” means the underlying contractual agreement between Amplify and the School.

Authorized Users” means all users of our Products, including Authorized School Users, parents and legal guardians, and Home Users.

Authorized School Users” means Students and Educators.

Local Education Authority” means a local education agency or authority, school district, school network, independent school, or other regional education system.

Non-Student Data” means information that is linked or linkable to Authorized Users who are not Students.

School” means the Local Education Authority or State Agency.

State Agency” means the educational agency primarily responsible for the supervision of public elementary and secondary schools in any of the 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, or other territories and possessions of the United States, as well as a national or regional ministry or department of education in other countries, as applicable.

2. What personal information do we collect?

When you access or use our Products, you may choose to provide us with personal information, including Student Data. This information may be provided to us directly (e.g. when an account is created or through communications with us) or through your interactions with our Products.

Student Data. Below is a list of the categories of Student Data that may be collected by Amplify or its Products, either directly or through the Authorized School User’s use of the various features and configurations of the Products:

  • Identifier and Enrollment Data, such as name, email, school / state ID number, username and password, grade level, homeroom, courses, teacher names.
    • Why? Most of Amplify’s Products require some basic information about who is in a classroom and who teaches the class—Student or teacher Identifier and Enrollment data. This information is provided to Amplify by the School, either directly from the School’s student information system or via a third party with whom the School contracts to provide that information.
  • Demographic Data, such as date of birth, socioeconomic status, race, national origin, and preferred or primary language.
    • Why? To support school instructional and reporting requirements, Amplify’s Products allow Schools to view reports and analyze data using Demographic Data. Generally, Demographic Data is provided on a voluntary basis by the School. For example, a School may wish to analyze Student literacy assessment results based on English Language Learner status to better tailor classroom instruction, and in that case, the School may provide Demographic Data to enable that reporting.
  • School Records, such as grades, attendance, assessment results, and whether an Individualized Education Plan (IEP or local equivalent) is in place.
    • Why? Some of our Products support grading assignments and administering formative, diagnostic, and curriculum-based assessments. Teachers use that information to support Students’ progress in the program or help with instructional decisions. We do not collect specific details from an IEP, nor do we collect protected health information or other sensitive information.
  • Schoolwork and Student Generated Content, which includes any information contained in Student assignments and assessments, including information in response to instructional activities and participation in collaborative or interactive features of our Products, such as Student responses to academic questions and Student-written essays, as well as images, video, and audio recordings.
    • Why? As part of the digital learning experience, some of our Products may enable Students to write text and create and upload images, video, and audio recordings. For example, in Amplify ELA, students may write essays or submit short-form responses in our platform as part of a lesson on literature. As another example, in Boost Reading, student interactions with reading skills games are recorded to keep track of the student’s progress to level up in the program and to provide visibility to teachers on how students are mastering the skills.
  • Teacher Comments and Feedback, such as scores, written comments, or other feedback that Educators may provide about Student responses or student course performance.
    • Why? To enable teachers to track the performance and provide feedback to their students.
  • Non-Student Data. We may collect the following types of personal information from all other Authorized Users:
    • Contact Information, such as name and email address, as well as grade level taught, school name and school location, whether you are an Educator or Home User that creates an account or uses our Products or communicates with us.
    • Account Information, such as user login and password, for account creation and access purposes.
    • Survey Responses, which you provide in response to surveys or questionnaires.
  • Device and Usage Data. Depending on the Product, we may collect certain information about the device used to connect to our Product, such as device type and model, browser configurations, and persistent identifiers, such as IP addresses and unique device identifiers. We may collect device diagnostic information, such as battery level, usage logs, and error logs, as well as usage, viewing, and technical information (e.g., email open rates), such as the number of requests a device makes, to ensure proper system capacity for all Authorized Users. We may collect IP addresses and use that information to approximate device location to support operation of the Product. To the extent that we collect this information, this data is solely used to support operation of the Product and is not linked to Student Data. For purposes of clarity, Amplify does not use Student Data for marketing or advertising purposes (see section 6 of this Privacy Policy for more information about our commitments regarding Student Data).
    • Why? We use this information to remember returning users and facilitate ease of login, to customize the function and appearance of the Products, and to improve the learning experience. This information also helps us track product usage for various purposes, including website optimization, to ensure proper system capacity, troubleshoot and fix errors, provide technical assistance and customer support, provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Products, monitor and address security concerns, and compile analytics for product improvement and other internal purposes.
    • How? Cookies and Similar Technologies. We collect device and usage data through “cookies,” Web beacons, HTML5 local storage, and other similar technologies, which are used in some of our Products solely to support operation of the Products as described above. While we may use third party cookies and similar technologies for advertising and marketing purposes on our website (in accordance with our Website Privacy Policy), we do not permit such tracking technologies to be present on Student-facing portions of the Products. In particular, we only use the following types of cookies in our Products:
      • Strictly necessary cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of our websites and applications that host our Products. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Products. These cookies are not generally stored beyond the browser session and are less likely to include personal information. This category of cookies cannot be disabled.
      • Functionality Cookies – We use these cookies so that we recognize you on the websites and apps that host our Products and remember your previously selected preferences. These cookies are stored on your device between browsing sessions but expire after a pre-defined period. These cookies enable us to “recognize” you when you use our Products, including your preferences such as your preferred language, time, and location. A mix of first party (placed by us) and third-party cookies (placed by third parties) are used.
      • Performance Cookies – These cookies help us and service providers acting on our behalf compile statistics and analytics about users of our Products that are accessed via websites and apps, including Device and Usage Information.
    • Learn how to opt out of cookies and similar technologies by reading the “What Rights and Choices Do You Have?” section of this Privacy Policy below.

3. How do we use personal information?

Student Data. Amplify uses Student Data for educational purposes, to provide the Products, and to ensure secure and effective operation of our Products, including:

  • to provide and improve our educational Products;
  • to support School and Authorized School Users’ activities;
  • to ensure secure and effective operation of our Products;
  • for purposes requested or authorized by the School or Authorized School User or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Laws;
  • for customer support purposes, to respond to the inquiries and fulfill the requests of the School and their Authorized School Users;
  • to enforce Product access and security controls; and
  • to conduct system audits and improve protections against the misuse of our Products, or to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.
  • to enable the adaptive and personalized learning features of the Products.

Non-Student Data. Amplify may use Non-Student Data for the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above. In addition, Amplify may use Non-Student Data to provide customized content, advertising and marketing in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials) directed to Educators and Home Users. For sake of clarity, we do not use Student Data for marketing purposes and we do not direct marketing to Students. Amplify may also use Non-Student Data for internal research and analytics, including generating insights on the use of our Products by Educators in certain Schools so that we can better serve those communities. We will also use Non-Student Data as otherwise required or permitted by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection. Learn how to opt out of these communications by reading the “What Rights and Choices Do You Have?” section of this Privacy Policy below.

Amplify may use aggregate or de-identified data as described in the Aggregate/De-identified Data section below.

4. To whom do we disclose personal information?

Student Data. We disclose Student Data to third parties only as needed to provide the Products under the Agreement, as directed or permitted by the School or Authorized School User, and as required by law. Such disclosures may include but are not limited to the following:

  • to other Authorized School Users of the School entitled to access such data in connection with the Products;
  • to our service providers, subprocessors, or vendors who have a legitimate need to access such data in order to assist us in providing or supporting our Products, such as platform, infrastructure, and application software. We contractually bind such parties to protect Student Data in a manner consistent with those practices set forth in this Privacy Policy and in accordance with Applicable Laws. A list of Amplify subprocessors is available at https://www.amplify.com/subprocessors;
  • to comply with the law, respond to requests in legal or government enforcement proceedings (such as complying with a subpoena), protect our rights in a legal dispute, or seek assistance of law enforcement in the event of a threat to our rights, security, or property or that of our affiliates, customers, Authorized Users, or others;
  • in the event Amplify or all or part of its assets are acquired or transferred to another party, including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings, provided that successor entity will be required to comply with the privacy protections in this Privacy Policy with respect to information collected under this Privacy Policy, or we will provide the School with notice and an opportunity to opt out of the transfer of such data prior to the transfer; and
  • except as restricted by Applicable Laws or contracts with the School, we may also share Student Data with Amplify’s affiliated education companies, provided that such disclosure is solely for the purposes of providing Products and at all times is subject to this Policy.

Non-Student Data. Amplify discloses Non-Student Data for the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above. Amplify may also disclose Non-Student Data as otherwise required or permitted, or as disclosed at the time of collection. Please note that we do not share mobile information or opt-in consent with third parties / affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

5. Aggregate/De-identified data

Amplify may use de-identified or aggregate data for purposes allowed under FERPA and other Applicable Laws, to research, develop, and improve educational sites, services, and applications and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Amplify Products. Amplify will not attempt to re-identify de-identified data. We may use aggregate information (which is information that has been collected in summary form such that the data cannot be associated with any individual) for analytics and reports. For example, our promotional materials may note the total number of students served by our programs in the prior year, but that information cannot be used to identify any one student. We may also share de-identified or aggregate data with research partners to help us analyze the information for product improvement and development purposes.

Records and information are de-identified when all personal information has been removed or obscured, such that the remaining information does not reasonably identify a specific individual. We de-identify Student Data in compliance with Applicable Laws and in accordance with the guidelines of NIST SP 800-122. Amplify has implemented internal procedures and controls to protect against the re-identification of de-identified Student Data. Amplify does not disclose de-identified data to its research partners unless that party has agreed in writing not to attempt to re-identify such data.

6. Data prohibitions, Advertising, Advertising limitations

Amplify will not:

  • sell Student Data to third parties;
  • use or disclose Student Data to inform, influence, or enable targeted advertising to a Student based on Student Data or information or data inferred over time from the Student’s usage of the Products;
  • use Student Data to develop a profile of a Student for any purpose other than providing the Products to a School or Authorized School User, or as authorized by a parent or legal guardian;
  • use Student Data for any commercial purpose other than to provide the Products to the School or Authorized School User, or as permitted by Applicable Laws.

7. External third-party services

This Privacy Policy applies solely to Amplify’s Products and practices. Schools and other Authorized Users may choose to connect or use our Products in conjunction with third-party services and Products. Additionally, our sites and Products may contain links to third-party websites or services . This Privacy Policy does not address, and Amplify is not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of such third parties. Schools should carefully consider which third-party applications to include among the Products and services they provide to Students and vet the privacy and data security standards of those providers.

Authorized Users may be able to log in to our Products using third-party sign-in services such as Clever, ClassLink or Google. These services authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share certain personal information with us, including your name and email address, to pre-populate our account sign-up form. If you choose to enable a third party to share your third-party account credentials with Amplify, we may obtain personal information via that mechanism. You may configure your accounts on these third-party platform services to control what information they share.

8. Security

Amplify maintains a comprehensive information security program and uses industry standard administrative, technical, operational, and physical measures to safeguard Student Data in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. Amplify performs periodic risk assessments of its information security program and prioritizes the remediation of identified security vulnerabilities. Please see https://amplify.com/security for a detailed description of Amplify’s security program.

In the event Amplify discovers or is notified that Student Data within our possession or control was disclosed to, or acquired by, an unauthorized party, we will investigate the incident, take steps to mitigate the potential impact, and notify the School in accordance with Applicable Laws.

Non-Student Data

Outside of Student Data, Amplify uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel, and physical measures to safeguard personal information in its possession against loss, theft, and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification.

9. Data Storage and Transfers

We are a United States Company, and our servers are hosted, managed, and controlled by us in the United States. If you are outside of the United States, we use industry standards to protect your data when it leaves your country of residence and your data will always be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy, Applicable Laws and our Agreement regardless of the storage location.

Additionally, where we transfer your personal information to service providers outside of the United Kingdom (UK), European Economic Area (EEA), or other region that offers similar protections, we use specific appropriate safeguards to contractually obligate such service providers to protect personal information in accordance with Amplify’s commitment to privacy and security and applicable data protection laws.

If you have questions or wish to obtain more information about the international transfer of your personal information or the implemented safeguards, please contact us using the contact information below.

10. Data Retention / Deletion

Student Data

Upon request, we provide the School the opportunity to review and delete the personal information collected from Students. We will retain Student Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and our Agreement with the School. We do not knowingly retain Student Data beyond the time period required to support the School or Authorized School User’s educational purpose, unless authorized by the School or Authorized School User. Upon request, Amplify will return, delete, or destroy Student Data stored by Amplify in accordance with applicable law and customer requirements. We may not be able to delete all data in all circumstances, such as information retained in technical support records, customer service records, back-ups, and similar business records. All such information will be protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Agreement until it has been permanently deleted. Unless otherwise notified by the School, we will delete or de-identify Student Data after termination of our Agreement with the School.

Non-Student Data

Outside of Student Data, we keep personal information as long as it is necessary or relevant for the practices described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise required by our Agreement with the School, if applicable. We determine the appropriate retention period for personal information on the basis of the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal information being processed, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the personal information, whether we can achieve the purposes of the processing through other means, and on the basis of applicable legal requirements (such as applicable statutes of limitations).

11. What rights and choices do you have?

What Choices Do You Have?

Marketing/Advertising

As noted above, we do not use Student Data for marketing purposes and we do not direct marketing to Students. Amplify does not use third party cookies and similar technologies for advertising and marketing purposes on Student-facing portions of the Products. The choices below apply to Non-Student Authorized Users.

Opt-out of Marketing Communications. If you want to stop receiving promotional materials from Amplify, you can follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email or email us at privacy@amplify.com. Amplify does not send marketing communications to Students.

Opt-out of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. With respect to cookies, you may be able to reject cookies through your browser or device controls. Note that you have to opt-out of cookies on each browser or device that you use. If you replace, change, or upgrade your browser or device, or delete your cookies, you may need to use these opt-out tools again. Please be aware that disabling cookies may negatively impact your experience as some features may not work properly. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, check the “Help,” “Tools,” or similar section of your browser.

What Rights Do You Have?

Individuals in the U.S.

  • What Rights Do You Have With Respect to Student Data?
    • Review and Correction. FERPA requires schools to provide parents with access to their children’s education records, and parents may request that the school correct records that they believe to be inaccurate or misleading.
    • If you are a parent or guardian and would like to review, correct, or update your child’s data stored in our Products, contact your School. Amplify will work with your School to enable your access to and, if applicable, correction of your child’s education records.
    • If you have any questions about whom to contact or other questions about your child’s data, you may contact us using the information provided below.
    • Other Privacy Rights? Please see section 3 of our supplemental disclosures: “Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights” for more information about your U.S. privacy rights

Individuals in the EU/UK

Please see section 4 of our supplemental disclosures: “Notice for European Economic Area and United Kingdom Customers” for more information about your EU/UK privacy rights.

12. COPPA

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a Child User unless and until a School or Educator, with the permission of the School, has authorized us to collect such information to provide the Products. Amplify relies on the School acknowledging that it is acting as the parent’s agent and consenting on the parent’s behalf to process personal information of Child Users in accordance with all applicable provisions of COPPA. To the extent COPPA applies to the information we collect, we process such information for educational purposes only, and no other commercial purpose, at the direction of the School and on the basis of the School’s authorization. If you are a parent or guardian and have questions about your child’s use of the Products and any personal information collected, please direct these questions to your child’s school.

Please refer to the Appendix–Supplemental Disclosures if you are a Home User.

13. Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy in the future. For example, we may update it to comply with new laws or regulations, to conform to industry best practices, or to reflect changes in our product offerings. When these changes do not reflect material changes in our practices with respect to use and/or disclosure of Authorized Users’ personal information, including Student Data, such changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on our website. In the event there are material changes in our practices that would result in Authorized Users’ personal information being used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected, with respect to Student Data, we will notify the School, and with respect to other information, we will notify you via email and provide an opportunity to opt out before such changes take effect.

14. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@amplify.com
Mail: Amplify Education, Inc.
55 Washington St.#800
Brooklyn, NY, 11201
Phone: (800) 823-1969
Attn: General Counsel

To report a security vulnerability, visit https://amplify.com/report-a-vulnerability/.

Appendix – Supplemental Disclosures

1. Mathigon and Amplify Classroom accounts

While our Products are geared towards Schools we do provide a limited opportunity for Home Users to use the Products at home—outside of the school context. We do not allow persons under the age of 13 (or those under the age of consent in any applicable jurisdiction) to register for an account with us outside the school context.

If you are a Home User, you are prohibited from collecting or providing any personal information from students or minors. You are permitted to access the platform for instructional purposes, but you may not enroll or roster minors, create accounts for minors, or input any personal information of minors into the Product.

Please note that most parts of Mathigon can be used without creating an account or providing any personal information that directly identifies you.

What Rights Do You Have? If you are a Child User who is 13 or older with a legacy Mathigon account (or the parent or guardian of a Child User with a legacy Mathigon account), you may request that we provide for your review, delete from our records, or cease collecting any Child User personal information. To the extent that you are unable to exercise these rights through self-service features within your account with us, please contact us by sending an email to: help@amplify.com and we will provide assistance.

2. U.S. Notice at Collection

Personal Information We Collect How We Use Personal Information

Student Data, which includes:

  • Roster Information
  • Demographic Data, such as race and national origin
  • School Records
  • Account Information
  • Schoolwork and Student Generated Content
  • Teacher Comments and Feedback
  • Device and Usage Data
  • To provide and improve our educational Products;
  • To support Schools’ and Authorized School Users’ activities;
  • To ensure secure and effective operation of our Products;
  • For purposes requested or authorized by the School or Authorized School Users, or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Laws;
  • For adaptive or personalized learning features of the Products; provided that Student Data is not disclosed;
  • For customer support purposes, to respond to the inquiries and fulfill the requests of the School and their Authorized School Users;
  • To enforce product access and security controls; and
  • To conduct system audits and improve protections against the misuse of our Products, or to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.

Authorized Users, which includes:

  • Contact Information
  • Account Information
  • Survey Responses
  • Device and Usage Data
  • For the purposes for which Student Data is used as set forth above;
  • For marketing purposes in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to K–12 students;
  • For internal research and analytics; and
  • As otherwise required or permitted, or as we may notify you at the time of collection.

Some of the information described above may be considered “sensitive” under the laws of certain jurisdictions (i.e., account credentials and race/national origin) (“Sensitive Information”). We use Sensitive Information for necessary or reasonably expected purposes – specifically, to provide you with our Services (i.e., account credentials are used to allow account logins and race/national origin are used for the School’s reporting purposes when voluntarily provided by the School).

We do not sell or share your personal information, as described in California law.

We retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes disclosed in the chart above. Additional information about our retention of Student Data and personal information from other Authorized Users can be found in Section 10 of this Privacy Policy.

Please see the Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights section of this appendix for information about your privacy rights pursuant to applicable U.S. law.

Notice of Financial Incentive

From time to time, to support our services, we offer opportunities to complete surveys and questionnaires. As an incentive for completing the survey or questionnaire, you can voluntarily provide personal information as an entry into a raffle drawing or to obtain other benefits, discounts, offers, or deals that may constitute a financial incentive under California law (“Financial Incentive”). The categories of personal information required for us to provide the Financial Incentives include: contact information and any other information that you choose to provide when you complete the survey.

Participation is voluntary and you can opt out at any time before the survey is complete. We do not allow students to participate in our surveys.

The value of the personal information we collect in connection with our Financial Incentives is equivalent to the value of the benefit offered.

3. Additional U.S. State Privacy Law Rights

Note for Requests Relating to Student Data: Because Amplify provides the Products to Schools as a “School Official,” we collect, retain, use, and disclose Student Data only for or on behalf of the School for educational purposes, including the purpose of providing the Products specified in our Agreement with the School and for no other commercial purpose. Accordingly, we act as a “service provider” for the School with respect to School Data. We work with the School to support and assist them in addressing privacy requests relating to School Data. Please reach out to your School directly if you wish to exercise any privacy rights that may be available to you.

For all other requests: With respect to Amplify Data, individuals residing in certain U.S. states have the following rights, regarding your personal information (each of which is subject to various exceptions and limitations):

  • Access. You have the right to request, up to two times every 12 months, that we disclose to you the categories of personal information collected about you; the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected; the categories of personal information sold or shared; the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information; the categories of third parties with whom personal information was shared; and the specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
  • Correction. You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information collected from you.
  • Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information that we maintain about you. Even after the deletion of your account, some personal information may remain on our servers, such as in technical support logs, server caches, data backups, or email conversations. These will be automatically deleted after a reasonable amount of time, unless we are legally required to retain information for longer, or unless there is a legitimate business reason (e.g. security and fraud prevention or financial record-keeping). We are not required to delete any information which has been aggregated or de-identified in accordance with Section 5.
  • No Discrimination. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
  • Appeals. You have a right to appeal decisions concerning your ability to exercise your consumer rights.

See Submitting Requests section below for details on submitting a request to exercise these rights.

4. Notice for European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom (UK) Customers

As detailed at the beginning of our Privacy Policy (under the section titled “Our Role”), Amplify operates primarily as a processor that collects personal information on behalf of the School, and we act as a controller in limited circumstances where we offer Products outside the school context.

If you represent a School in the EEA or the UK, please note that we process personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, our Acceptable Use Policy, and our standard Data Protection Agreement, which sets out our responsibilities when it comes to our processing activities. Schools must send an email to privacy@amplify.com to enter into that DPA.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We rely on the following lawful bases for our processing activities:

  • Consent;
    • We obtain your consent to use cookies to collect and process device and usage data to understand how individuals use our Products.
  • Pursuant to a contract for use of our Products;
    • We process School Data to provide our Products (e.g., to create, authenticate and manage your account, to verify your identity, to manage our Products) pursuant to the Agreement between us and the School, as required in order for us to perform our obligations.
  • To comply with our legal obligations;
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our Products where we are complying with security requirements under data protection and cyber and information security law.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to comply with our legal obligations which includes, for example, to access, retain or share certain personal information where we receive a valid request from a government body, law enforcement body, judicial body regulator or similar, to deal with legal claims and prospective legal claims, and to ensure we are complying with applicable laws.
  • When we have a legitimate interest in doing so, which is not outweighed by the risks to the individual.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to support the provision, effective management, and improvement of our Products where such activities are not strictly required under our contract. This is in our legitimate interests to ensure that we are providing the best possible service.
    • We process all categories of personal information that we collect to ensure the safety and security of our services where this is important but not required under the data protection law or cyber and information security laws. This is in our legitimate interests to ensure the security of our services and systems, to prevent threats, abuse or fraudulent or unlawful activity, to promote safety and security and to ensure our Products are used in accordance with our terms and conditions.
    • We process the contact information of Non-Student Authorized Users to manage our relationship, including to respond to queries or otherwise communicate with you in relation to our Products and the operation of our business where this is not strictly required under a contract with you. This is in our legitimate interests to communicate with and resolve queries from users of our Products and to ensure that we are providing the best possible service.

We process the contact information and survey data of Non-Student Authorized Users for internal research and marketing purposes in limited circumstances (e.g. to periodically send newsletters and other promotional materials), which will not be based on Student Data or directed to Students. This is in our legitimate interests to understand our customers and prospective customers, understand how our products and services are perceived in the market, to promote our products, and to grow and develop our business.

Your Data Subject Rights

Note for Requests Relating to School Data: Amplify acts as processor to its School customers with respect to all School Data. We work with our School customers to support and assist them in addressing privacy requests relating to School Data. Please reach out to your School directly if you wish to exercise any privacy rights that may be available to you.

For all other Requests With respect to Amplify Data, you have the following rights if you are in the EEA or UK, subject to certain exceptions:

  • Right of access: You have the right to ask us for confirmation on whether we are processing your personal information and access to that personal information.
  • Right to correction: You have the right to have your personal information corrected.
  • Right to erasure: You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information.
  • Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw consent that you have provided.
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
  • Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request the limiting of our processing under limited circumstances.
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to receive the personal information that you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit that information to another controller, including to have it transmitted directly, where technically feasible.
  • Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information

See Submitting Requests section below for details on submitting a request to exercise these rights.

5. Submitting Requests

To exercise any of the rights described in sections 2 and 3 of this appendix, email us at privacy@amplify.com and specify which privacy right you intend to exercise. We may require additional information from you to allow us to confirm your identity. The verification steps will vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us. Please note that your rights may not apply in all cases. For example, we may need to retain your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and enforce our agreements. We will inform you if we are not able to fully respond to your requests. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. When submitting the request, please ensure the authorized agent identifies himself/herself/itself as an authorized agent and can show written permission from you to represent you. We may contact you directly to confirm that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf or confirm your identity.

Complaints

If you have any issues, you have the right to lodge a complaint with an EEA or UK supervisory authority. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you approach a data protection regulator and would welcome you directing an inquiry first to us. To do so, please contact us by email at privacy@amplify.com or by mail at Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington St.#800, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.

6. Google APIs

Amplify uses Google’s Application Programming Interface (API) Services to enable Authorized Users to log in to Amplify, import classes and rosters from Google Classroom, create assignments in Google Classroom, and copy, edit, and publish Amplify content using Google Slides. Amplify will use and transfer information received from Google’s API in accordance with Google API Service User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Update History:

Update: 6/13/2025: This Policy has been updated to align with product updates and to provide additional context for authorized educational use of Amplify’s Products.

Update 6/27/2024: The Policy has been updated to include an explanation regarding Google APIs in the Appendix — Supplemental Disclosures section.

Update 6/30/2023: This Privacy Policy has been updated to address new state law data privacy requirements.

Overview Video

The Lawrence Hall of Science

Developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify, our program features:

  • phenomena-based approach where students construct a complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
  • A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
  • Carefully crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true 3-dimensional learning.
  • An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
The logo for The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, features blue text on a light background and is recognized by educators using Amplify Science for middle school science programs.

Instructional model

The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

DO

First-hand investigations are an important part of any science classroom, and Amplify Science has students getting hands-on in every unit—from building models of protein molecules to experimenting with electrical systems.

TALK

Student-to-student discourse and full-class discussions are an integral part of the program. Students are provided with numerous opportunities to engage in meaningful oral scientific argumentation, all while fostering a collaborative classroom environment.

READ

Students read scientific articles, focusing their reading activities on searching for evidence related to their investigation and, importantly, on asking and recording questions as they read through fascinating texts on 21st-century topics.

WRITE

Following real-world practices, students write scientific arguments based on evidence they’ve collected, making clear their reasoning about how a given piece of evidence connects to one of several claims.

VISUALIZE

By manipulating digital simulations and using modeling tools to craft visualizations of their thinking— just as real scientists and engineers do—students take their learning far beyond the confines of what they can physically see in the classroom in an exciting and authentic way.

Program structure

Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.

It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the NGSS, and support students in mastering the standards.

Graphic showing a research process with four steps: spark intrigue with a real-world problem, explore evidence, explain and elaborate, and evaluate claims, connected in a cycle with arrows.

Unit types

While every unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, each unit also serves a unique instructional purpose.

In grades 6–8:

  • One unit is a launch unit.
  • Three units are core units.
  • Two units are engineering internships.

Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.

Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.

Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.

Unit sequence

Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.

In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.

Three columns listing education curriculum topics for grades 6, 7, and 8, focusing on science themes such as microbiomes, mars geology, and harnessing human energy.

Program components

Available digitally and in print, our unit-specific reference guides are chock full of helpful resources, including scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, color-coded 3-D Statements, detailed lesson plans, tips for delivering instruction, and differentiation strategies.

Amplify Science TG

Hands-on learning is an essential part of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. Students actively participate in science, playing the roles of scientists and engineers as they gather evidence, think critically, solve problems, and develop and defend claims about the world around them. Every unit includes hands-on investigations that are critical to achieving the unit’s learning goals.

A young person wearing gloves looks through a microscope at a table with laboratory supplies, including bottles, slides, and a tray, against a plain blue background.

More hands-on with Flextensions:
Hands-on Flextensions are additional, optional investigations that are included at logical points in the learning progression and give students an opportunity to dig deeper if time permits. These activities offer teachers flexibility to choose to dedicate more time to hands-on learning. Materials referenced in Hands-on Flextension activities will either be included in the unit kit or are easily sourced. Supporting resources such as student worksheets will be included as downloadable PDF files.

Our kits include enough materials to support 200 student uses. In other words, teachers can easily support all five periods and small groups of 4-5 students each. Plus, our unit-specific kits mean teachers just grab the tub they need and then put it all back with ease.

Amplify Science California supports 3-D learning with more materials than any other program.

Our digital Simulations and Practice Tools are powerful resources for exploration, data collection, and student collaboration. They allow students the ability to explore scientific concepts that might otherwise be invisible or impossible to see with the naked eye.

Available for every unit, our Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data and observations, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

In grades 6–8, one copy of the Student Investigation Notebook is included in each unit’s materials kit for use as a blackline master. Each notebook is also available as a downloadable PDF on the Unit Guide page of the digital Teacher’s Guide.

Two booklets titled "El clima cambiante de la Tierra: la desaparición del hielo" and "Earth’s Changing Climate: Vanishing Ice" with landscape illustrations on the covers.

These customizable PowerPoints are available for every lesson of the program and make delivering instruction a snap with visual prompts, colorful activity instructions, investigation set-up videos and animations, and suggested teacher talk in the notes section of each slide.

A laptop displays a PowerPoint presentation in presenter view, with slides about observing objects in plastic containers and related sensory instructions.

Explore your print samples

With your Amplify Science print samples, you’ll find unit-specific Teacher’s References Guides and Student Investigation Notebooks for each grade level.

A note about the Teacher’s Reference Guides:

It’s important that your committee sees the full breadth and depth of our instruction. For that reason, we provided a copy of each of our unit-specific Teacher Reference Guides.

Rest assured that teachers do not use these robust reference guides for day-to-day teaching. For that, we have a hands-free TG!

A laptop screen shows an energy simulation, with surrounding text and diagrams explaining the Earth's system and energy flow.
  • Teacher Reference Guide: Unlike a typical TG that requires a series of supplemental books to support it, our encyclopedic reference guide is chock-full of everything a teacher needs to fully implement our program and the NGSS.
  • Ready-to-Teach Lesson Slides: For daily instruction, teachers need their hands free. That’s why we created ready-to-teach lesson slides for every single lesson. What’s more, they are editable and include suggested teacher talk and point-of-use differentiation and other instructional tips. Click to learn more.

A note about the Materials Kits:

Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. In order to make hands-on learning more manageable for busy teachers, Amplify Science materials are organized into unit-specific kits.

Stacked storage bins with labels, arranged neatly; caption notes they are a sample and may not reflect actual quantities or sizes.

Our unit-specific kits:

  • Include more materials — We give teachers enough materials to support 200 student uses.
  • Are more manageable — Unlike other programs that require large groups of students to share limited sets of materials, our kits include enough to support small groups of 4–5 students.
  • Include supportive videos — Each hands-on activity provides clear instructions for the teacher, with more complex activities supported by video demonstrations and illustrations.

What comes in each grade level kit? Click the links below to see the grade-specific lists of all materials included in each kit.

Access your digital samples

Explore as a teacher

Follow these instructions to explore the Amplify Science digital platform as a teacher.

  • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark it.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: t1.jeffersoncounty@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-jeffersoncounty
  • Click the Science icon.
  • Click on the Program Menu in the top center of the screen and select any grade.
  • Select any unit.

To help familiarize yourself with navigating the digital platform,watch the below navigational video.

Explore as a student

Follow these instructions to explore the Amplify Science digital platform as a student.

  • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark it.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: s1.jeffersoncounty@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-jeffersoncounty
  • Click the Science icon.
  • Click on the Grade Menu in the top center of the screen and select any grade.
  • Select any unit.

Resources to support your review

S3-03: Instructional strategies for integrating science and literacy

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

We’re continuing our investigations around science and literacy with Doug Fisher, Ph.D., professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University. We talk about the importance of integrating science and literacy, as well as practical guidance for teachers who want to unite the two disciplines in their own classrooms.

Listen as we discuss how science and literacy can be powerful allies and specific strategy areas to focus on when integrating the two disciplines. And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Douglas Fisher (00:00):

It’s not that you have to become a reading specialist to integrate literacy into science. It’s how our brains work.

Eric Cross (00:10):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. This season, we’re making the case for our favorite underdog, which of course is science. Each episode we’re showing how science can be better utilized in the classroom, and making the case for why it’s so important to do so. In our last episode, we examined the evidence showing that science and English instruction can support each other. And now on this episode, we want to give you some more strategies for really making that a reality in your own home or classroom or community. So to help me, I’m joined on this episode by Dr. Douglas Fisher, Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University. Dr. Fisher is actually someone who has conducted literacy training at my own school, so I’m excited to be able to share some of his wisdom with all of you. Oh, and just a heads up, Dr. Fisher dropped some gems about the ways teachers can integrate literacy and science in their classrooms. So you may want to have a notepad. Ready. And now here’s my conversation with Dr. Douglas Fisher.

Eric Cross (01:12):

Well, Doug, thank you for your time and for being willing to come and talk about literacy and science. I know you’re busy, all over the place, and so I was super-excited that we were able to lock you in and talk about this. And, on this episode, we’re gonna talk about the ways that science and literacy can support each other. And one of the reasons why I’m really excited for you is because you said some really key things for me as a science teacher, when you talked about literacy and supporting students. That just resonated so deeply in me. And I was like, “I need more Doug!” Because we’re on that same frequency. And I know it’s a subject that you’ve spent a lot of time writing about. So can you tell us a little bit about how this became an area of interest or a passion for you? Just literacy, and all of the work that you’ve put into it?

Douglas Fisher (01:54):

Yeah. So I’ve wanted to be a teacher for a really long time. And I went to San Diego State as an undergraduate, and I was taking English class and we were assigned topics. You know, like, you’ll do an assignment, you’ll write a paper for this English class. And I got the topic “illiteracy,” and I was a freshman at San Diego State reading all of these things about adults who don’t read very well or not at all. And I ended up writing my very first college essay on illiteracy — at the time, you know, called illiteracy, at the time. And so I got super interested in this. And so as I moved through college and into my teaching career, literacy became a really important thing for me to think about, because it’s the gatekeeper. You know, you can be taken advantage of, if you’re not very literate. People can use vocabulary against you, if you’re not very literate. We know that people who have higher levels of literacy have better health outcomes. They have better lifespans, longer lifespans. I mean, there’s just — literacy impacts so much more than “Are you reading your fourth-grade textbook?” It really has lifelong implications.

Eric Cross (03:01):

That part that you said about being taken advantage of … I just got a flyer in the mail yesterday. It was one of these mailers that looked like it was an authentic debt-reduction type of thing, but it was really just like a marketing email. If you read the fine print at the very bottom, it had all of this jargon about “This is a paid, you know, for-profit company.” But when you look at it, it had official stamps all over it. And I could imagine if someone’s receiving that, that probably fools a lot of people. Is that kinda like what you’re talking about, like being taken advantage of?

Douglas Fisher (03:28):

Yes. I had a student turn 18, got a letter from a “credit card company” that was offering her daily compounding interest. And if you don’t know what that means — at 23 percent! — if you dunno what that means, you are gonna be a victim. Literacy really influences a lot of our life. It’s also how our brain works. We have a language-based system in our brain. We read, write, speak, listen, and view. And the things we learn, we learn through speaking, reading, writing, listening, and viewing. From what we know, we are the only species that has an external storage mechanism. Like, we have the ability to store complex information outside of our body, in the form of notes. We can type them. We can write them. And we can then go back and retrieve that information, that complex orthographic information later. And it means the same thing. We can say we have a storage system and we’ve been doing this for a really long time. Way back to, you know, hieroglyphics and messages on cave walls. And throughout the ages of humans learning, how to store information that they can re-access again later. That’s become a super-complicated system. It’s how computers operate. And we send messages to each other and we text each other and we write things down, and we’re really good at putting ideas, information out there. Now, if it’s just speaking and listening, then we can forget it. We can say, “No, you said this,” or “I said that.” But when it’s written, and it’s print literacy, you know, it’s the orthographics there, you can go back to the same message and over and over again. Now, you might change the interpretation of it, but the message is still there.

Eric Cross (05:16):

Right. And that is such a key element, at least of modern education, is this written element of it. It’s what many schools live and die by. They’re quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by it. It’s public. They can see it. And so there’s this heavy emphasis. And why do you think science and literacy can be powerful allies together?

Douglas Fisher (05:38):

Awesome. Well, it’s hard to learn science if you’re not literate.

Eric Cross (05:42):

This is true.

Douglas Fisher (05:42):

But that’s a one-way direction. And yes, science teachers and scientists do a lot of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and viewing. They use the five literacy processes all the time. When we interview scientists, they spend a lot of their time reading the work of other scientists and writing their findings, writing grant proposals, presenting at conferences, you know. So a huge part of the work of a scientist is not just at a bench conducting experiments. But even if you’re conducting experiments, you’re using your literacy processes to think about what you’re seeing in your experiment. So that’s a one-way direction. And I do think literacy has an influence on science. But since science goes the other way, it influences literacy. As you learn more and you understand more about the world, your background knowledge grows, your vocabulary grows, you become more literate in those different areas. And how you think. So if I’m learning about life science; I’m learning how the world works in a more, biologic physical world. And that knowledge helps me think about when I’m reading a novel, and there’s an appeal to some science knowledge or a concept that gets played with, you know, perhaps time-space continuums … well, if I don’t have the science knowledge of how I think the world works, it’s hard for me to understand what this author is doing. So it does go both ways. They feed each other. And the more literate we become, the more complex science information we can understand. ‘Cause our background knowledge and our vocabulary influence how much we understand about what we read. And as we access more complex science information, it starts to change the way we think about other things in our world.

Eric Cross (07:23):

There was a couple of things that you said in that, but one of the first things that kind of perked my ears is when you said grant proposals. Because I have friends that are scientists — and this is one of the things that when I was in school, they don’t talk about — but how much of their research is reliant upon getting funding —

Douglas Fisher (07:37):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Eric Cross (07:38):

— which you don’t think about if you’re becoming a chemist or a physicist or a biologist or working in the field, is that that funding, coming from the NSF or anywhere else. And sometimes students ask in class like, “Why am I writing so much? Like, I want to go into science!” Or “I wanna do this!” And this is a real-life example of how the writing could actually apply, in addition to all of the things of collecting data and conclusions and results. But that grant proposal thing just really perked my ears, yeah.

Douglas Fisher (08:01):

And if you can’t write a grant proposal, your ideas and experiments are not gonna get funded. And if you can’t write a strong proposal, that compellingly convinces your readers to fund you, you’re not gonna get funded. But then once you get the grant, you have to write publications. You have to share your work with other people. Make PowerPoint presentations and write journal articles or books or whatever. So it’s a cycle that literacy influences the things we do, including the things we do in science.

Eric Cross (08:31):

Now to get in maybe some data, if you were trying to convince someone that like this happy marriage can exist, what would be like your number one piece of evidence to support this, this back and forth of supporting each other?

Douglas Fisher (08:44):

Awesome. So the quote I’ll often say — and this is from studies from more than two decades ago now — but in general, in high school science, students are introduced to 3000 unfamiliar words, 3000. Each year! Because there are words that are used in a scientific way that are used commonly in other places. And there are discipline-specific words. So 3000 words a year in high school science. The Spanish 1 textbook only has 1500 words in it. So science teachers have double the academic-language vocabulary demand that a typical introductory world-language class has. So just the vocabulary alone should say to us, literacy is gonna be important if you’re gonna learn science. And if you don’t understand these technical words, and you don’t understand the way science uses this particular word in this particular way… . When you say the word “process,” it means something very specific In science. “Division” — cellular division is not the way we think about it in mathematics; there’s a similar concept, but cellular division is different than dividing numbers. And those are words that get used in multiple areas. Then you have all these technical terms that you have to be able to use, to understand the concepts. To share the concepts. To talk to other people. Whether you’re in, you know, fifth grade and talking science, or you’re a university professor, there’s a shared language, appropriate for our grade level, that we have shared meanings of.

Eric Cross (10:22):

And we’re essentially … what I’m hearing you say is … most of the people that are listening to this are science teachers. We’re we’re also language teachers. In a sense.

Douglas Fisher (10:29):

So my frustration is when people say, “Every teacher’s a teacher of reading.” And I don’t like that. I’ve written against that phrase. I don’t think all teachers are teachers of reading, any more than all teachers are teachers of chemistry. Or all teachers are teachers of algebra. But what I will say is the human brain learns through language. And all of us — every teacher that I’ve ever met understands that language is important in my class. If my students don’t have strong listening skills and speaking skills; reading, writing, and viewing skills; I’m gonna have a hard time getting them to learn things. If I can help them grow their speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing in my content area, I’m gonna do a service for my learning of my subject and also their more broad literacy development.

Eric Cross (11:16):

  1. So, at a high level, what does it look like to integrate science and literacy? We’ve done education for the last, what, hundred years?

Douglas Fisher (11:24):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Eric Cross (11:25):

—kind of pretty similarly, right? Kind of siloed way. What does this look like at the 30,000-foot level? You’re a professor, department chair. Run schools. Speak everywhere. Like, when you think about this from that high level, what does it look like?

Douglas Fisher (11:39):

A high level? Every time I meet with students in a science class, you know, biology or fifth grade or whatever? They should be reading, they should be writing, they should be speaking and listening. Every class. So what print do you want them to access? And it can be a primary source document, it can be an article, it can be from a textbook. Are they reading something? Are they writing to you? Because writing is thinking. If they are writing, they are thinking. As soon as their brain goes somewhere else, they stop writing. The pen won’t move or the fingers don’t type. And then speaking and listening, of course, is the dynamic of our classes. So every day we should see some amount of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, viewing in our classes. That’s at a high level. There are some generic things that seem to work across the literacy. So, learning how to take notes. Focusing on vocabulary. Using graphic organizers. These are generic things that as educators we can use in our classes. Then there’s more specialized things. So, scientists and science teachers think differently than historians and literary critics and art critics. So scientists, if you look at the disciplinary literacy work, there’s a whole body of research where they interview and study high-end experts in their field: chemistry, physics, biology, et cetera. And there are some characteristics that were more disciplined, specific. Scientists like cause and effect relationships. They look for them when they’re reading. They like sourcing information. “Where this come from?” “What’s the history of this idea?” Scientists have a long view in terms of time. Historians have a shorter view of time. English teachers have even shorter view of time. Scientists tend to think in long periods of time. And so all of that influences how a scientist reads and how we should apprentice young people after they get past the generic “I know how to take notes. I know how to study my vocabulary. I know how to do summary writing for my teacher in my notebooks and things,” there’s some generic tools. Once we get past those, we need to be looking at specifically how do people in science use literacy.

Eric Cross (13:52):

I’ve never had my thought process of reading deconstructed just now, but we just described how scientists read. I was like, “Yeah, that’s pretty much how I read, right there.” I also like how you said how we should apprentice young people. And I feel like you as the literacy guy, you chose that word very specifically, as far as apprenticing young people. That is a view, I think, that’s really important to hold. ‘Cause that’s what we’re doing essentially … is, if we’re doing what we should be doing, we are apprenticing these young people.

Douglas Fisher (14:18):

Yes.

Eric Cross (14:18):

And helping them develop. Now, let’s imagine there’s a listener out there and they’re interested in getting better at integrating science and literacy instruction. They want to start somewhere. Before we dive in, do you have any initial words of encouragement for the person who’s like, “Everything is like a priority right now,” in their classroom or in their world?

Douglas Fisher (14:37):

Yeah. So I’ll talk about elementary for just a moment. When we’re reading informational texts in our literacy block, we should be reading information that is aligned to what kids need to learn in science and history in, in that grade level. Why are we reading things that are gonna be in conflict with what they’re gonna learn in science later that day in fourth grade, for example? So when we look at our standards, our expectations, what is it that third graders need to know in history, science, mathematics, language arts? And when we’re reading text and we’re learning to apply our reading strategies during our literacy block, why aren’t we reading topics that build our background knowledge for our science time? So we’re seeing some synergy there. We should be looking at life cycles in grades that are appropriate for life cycles and knowing there’s more to life cycles than the frog and the plant or the seed. There are all kinds of life cycles. And we call ’em life cycles for a reason. That’s a general concept. Now in science, we’re looking at this particular lifecycle right now. And so that’s a high level. If we could get more connection to the content standards during our literacy blocks, it would be very good. When we talk about the time at which we call “science” in the day, in more of the K–8 continuum, the science needs to include some primary source documents. Some real things that students are reading. Read about a scientist; read about a scientist’s discovery; read about what they discovered. So that we’re building our background knowledge. So when we go to do things, activities, labs, simulations, we have background knowledge and we understand what we’re experiencing. It can’t be like—I watched this awesome lesson on lenses and the teacher had all these different lenses in the room and the students came in and they were brand new. They don’t know anything. They were picking ’em up. They’re exploring them. They’re trying to figure out, and they’re trying to come up with theories about what this is and how it works. And then the teacher gave them a reading, a short reading, on refraction of light. And they read this thing. And the clarity that they had about what these lenses must do, well! All of a sudden they’re putting them up to the lights! They’re asking if they can go get the lights out of the storage unit! ‘Cause there’s — and they’re shining different lights through the lenses to see what happens to the light. Because that little bit of reading turned some focus on for the students. And it allowed them to take what I’m thinking about, what I’m trying to figure out, how this thing works in another direction. That’s the power of using literacy in our classes.

Eric Cross (17:20):

And what I’m hearing essentially is transfer across disciplines, across content areas, ultimately. And in an elementary school classroom, would it be fair to say, probably the teacher has more autonomy to be able to do that, since they’re teaching all the subjects? But secondary, logistically, planning and those types of things … from what you’ve seen, is it fair to say this kind of needs to be like a top-down, full vertical alignment, to teach like this?

Douglas Fisher (17:45):

I think that would be awesome to do that. But if I’m a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher and I’m working with my sixth grade science teacher, the conversation should be, “What units are you teaching?” Because I’m choosing informational text. My job is to teach them how to find central ideas. My job is to teach them how to find the details in the text. My job is to have them make a claim and support that claim with evidence. The stuff I use is generic. Yes, we do read some literature and some narratives, but we also read about 50% of the text in English around informational text. So if I can help you and accomplish my standards as well, fantastic. So let’s have this conversation and say, “Oh, this is what you’re teaching in science in the next three weeks? I’m gonna choose some texts and we’re gonna analyze ’em for central idea. We’re gonna analyze ’em for details. We’re gonna, for mood or tone or whatever that we’re teaching. And by the way, I’m building background knowledge. So when they come to you, they know some stuff about what you’re going to be teaching next.” So I don’t think it’s impossible to say teams of teachers could come together and say, “What do we believe that our students need to know and learn and be able to do? And then how do we choose things that are gonna help them accomplish exactly that?”

Eric Cross (19:01):

And that’s empowering. Because that’s one thing that we can control maybe is this East-West, peer-to-peer, different content areas. A system may not be able to change as quickly, but I can definitely go talk to my English team or math team and check in and kind of see, “Hey, where do we have overlap in that?” And I know the times that I’ve accidentally had overlap with the teams, it’s super-exciting. And the students have been more bought in! Because it’s like, we’ve done something on the human microbiome and we’ve talked about genetics and all these different things, and then when they read The Giver, or they read some book about genetics, they have all this knowledge. And they’re excited. And they talk about colorblindness or they come to my class and they’re like, “Hey, we read about this!” It’s almost like they saw a magic trick, the fact that these things linked up. And the engagement has been so much higher when it’s the same content in different classes, but through different lenses. At least, that’s what I’ve seen in my years of teaching.

Douglas Fisher (19:54):

I saw a lesson on space junk that was so cool. Middle-school students learning space junk. And the history teacher had a part of it, science teacher had a part of it, English Language Arts teacher had a part of it. And these students, I mean, you watch them look up all the time, ’cause there’s space junk up there. Where’d it come from? Why is it there? What are the politics of this? How do we clean it up? I mean, it was just so interesting to watch them when the teachers came together. And the teachers met their standards in this couple-week-long space-junk exploration. Investigation was met. Politics was met. All these different things. Economy. You know, how much does it cost to clean up this problem? So there’s really cool opportunities when teachers come together and realize we can work together and improve the literacy and learning of our students.

Eric Cross (20:50):

Absolutely. So before this recording, we picked your brain a bit. And I know that there were three specific strategy areas that you wanted to touch on. And one of those — which is kind of coming back to the 3000-words language teachers — was vocabulary. So what are the opportunities that you see, as far as the way of educators to approach vocabulary? Because, you know, there’s a lot. We got a lot of it. The 3000 words.

Douglas Fisher (21:14):

Yeah. There’s a lot of it. So the worry is, we make a vocabulary list and have students look up the words in definitional kinds of things. That’s not really gonna help. Students need to be using the words. They need to be using the words in their conversations, in their writing, in how they think about your content in science. So vocabulary is a huge predictor of whether or not you understand things. Vocabulary is also a pretty good predictor if you can read on grade level. So when we think about vocabulary, there’s something called word solving. You show students a piece of text and you’re reading it, you’re sharing your thinking, and you say, “Oh, here’s a context clue!” Or “I know this prefix or suffix or root!” And in science, a lot of the words are prefixed, suffixed, or root words. We tend to add things together with a lot of prefixes and suffixes and have roots and bases in science. So we can help students think about, “Oh, what does geo- mean? We already know what geo- means here. It means the same thing in this word. Let’s apply that knowledge.” So word solving is part of it, showing students how we think about words that we might not know. The second is more direct instruction of vocabulary. As students encounter the words, we work on what it means, how we say it. We practice it a few times. The process is called orthographic mapping. It’s kind of a scientific idea here. But you have the sound and the recognition of by-the-word, by sight, and what it means. And your brain starts to automatically recognize that word in the future. So I don’t have to slow down, disrupt my fluency, and try to figure out what the word is saying. ‘Cause I’ve seen it enough. I’ve heard it pronounced enough, I’ve pronounced it enough, and I know what it means. So teachers should be saying, “What words in sixth grade science, what words in third grade science, do my students really need to know?” And I’m gonna have them encounter those words over and over. I’m gonna have them use the words. I’m gonna have them see the words. I’m gonna have them say the words. I’m gonna say the word and we’re gonna be over and over with these terms, so that students incorporate them into their normal view of, “These are the things I know about the world.” By the way, when they go to read that next thing, and they understand “geology,” you know, for sixth graders, for example, they know how to say it. They don’t stumble on it. And it activates a whole bunch of memories in their brains. “This is what geology is.” There are branches of geology, there’s physical geology, there’s all this thinking that activates as they read.

Eric Cross (23:35):

There was a practice that I participated in and am trying to incorporate — I don’t know what the name of it is. But essentially what happened was we were dissecting a flower. And the instructor had us name parts of the flower. But we got to come up with our own names for it.

Douglas Fisher (23:49):

Ah.

Eric Cross (23:50):

So, for instance, the stamen we call “the fuzzy Cheeto.” And we all used our own words and then everything was legitimized. And so we went through and learned the whole activity using our own vocab words. But then, in the end, after we presented and talked about it, then the words, the actual academic language was attached to our word. And we were able to say, “OK, the fuzzy Cheeto is the stamen,” and this, this, this, and this. But it was such an interesting practice, because it kind of legitimized all of our definitions. But we weren’t stumbling on these long Latin terms and things like that. Is there a name for that? Or. … ?

Douglas Fisher (24:29):

Yes. I don’t know the name for that. I think it’s really smart. So here’s what I would say about that, is: we don’t learn words, we learn concepts. Words are labels for our concepts. So what that teacher did for you was allow you to develop concept, a concept knowledge. “There’s a part of this plant, it goes like this, we’re gonna call it fuzzy Cheeto. Now I have this concept. And look, it occurred in all these plants. And those people called it that and that other group called it that. We called it a fuzzy Cheeto. Here’s the part of it.” And then the concept is in your brains. And the teacher said, “It’s really called stamen.” And it’s an instant transfer, because you already had the concept. What we often see is students are trying to learn a really hard academic word and the concept for the word at the same time. And so it slows down the whole process. And there’s higher levels of forgetting. Because human beings, we don’t learn words; we learn concepts. If you don’t have the concept, if I gave you a word out of the blue that you’ve never seen, never heard, and a week from now I asked you to remember it, you probably would not, because it didn’t register. It wasn’t part of your schema. You didn’t have a way to organize the information. You don’t have a concept. So that teacher? It’s a great idea. Got you to develop concept knowledge. And then said, “Here’s a real label for it: What some other people called it when they had the chance to come up with their own names.”

Eric Cross (25:50):

Shout out to my teacher, who was—

Douglas Fisher (25:51):

Right.

Eric Cross (25:52):

It was learned then. It was a great practice. And the fact that you’re right, like, I just mean from my own personal experience, I agree that learning concepts versus complicated words. And it’s interesting that you said higher levels of forgetfulness, you know. And you often hear that complaint about it: “Students forget! Students forget!” But this complex topic and this complex word that’s new to me, and I have to remember both of those things.

Douglas Fisher (26:12):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (26:13):

And the other neat thing that it did, is it actually honored the background and like the founts of knowledge of all the different groups in the classroom. You just said something about “this group called it this and this group called it this,” and so by letting different groups share all of those names, now we’re starting to build these kind of interesting connections. That’s at least what I remember experiencing. And so this, even this practice of this approach is very layered, beyond just kind of generating new knowledge of things. So I appreciate that aspect of it. Now another area that you mentioned was complex text.

Douglas Fisher (26:41):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (26:42):

And how we can get students into complex text. So what can we do there?

Douglas Fisher (26:46):

I think science is an ideal place to get students reading things that are hard for them. And I do believe that some parts of school should be a struggle. Not all day, every day. But there should be doses of struggle, which are good for our brains. And these complex pieces of texts that don’t give up their meanings easily allow students to go back and reread the text and maybe mark the text and talk to peers about the text and answer questions with their groups. And the whole point of complex text is to say, “We persevere through it. We may not understand it fully on our first read. But we go back and we might underline, we might highlight. We might write some margin notes. Our teacher might say, ‘What did this author mean here?’ And we go back and look at that part and we take it apart. What do we think about that? And we talk to each other. It’s showing that when we read things, we work to understand. We work through our thinking, often in the presence of other people. And our understanding grows as we go into the text over and over and over again.” So I said geology earlier. There’s about a two-page article on “what is geology” that sixth graders often read. And some kids find it super boring. It’s a once-read, “OK, geology, I don’t really understand it. There’s a bunch of words in here that I don’t understand.” But if you go back to it a few times and you start taking apart, “What are the branches of geology? Oh, I’m gonna go reread that.” How are these two branches related to each other?” “What are the subtypes of each branch of geology?” “How do geologists do their work?” You start asking questions where students are going back into the text. You spend a little bit of time. Now, the introduction to geology, the students know so much more. So whatever you do next— video experiments, whatever—they have a frame of reference, because of that deep, complex read. It’s probably better than simply telling them, “Here’s the information.”

Eric Cross (28:45):

Right. And I even feel like as an educator, when I reflect on my own learning in the classroom, and then looking at it through the perspective of an educator <laugh>, you find this difference between how you were taught and then what the data says good teaching is.

Douglas Fisher (28:59):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Eric Cross (29:00):

It’s so easy to slide back into how you were taught!

Douglas Fisher (29:02):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (29:02):

Even though, you know, you mentally assent to, “This is the best way. This is the data shows.” And you find yourself kind of sliding back at times.

Douglas Fisher (29:10):

Yep. And there’s good evidence to support what you just said, that most people teach the way they experienced school. And it is very hard to change that. And people have studied this. And it’s very hard to change that. Because it worked for us. And we have an n of 1, and it worked for us. Now, remember, there were a whole bunch of other kids in the class that it may not have worked for. And we chose to be in school the rest of our lives, and some of your peers did not choose to be in school the rest of their lives. In fact, some of them hated school and found no redeeming qualities of their experience. So just because it worked for us in a case of one, n of 1, doesn’t mean it worked for all of the kids, or even the majority of them.

Eric Cross (29:57):

Very well said. It’s that, what is that, the survivor bias? Survivorship bias? Where you were the one that made it. But you don’t think about all the other folks. ‘Cause we’re thinking about ourselves.

Douglas Fisher (30:05):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (30:06):

Great case for empathy too, is thinking about the people left and right. Because my friends are like, “I hated science.” And I say, “Who hurt you? Like, what did they do? It’s so amazing, so much fun!”

Douglas Fisher (30:16):

“What happened to you? Science is the coolest. Right? It’s so amazing!”

Eric Cross (30:21):

But I also had a unique experience in seventh grade with my teacher who did some of these things, and made it accessible for so many of us, in opening opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. But you’re absolutely right. That was my story. That wasn’t the story of everybody that was around me. And I think that’s really important. Now, I know this is also a big one for you, but I wanna talk about writing. What are the opportunities that you see in terms of writing specifically?

Douglas Fisher (30:51):

So would love it if science teachers had short and longer writing tasks in the science time. Of course, you can integrate some of the science writing, the longer ones, in the English language arts time, especially if you’re the elementary teacher and you can have control of the whole day. But I said this earlier; I’ll say it again. Writing is thinking. While you are writing, there’s nothing else you can do but think about what you are writing. Your brain cannot do something else. So if a science teacher wants to know, do their students really understand the concepts? Have them write. Now some of the shorter ones, I like something called “given word” or “generative sentences”: “I’m gonna give you a word: CELL. C-e-l-l. We’re in science. I want you to write the word ‘cell,’ c-e-l-l, in the third position of a sentence. So it’s gonna go word, word, cell, and then more words.” You could also say, “I want the sentence longer than seven words,” or whatever. But the key is, I’m telling you where I want the word. You will know instantly if your students have a sense of what the word “cell” means in the context of science. If they write “my cell phone,” they don’t get it. If they write about spreadsheet cells or jail cells or whatever, they didn’t get it. But if they talk to you about plant cells and animal cells and the components of those cells, and then once they have that sentence down, you can say to them, “Now write three or four more sentences that connect to that sentence.” It’s super simple. So whatever concepts you’re teaching, put ’em in a specific position. Now you don’t have to only put it in the third position. You can say the first position, the fifth position, the fourth position. But it forces them to think about what they know about the word and then how to construct a sentence for you. That’s a very simple way to get some writing from your students that helps you think about what they understand. Other kinds of writing, you can have quick writes, you can have exit-slip writes. There’s something in the research space called the muddiest part, where halfway through the lesson you have them write so far what has been the least understood or the most confusing part of this lesson. And they do a quick write, right there, at the muddiest part. And as a teacher, you flip through these and you start to say, “Oh, these are the points that are confusing to my students.” So if 80% of them all have the same thing, I gotta reteach that. If these five got, “This is the muddiest part,” If these five thought, “This is the muddiest part,” these seven, “I thought this was the muddiest part,” what do I need to do? Because it’s gonna be hard to move forward if this is their area of confusion. There are also all kinds of writing prompts that have a little bit longer. My favorite one is RAFT. What’s your Role? Who’s your Audience? What’s the Format? And what’s the Topic we’re writing about? Super flexible writing prompt. When you teach something, we don’t want students to only think they write to their teacher. So your role is an atom. You are writing to the other atoms. What do you wanna write about? What’s the topic? What’s the format of it? Is it a love letter? Is it a text message? Is it … so we, we mix it up with students in saying, how do they show some knowledge through a prompt that we give them? And then of course, longer pieces as they get older. More opinion pieces through fifth grade. More claims and arguments starting in sixth grade. So that they’re starting to see, “I have to use the evidence from things I’ve learned, read, listened to, watched, and construct something: an opinion, an argument where I back it up with reasons or evidence.” And those longer pieces, you know, less frequently. The shorter pieces, pretty regularly. So the teacher sees the thinking of the students.

Eric Cross (34:29):

When you were speaking about these really creative writing prompts, there were specific students coming into mind, that were coming into mind … they’re, they’re great science students, but they also have this really strong artsy side drawing, creative writing, and things like that. And when you said something about atoms talking to each other, it elicited, in my brain, certain students that would really love this aspect of creativity in the sciences. And it’s not how we’re typically trained as science teachers, to kind of incorporate this, like you said. A book of props. But I’m imagining, like, as a science teacher, if I took this, this would be a great way to reach more students to be able to show what they know, in a way that might resonate with their own intrinsic “Oh, I get to write creatively!” So I was kind of writing furiously as you were sharing all that information there.

Douglas Fisher (35:12):

So here, I’ll give you another example for elementary people. Again, with RAFT. There’s a book called Water Dance. It’s a pretty popular book for elementary teachers. It’s really about the life cycle of water. For example, you are a single drop of water. You are writing to the land. The format is a letter. And you’re explaining your journey. Now, if they can do this, they’re essentially explaining to you the cycle of water. But you got it in a way that people are now, “Oh, I’m a drop of water. So it’s me. My perspective. Where do I go from? Where do I start?” Because you can start anywhere in the cycle, right? My drop could have started in the clouds. My drop could have started in the ground. My drop could have started in the lake. But it has to show you the journey. So there are many ways of showing you the right answers.

Eric Cross (36:02):

And that’s using the RAFT protocol.

Douglas Fisher (36:04):

That’s RAFT: Role, Audience, Format, Topic. It’s been around 20 or 30 years.

Eric Cross (36:09):

You just gave the name to something a teacher shared in our podcast community, Science Connections: The Community, on Facebook. Teacher shared a Google slide deck and on it were just three slides. And the role that the student had to have is they had to show, then tell, the story of a journey of a piece of salmon being eaten, a piece of starch from pasta being eaten, and then an air molecule in a child’s bedroom. And they had to give the path of travel and the experience from the mouth and then breaking down into protein and all those kinds of things. And this teacher shared it and I wish I knew the teacher’s name because I wanna give ’em credit, but they shared it. And so I used it with my students and then had ’em read aloud their stories and dramatize it. And they were so into it!

Douglas Fisher (36:49):

So cool.

Eric Cross (36:50):

But through it, I was able to see that they understood different parts of the body. They understood cell respiration. The whole thing. And it was fun! To watch them get so into this creative writing. And now I know the name of it. That’s been 30 years they were using RAFT. So you just talked a bit about complex texts and writing. And before we go, I wanted to circle back to something that you said, because I think it’s important, and if you could elaborate on it a little bit, about the value of struggle. Can you talk more about that?

Douglas Fisher (37:21):

Sure. I do believe in a lot of the U.S. we’re in an anti-struggle era of education. And it predates Covid. I think it made it worse during Covid. We front load too much. We pre-teach too much. We reduce struggle. We quote, “over-differentiate” for students. And there’s value in struggle. The phrase, “productive struggle” — if you haven’t heard it, Google productive struggle — it’s an interesting concept, that we actually learn more when we engage in this productive struggle. Now, productive struggle originally came from the math world, and it was this idea that it’s worth struggling through things to learn from it, that you’re likely to get it wrong, and then there was productive success. And there are times when we want students to experience success and we make sure we put things in place for productive success. But there are times where we want them to struggle through a concept. ‘Cause it feels pretty amazing when you get on the other side, when you know you struggled and you get to the other side. If you think about the things, listeners, think about the things in your life where you struggled through it and you are most proud of what you accomplished. I want students to have that. I don’t wanna eliminate scaffolding, eliminate differentiation. But I do want some regular doses of struggle. So if you look at the scaffolding, we have a couple choices. We have front-end scaffolds, distributed scaffolds, and back-end scaffolds. Right now we mostly use front-end scaffolds: We pre-teach, we tell students words in advance, that kind of stuff. But what if we refrained from only using front-end scaffolds, and we use more distributed scaffolds, when they encounter. So there’s a difference between “just in case” and “just in time” support for students. So we tend to plan on the “in advance, here are all the things we’re gonna do to remove the struggle before students encounter the struggle.” What if instead we said, “Let them encounter some struggle. Here’s the supports we’re gonna provide. We’re gonna watch; we’re gonna remove those scaffolds, and allow them to have an experience of success, where they realize, ‘I did it. I got it.’” Every science teacher I’ve ever worked with, when they do an experiment or a lab or simulation, they are looking for productive struggle. They don’t tell the answers in advance. They don’t tell if the answers are right. That’s your data. What does your data tell you? I mean, this is what you do. But then the other part of your day when you move into, like, reading, you don’t do that. You fall into the trap of removing struggle. And so allow them to grapple with ideas. Allow them to wonder what words mean. Allow them to say, “I’m not getting this, teacher! It’s really frustrating!” And you say, “Yeah, this is really hard. This is why we’re doing it at school. ‘Cause it’s really hard. If it was easy, I’d have you do it at home. But we’re doing it here, ’cause it’s really hard and it’s OK not to get it at first.” And create a place where errors are seen as opportunities to learn, and struggling through ideas and clarifying your own thinking and arguing with other people to reach an agreement or reach a place where we agree to disagree is part of the power of learning.

Eric Cross (40:38):

There’s a teacher, who I took this from. My master teacher when I was student teaching. And she said that there’s no such thing as failure in science, just data. And I took that same mantra. And I resonate with what you said about how science teachers, all of us, hold onto that productive struggle, because it’s part of being a scientist. It’s part of the experiments. That genuine “aha” moment. Or it didn’t work out? That’s great! That’s totally fine! Let’s write about it and let’s take photos and let’s publish it and let’s be scientists. That’s totally true. As we wrap up, Dr. Fisher, is there any final message that you have to listeners about bringing science and literacy together? I know you speak everywhere, but for everyone that’s listening, if you can put out your encouragement or message or suggestion … you’ve given so many great tips and practical applications. But, any final thoughts on the subject?

Douglas Fisher (41:32):

I think many science teachers are intimidated because they think they have to be reading teachers. And there’s a knowledge base to reading. And some teachers are reading teachers and science teachers, and I don’t wanna dismiss that. But it’s not that you have to become a reading specialist to integrate literacy into science. It’s how our brains work. And so as you think about the way in which you are learning and the ways in which you want your students to learn, what role does language play? What role does speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing, play in your class? And then provide opportunities for students to do those five things each time you meet with them.

Eric Cross (42:12):

Dr. Fisher, thank you so much for being here and for your encouragement, and sharing your wisdom and experience. And then personally serving my city, here in San Diego, and my students, when they make it to your high school and ultimately the alma mater of San Diego State University.

Douglas Fisher (42:30):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (42:31):

Yeah. We really, really appreciate you in serving all kids and lifting the bar and making things more equitable for all students. And encouraging teachers. So thank you.

Douglas Fisher (42:39):

Thank you very much.

Eric Cross (42:42):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Dr. Douglas Fisher, Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University. Check out the show notes for links to some of Doug’s work, including the book he co-authored titled Reading and Writing in Science: Tools to Develop Disciplinary Literacy. Please remember to subscribe to Science Connections so that you can catch every episode in this exciting third season. And while you’re there, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more listeners to find the show. Also, if you haven’t already, please be sure to join our Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community. Next time on the show, we’re going to continue exploring the happy marriage between science and literacy instruction.

Speaker  (43:26):

I had this moment of realization I felt a few months ago: I’m like, if I don’t teach them how to use the AI as a tool, as a collaborator, then they’re gonna graduate into a world where they lose out to people who do know how to do that.

Eric Cross (43:39):

That’s next time on Science Connections. Thanks so much for listening.

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What Dr. Douglas Fisher says about science

“There are really cool opportunities when teachers come together and realize we can work together to improve the literacy and learning of all our students.”

– Dr. Doug Fisher

Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, San Diego State University

Meet the guest

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is professor and chair of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College having been an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit, an Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE, as well as a Christa McAuliffe award for excellence in teacher education. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design as well as books, such as The Restorative Practices PlaybookPLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by DesignBuilding Equity, and Better Learning Through Structured Teaching.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

S1-04: Connecting with students and caregivers in the science classroom: Ryan Rudkin

Promotional graphic for "science connections", season 1, episode 4, featuring a smiling woman named Ryan Rudkin, themed with science illustrations like atoms and a globe, highlighting how to engage students

In this special episode, our host Eric Cross sits down with veteran middle school teacher Ryan Rudkin. Ryan shares her expertise after almost two decades in the classroom, discussing ways to incorporate aspects of problem-based learning into the K–8 science classroom. Eric and Ryan talk about how to increase parent engagement, involve community members, and add excitement to lessons.

Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Ryan Renee Rudkin (00:00):

I know there’s other goals in mind, you know, standards and test scores. But at the end of the day, I wanna come back and I want them to come back.

Eric Cross (00:35):

My name’s Eric Cross, host of our science podcast, and I am with Ryan Rudkin, middle-school teacher out here in California just to the north up near Sacramento? El Dorado Hills?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (00:46):

Yeah. 20 miles east of Sacramento.

Eric Cross (00:49):

Nice. And I am down here in San Diego. And so Ryan, to start off, what I wanna do is ask you about your origin story, like a superhero. So how did you become a middle-school science teacher to become part of this elite profession of science folks that get to do awesome things with kids?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (01:08):

I would agree with you that it is definitely an elite profession. I got my credential and I thought I was gonna teach third or fourth grade elementary school. And the second day I got called for a sub job for middle school. And I just thought, “We’ll take it,” you know? And by second period, I knew: This is where I belong. The kids, middle school, students are just a species of their own. And you have to appreciate them. And if you do appreciate them, then you’re in the right spot. And I quickly looked at my coursework and I was able to get authorizations in science, history, and English, and I love science. So I chose science. And the rest is history. It’s been a wild ride and I wouldn’t have changed or asked for anything different. I love it.

Eric Cross (02:02):

I definitely agree with you. So, your history—you’ve been in various middle-school classrooms. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What classrooms have you been in? What disciplines of science have you taught or are currently teaching?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (02:14):

I was hired for seventh grade life science, and then I did that for a few years and then I got moved into eighth physical science, and I was there for 12 years. Love eighth grade science. I love eighth graders. Chemistry and physics are my favorite. There’s just so much opportunity for just awesome labs, great conversations, student discourse, all of that. And then the past three years I’ve been in sixth grade and now we’re integrated. So,a sixth grade integrated science and I also teach social studies and a technology design class.

Eric Cross (02:52):

Oh, nice. What do you do in your technology design class? That sounds cool.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (02:56):

Right now it’s mostly internet media and we use WeVideo, it’s an editing-video program, and we produce and put on our school weekly news bulletin. And then we weave in other projects. We do some interdisciplinary projects. Right now my students are working on a mythology God, Goddess, and Monster project that relates to our social studies curriculum. And we’re learning about Greece. So yeah, we just try to give them added projects and they’re using the WeVideo platform. By sixth grade, they’re coming to us now with wonderful skills with all the tech. I mean, if I need help, I ask them like, “How do you do something on Google Docs?” Or, “How do you do something on Drive?” The kids are definitely tech-savvy.

Eric Cross (03:49):

They must love being the teacher in the classroom. They get to—it kind of switches power roles, where they get to teach the teacher something.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (03:56):

Yes. And especially WeVideo, sometimes we’ve had some hiccups, and the kids show everybody, and that’s part of the design class. They’re trying to solve—we’re teaching them how to solve their own problems. So if there’s any kind of issue with anything with the technology, honestly, I usually tell them, “Go ask a friend,” or we kind of shout out, “Hey, who knows how to troubleshoot this?” And the kids are eager to help each other, which is nice.

Eric Cross (04:21):

And they have this authentic experience where they’re actually doing real problem-solving, as opposed to something that we manufactured. Like, those are real things that we have to deal with in life. And that’s exactly like how we solve it, right? We just go ask people! We look it up, and the ahas are genuine too. Throughout!

Ryan Renee Rudkin (04:36):

Yes, especially thinking on the fly. Especially yesterday, I was in the middle of teaching and my laptop froze, and it’s like, “OK, everybodytake a couple minutes, you know, work on this, this, or that while I switch out laptops!” And so I’m modeling, too, how to solve my own problems. And I think it teaches the kids how to do that too.

Eric Cross (04:59):

I’ve always thought it was interesting that when teachers get to teach in real time, how do we handle stress and frustration when it’s really happening? And I think the tech—at times, failure is the real one where you feel this chill or this sweat that kind of comes over you and you’re trying to present or cast or the video won’t play and things like that. I think I’ve done enough times in my years of teaching where now my students know what to do, or they want to come up and help, and we’re good with it. But I remember in the beginning when those things would kind of glitch or go wrong or the wifi goes down, and you’re like, OK, what do we need now?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (05:33):

I think it’s honestly, after the fact, when I think in the moment, I’m not thinking of feeling stressed, but just afterwards, then I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this has just been a wild day.” But yeah, you just have to kind of go with it. And that’s just the beast of middle school. I just added to the list of why we love it.

Eric Cross (05:53):

You said something about interdisciplinary work, and I wanna kind of ask about that. Because it sounds like you’ve had your hand in several different areas of science and grade levels. Working, doing design courses, working with tech. Are there certain lessons that are your favorites to teach? The ones that you really enjoy, or that no matter what, you’re like, “We need to do this; this is such a rich experience for students”?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (06:17):

Yeah. I definitely try to do lessons or activities along the way. I like to do projects at the end of my units. When I taught physics, we did a project and it was mainly an assessment tool called the Wheeling and Dealing. The kids, they would all get a different car. And then they to sell their car. And so they had to pretend to be a car salesman, and they did that with their knowledge of the physics unit. So everything we did on forces and speed and motion. So I like doing culminating projects like that. And you’re kind of tricking them into assessing them.

Eric Cross (06:57):

When I think about your car salesman project, I’m thinking of a bunch of students, but they’re like on Shark Tank, but they’re just littler versions. And they’re doing these sales pitches, but they’re speaking in scientific terms as they’re trying to do it. Do you record these or do they just exist in the classroom?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (07:12):

No…And that was a long time ago, when I taught eighth grade. I wish I had; I wish I had recorded. That was definitely—it was fun, ’cause the kids, they would get their little piece of paper and they—some of ’em didn’t know what car it was. And so they’re like “A Boo… A Boo-gatti? What’s a Boo-gatti?” And then someone from across the room would be like, “Ooh, I want it! Here, I’ll trade you my Ford Focus!” And <laugh> so they would kind of wheel-and-deal which car they would…and then once they got their choice, then they would do the project.

Eric Cross (07:44):

So they’re really embodying this persona of a car salesman. The wheeling and doing back-and-forth and trying to trade a Bugatti for a Ford Focus. <Laugh>

Ryan Renee Rudkin (07:53):

I know. <Laugh> I like to make my class, my learning environment, enjoyable. You know, I gotta be there; they gotta be there. So I know there’s other goals in mind—you know, standards and test scores—but at the end of the day, I wanna come back, and I want them to come back. And I just have that as a priority.

Eric Cross (08:18):

Well, based on the projects that you’re doing and the way that you approach education with students, I can see why middle-school students would want to come back, even if they had the option not to. Just because of the cool things that you’re doing. Now we’re on this—hopefully, fingers crossed—tail end of COVID in the classroom and schools, and I know it’s impacted all of us differently. Has student engagement changed since COVID and if so, how, and what have you done in these last two years to maybe adjust your approach, to continue that engagement and that richness that you provide for your kids?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (08:57):

I definitely—I think for me, I recognize that when the students are in my classroom, I want them to, I dunno, for lack of a better word, just escape the noise at home. And I know we’ve always had students that are going through divorce situations or their dog died, other things, but I think with COVID, it’s definitely been compounded. And just creating a safe place for the kids to want to be and…it’s hard. We’ve had a lot of students that have been out, absent, for various reasons and on quarantine. And they’re struggling with doing work from home, ’cause their parents are stressed and their parents are dealing with their work issues. And so I think just having grace for the kids and just keeping…I don’t know, I guess like I said, I’ve always had student engagement as top of my list.

Eric Cross (10:06):

It sounds like—the things I hear you say really have to do with who these students are as people.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:12):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (10:13):

And then as a second, who they are as students. How do relationships fit into your engagement? ‘Cause I’m hearing this connection that you seem to be making with kids as you’re talking about things that are beyond academics: their home life, how they’re impacted.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:28):

Yes.

Eric Cross (10:28):

Is there anything that you do to build these relationships, or to connect with your students, to make them feel wanted or feel connected to the classroom or to you?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (10:37):

Yeah, I do. I do a few things to build those connections. And again, this timeframe in their life is so out of their control, their peer relationships, relationships with their parents. And when they’re in my classroom, I want them to feel loved and appreciated. Something I do it’s called Phone Fridays. And in one of the social media groups, someone posted about it, and I’ve been doing it for over a year now, actually. So on Fridays I call parents and give good news. And so I’ll pick maybe one or two students. And it could be academic reasons. It could be behavior, I’ve seen a slight improvement of behavior. Maybe a role model in the classroom. And my goal is to get everybody every trimester. So everybody gets a phone call by the end of the trimester. And it’s funny ’cause sometimes the parents are a little like “Uh-oh”! When they pick up, they see the caller ID, and their school’s calling. ‘Cause Some kids don’t get good calls. So it’s a really—I would say every single parent that I’ve called, I usually get a follow-up email, either to me or my admin, just saying it’s such a cool idea I do this; thank you so much. And yeah, I just call and give good news and just put ’em on the spot. And usually the kids are a little embarrassed, but you can tell, even though they’re kind of—I think they’re faking it, that they’re embarrassed! ‘Cause You know that they got the Phone Friday, and everybody’s like, “Who’s gonna get the phone Friday?!” And so it’s a very big deal in my class.

Eric Cross (12:07):

What a great way to—I mean, it seems like that hits on so many levels. You’re making these positive calls home. You’re praising publicly, which a lot of times can happen where students can get criticized or redirected publicly and then praised privately, which is a lot of times the reverse what we should be doing. But here you are praising them publicly. And then you’re not only building a relationship with yourself, but you’re also connecting them with their parent or whoever is caring for them, because now when they go home, there’s this, “Hey, your teacher called; you’re doing awesome!” So it’s this kind of triangle that’s forming there. I think that’s super-cool and a great thing for teachers to do.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (12:45):

It takes, you know, the last five minutes of my class. I do it every class. And then I have a system. Like I said, I keep track of all the kids. That way, by the end of the trimester I’ve gotten everybody. Sometimes I let the students, whoever I call first, then I let them pick a peer and I tell them, “OK, we have to have a solid reason. Why are we calling?” And a couple times they’ll have a student, like one of my energized ones, they’ll raise their hand. “How About me? How about me?” And I and the kids kind of laugh a little and I said, “Well, how about this? Let’s make a goal. How about next week we’re gonna make a goal and we’re gonna have a reason to call home.” So just working on the kids that need a little push in the right direction. That’s other reasoning to it. But yeah, it’s fun. I love it.

Eric Cross (13:33):

And you have the community. You have this goal setting. We were talking a little earlier about this transition—so you’re becoming this…your school’s going through the IB process, is that right?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (13:44):

Yes.

Eric Cross (13:44):

And we were talking about the ATL skills and one of them is goal-setting management. You already kind of organically do this in your classroom, which is really neat. I know being an IB teacher, a lot of times I find the things that I’ve already been doing and find, “Oh, this is actually an approach to learning!” or “This is something that has a title!” I just thought it was just being helpful! Ah…So the kids are connected. You have this process where you’re calling parents; it’s working; students are involved, so it’s building this community. Now you’re engaging students. Do you have any favorite student engagement tools that you use in your classroom or when you’re teaching that you feel like you get a lot of bang for your buck? There’s so many things out there these days. And so many approaches, tools, web apps. Do you have any favorites that you use?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (14:40):

No. Nothing comes up top of my mind right now. Mostly just projects, like I said. And being excited. I think having my students see me excited about something…and I’m honest when we’re doing something that’s not quite my favorite, then I’m honest about that too. But just having my—like, we just started thermal energy this week and I told my students, I said, “OK guys, I’m gonna weave in some chemistry in there. I’m gonna weave in some particle motion,” and they’re like, “Oh! That’s when you taught eighth grade, huh!” Cause I talk a lot about when I taught eighth grade before. I don’t know, just showing my own enthusiasm, I think, is a good payoff to me. That’s a bang for your buck. Other things…I try to give ’em cool videos and Mark Grober, he’s definitely a favorite of mine I like to show my students. I like to bring in guest speakers from our community. When I taught eighth grade for physics, I always brought in a local CHP officer and they would bring in the radar and lidar guns and the kids would mark off the parking lot and they would calculate their speed. And then they would verify it with the radar gun. Two years ago when I taught math, I brought in a local landscaper company, a father-and-son outfit, and they showed the kids how they would do bids on jobs. And so, relate it to our chapter on volume and area. So just making that connection with real life. Plus it’s just a nice opportunity, too, for the community to come in. With our design class, put on our newscast. And then one of our units in our sixth grade curriculum is weather. And so I brought in a local weatheruh, chief meteorologist. And he actually talked to the students about his job as a meteorologist and then also being on the news and putting on a newscast. So we got him on our green screen and did a little like Mark Finan, you know, little cameo on our newscast for the week for school. So that was kind of cool.

Eric Cross (16:45):

They must have been excited.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (16:47):

Yeah. They’re pretty starstruck by him. So that was pretty fun.

Eric Cross (16:51):

This person was on their local news? So they would know him?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (16:56):

Yeah, he’s on Channel 3 out of Sacramento. Yeah. KCRA Channel 3, Mark Finan.

Eric Cross (17:00):

So all these guest speakers that you have…how do you reach out to these people? And you sound like you get a lot of success. Do you ever get nos? Like if I’m sitting here listening and that inspires me, but you’re getting celebrities and you see a few people…like, how do you reach out to them? And does everybody say yes? How does it go?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (17:21):

Well, usually at my back-to-school night, I always ask the parents if they have a career or hobby that could lend itself to the curriculum. And so sometimes I’ll hear about—students will talk about, like, “My mom’s a doctor.” And so I’ll reach out to parents and just say, “Hey, you know, your kiddo said, you’re a doctor. May I ask what type?” And most of the time the nos that I’ve received are just because of schedule conflicts. You just have to get creative! Look in your community and see what you have. People want to come and talk to kids. I’ve had some presentations that the person is so intelligent and amazing, but they just, weren’t very kid-friendly. I mean, that happens. Butsomeone knows someone. And just ask! I mean, it doesn’t hurt to ask to have ’em come out, come hang out for the day, with my students. Andone time I had a nurse practitioner she was in the cardiac unit. And so she brought in hearts and led a heart dissection with my students. And we did a station set-up. I’ve had elaborate ones like that, or just a mom come in to tell my students about her job as a nutritionist and relate it to our unit on metabolism. And so just did like a little 15-minute Q&A with the kids on nutrition. And I would just say, look at your community and/or post on social media. I always do that. Post in your school’s PTA groups. So the parents know someone, that’s for sure. Or someone’s retired. One time I had—I think he was a grandfather of one of the kids—he was into rocks. And he had a bunch of meteorites <laugh> and brought in his meteorites.

Eric Cross (19:15):

Bring in your rocks!

Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:15):

I know! Right? And he <laugh> just brought in his meteorite collection! I was like, sure, come on in!

Eric Cross (19:23):

That’s one of the things I love about being a middle-school teacher is that my students have such varied interests and I’ll get the Rock Kid every once in a while and he’ll come in and he’ll have all these rocks and crystals. And a lot of times there’s a grandfather that’s responsible for this inherited geologic treasure that they have.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:45):

Yeah, something like that—I mean rocks are not my favorites, but I don’t really tell the kids that. I was like, “Sure, yeah, come on in! We can have a whole-day lesson on rocks!”

Eric Cross (19:55):

<Weakly> “This is great!”

Ryan Renee Rudkin (19:58):

Just utilizing your resources. That’s all it’s about.

Eric Cross (20:02):

Well, I think the back-to-school night was really helpful. That’s something that’s super doable. You have a bunch of parents and you just simply ask, “Who do you know? What do you do?” And then just collecting that and then just asking people to come in. I’ve I’ve been reluctant to do it more often than I’ve wanted to, because I haven’t figured out—and maybe you can help me with this—I have three class periods a day plus other class periods that are not necessarily science. And I don’t want to dominate a person’s schedule. Do they tend to be willing to stay all day? Or do you do, one class gets it, and you record it? Like, how do you balance out the speakers with your school schedule?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (20:39):

Mostly they’ll they’ll just come for the whole day. When I taught eighth grade, I had five classes, so that was easy. That was an all-day thing. And then usually I’ll offer to call lunch, have lunch delivered, or snacks during the day. I mean—

Eric Cross (20:53):

Feeding them is key.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (20:54):

Yeah. Just something kind of nice. Donuts in the morning. I mean, you’d be very surprised. Most people that are in the field or retired, like I said, they’re more than willing to come. And even if they have to wait an hour, while you teach another class that doesn’t pertain to it, then they’ll either leave or come back or just hang out in the back and pretend to be a student during that history class that you have.

Eric Cross (21:20):

It’s my own limiting belief where I feel guilty. I don’t think about it. I need to think about it through the perspective that you do, that these people WANT to talk. I just assume everybody’s so busy. But I do know, the times I’ve had speakers come out, at the end of the day, they’re so energized or they’re so happy or they’re so grateful. ‘Cause They’re like, “This is what it’s like to teach every day?” I’m like, “Yeah, this is what it’s like.”

Ryan Renee Rudkin (21:42):

I think too, a lot of parents…usually being being in the stops at elementary. A Lot of parents don’t get the opportunity to come help out in the classroom, because the middle school kids, you know, it’s not very cool or it’s just not needed like in the elementary classes. So a lot of times, like I said, you’d be surprised. A lot of the parents they’re more than happy to come and hang out. And again, some students, they don’t want their mom or dad to be there, but then I talk it up. I’m like, “Everyone’s gonna be so like impressed that your dad’s a doctor,” or “your mom’s a doctor” or —so then I kind of like downplay it. Like, “Oh, whatever, you’re you’re faking it. It’ll be fine. Don’t be embarrassed.” Leading up to their parent coming into the classroom.

Eric Cross (22:36):

Right. Kind of redirect that energy toward something positive. With guest speakers, projects, pacing, all these awesome things that you have going on, how do you find balance as a teacher, as a person? And what encouragement would you give to new or aspiring teachers? We work in a profession that will take as much as you give it. And you fall asleep at night worrying about other people’s kids and we love it. And teachers by personality can just give and give and give and give. But in order for us to last—I’m thinking about those new teachers who are going into it, who are gonna go in and be there before the sun gets up and stay after the sun gets down. How do you maintain balance, taking care of yourself? You’ve been in education for—how long have you been teaching for?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (23:29):

Sixteen. This is my 16th year.

Eric Cross (23:31):

Enough to be that veteran. So how do you find balance? And then, what encouragement would you give to new or aspiring teachers?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (23:39):

I would say each year, pick one or two things to add on. You can’t add on 10 things, even though you’re gonna find 10 things that are awesome. But just make a little list, put ’em in a file, and every year, just get good at what you do and then just add on one or two things. And reflect on what’s not going well that you can get rid of to make room to add something else. Try to be patient with yourself. And don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s so many things out there that you can borrow and make it your own. Again, I think that’s a time-saver, just leaning on your colleagues. And take lots of notes, because then when you do it again next year, you can refresh yourself and, “Oh yeah, this lesson, wasn’t the best…” What can you add in to make it a little bit better? And yeah, I would say just take on one or two things each year. And then by the time you get to, you know, being a veteran, you can do all these awesome things and it’ll feel natural ’cause you’ve been practicing and just adding in one thing at a time. I coached Science Olympiad a bunch of years ago, and Science Olympiad is so rewarding. It’s just so amazing.

Eric Cross (24:59):

What is Science Olympiad, for the people who’ve never heard of it?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (25:03):

Oh, Science Olympiad is so awesome. Google it. I think it’s just ScienceOlympiad.org. It’s 23 different events across all disciplines of science, different topics. And then you have a team of 15 students. And so your 15 students have to cover the 23 events. So for example, if the student’s on the anatomy team, usually there’s a team of two kids they’re gonna study and learn. They provide all the rules and the guidelines. So the students learn and study whatever the parameters are for that year. And then they take a test. And then they compete against other schools. And there’s build events, the engineering events, they can build things like trebuchets matchbox cars or mousetrap cars. Oh gosh, there’s all kinds of things. There’s like a Rube Goldberg device. It changes every year. And it’s so rewarding to see the kids; they pick their area of science that they love. And sometimes you have to put them on an event that they don’t know, and then they end up loving it. It’s so rewarding as a teacher to see these kids that are just on fire and you know that one day they’re gonna go off and do amazing things. They just commit. They commit to their event. And then they blow it outta the water and they win medals and just the recognition…it’s super, it’s just an amazing program.

Eric Cross (26:42):

One of the competitions that’s really low-tech that I’ve taken into my classroom is Write It, Do It. Have you done that one before?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (26:50):

Oh, yes. Yeah. That’s one. Yep.

Eric Cross (26:52):

It’s such a low-tech, simple one to do, but it teaches such great skills. And for those people who haven’t heard of the Write It, Do It project, you create kinda some abstract art out of random crafts. That’s very difficult to describe. You have pipe cleaners and foam and balls and you know, all these different things. And you make it. And then one person on the team is the writer, and they look at it and they write the procedures, and then their teammate, who’s in a different room and doesn’t get to see it, gets all the materials to build it and the procedures, and they have to rebuild it as closely as possible to the actual original. Even though they don’t get to see the original. So they have to rely on their partner’s ability to write procedures step-by-step. And it was fun to watch my students become teammates in that. And they learned how to communicate in a really fun competition. So I expanded it to do it with all of my students as an activity, just to teach them how write descriptively, to write procedurally, to be technical writers. And it’s, it’s fun! It’s fun to see what they build based on what the students say. <Laugh> And it’s also fun to watch them interact with each other, which for seventh graders, usually it’s conflict. <Laugh> But, like, playful conflict. <Laugh> It’s pretty funny to see what they build.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:11):

They’re like, “Man, what are you talking about? That doesn’t mean this; it means this!”

Eric Cross (28:16):

<Laugh> I know part of me feels guilty, but not enough to stop the project. ‘Cause I know for some of ’em, it’s gonna be a really trial by fire being able to practice their skills with writing procedures.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:27):

But they’re learning among themselves how to provide more details and to be more thorough with their writing and and their thoughts, put their thoughts onto paper. So yeah, that’s a funny event. Definitely.

Eric Cross (28:41):

Earlier you had mentioned something about connecting your kids with kids and students outside of your classroom. What is it that you do with that? Because I thought that was a really cool project. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (28:57):

Yes, I’ve done—they haven’t had it in a few years, but there’s something called the Pringles Challenge. And if you Google that, I’m sure it’s on the Internet still. So you sign your class up, or your classes, and you get partnered with another school somewhere in the U.S., someplace else. And you decide individually teams, whatever they build. And they make a package to ship a single Pringle chip through the mail. And then you actually mail a Pringle chip through the mail. And then your partner team or partner school, they send their chips to you and then you open everything and then you can take pictures and video. And then there was a whole scoring process where you would score when you receive the chips. And then you input all the data on the website so you can see like how your—and most schools would trade pictures, so that the kids found out how their chip survived. March Mammal Madness is so much fun. Again, Google that.

Eric Cross (30:01):

Did you say March Mammal Madness?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:02):

Yes.

Eric Cross (30:03):

Like March Madness, with mammals?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:05):

Yes.

Eric Cross (30:05):

  1. What is this?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (30:06):

It starts up in March. And you can sign your students up. And that one—it’s not too interactive with other schools, but this is opportunity to get the kids interacting within your site or within your district. Or if you have teacher friends at other schools. There’s like 60…I think it’s 64 animals? And they have this massive bracket that they post. And then you can have the students, I did it—it would be very time-consuming to have the kids individually research each animal. So I just gave one animal per student and so as a class we researched all the animals and then, I think it’s every three days or so, they have these bouts. And it’s all posted on YouTube. Google it. It’s kind of fun.

Eric Cross (30:56):

I’ve already got the website up, ready to go! Folks, everybody who needs to Google this: <articulates carefully> March Mammal Madness. And is it Arizona State University? Is that the main site, ASU?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:04):

Yes.

Eric Cross (31:04):

So people, listen to this. Check it out. March Mammal Madness. Look, I’m doing this! I’m already,—you’ve already sold me on this.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:14):

It is so much fun, oh my gosh. And then, then the kids—each round, they pick their pick, just like basketball. They do their picks and then you wait for the video. And they do it live on—I think it’s live on Instagram, or the next day on YouTube. And then the kids get all excited. And then usually the kids, whatever animal they got as their research animal, they’re rooting for that one to win, the whole thing.

Eric Cross (31:42):

But we still have time; we still have time to—

Ryan Renee Rudkin (31:45):

You can jump in anytime. Even if it’s already started, you can jump into it. It usually lasts—I believe it’s a two-week from beginning to end. When they do the first round, the wild card, and then all the way to the winner, I believe it’s a two-week process. Oh, maybe three, actually.

Eric Cross (31:59):

I’m already seeing this lead-up to the video being watched in class to see…I’m already thinking about like, “How do I prevent my students from finding the video?” Or like, “When does it go live so that I could be the one to show them so they didn’t go find it early?”

Ryan Renee Rudkin (32:13):

It takes time out of the class, but I believe it’s one of those things where you have to just…it takes 10 minutes out of the class, but it’s important. So when they each round and then the next day, they release the YouTube video. Last year, when it got down to the final round, we were on spring break. And so I told my students, “You guys, let’s do some optional Zooms. And so I had a bunch of kids log on and we all watched the videos together. So that was kind of fun. And then this year, the other thing, the first time I’ve ever done this and it’s going really well is—on social media, I was talking with one of the teachers from Ohio who teaches science and she and I decided we’re gonna do penpals for our students this year. Paper-And-Pen penpals. So that’s been a lot of fun. We just partnered up all the students, her students and my students, and once a month we send and receive the letters to each other. So that’s been a really cool experience.

Eric Cross (33:14):

If you keep doing that, and you need more teachers to be involved, can my students be penpals with your students?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:20):

Yeah!

Eric Cross (33:20):

If you open it up to more people? I think that, to get a letter, old-school? Letter in the mail? It would be so exciting.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:28):

It is. We mail them, the teacher and I, we just put them all together in one package. But yeah, it’s an actual handwritten letter.

Eric Cross (33:37):

The only letters I feel like I get in the mail now are bills.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (33:42):

Right? Exactly.

Eric Cross (33:42):

But I feel like the digital version of that is if someone calls me, it’s probably bad news. I don’t know if I’m the only one that’s like that, but I’m like, “Who’s calling me? Why aren’t you texting me? What’s going on? Text me first, then call! I need to know who’s going on, and if you’re unknown, you’re going to voicemail.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (34:00):

Exactly. The penpals has been a lot of fun.

Eric Cross (34:03):

You’ve been in education for a while. You’re on the other side of what it’s like to be a student in the classroom. Which can be surreal in itself, when we think about our own experiences as being a student. Is there a teacher or a learning experience that’s had an impact on you while you were a student in school that really stands out to you? And you can interpret the question however you want. But is there someone that’s memorable or an experience that’s memorable that you still carry with you today?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (34:32):

Definitely. My favorite teacher, and we actually still keep in contact on social media is Mrs. Sheldon. She was my fifth and sixth grade teacher. I had the pleasure when I was in elementary school, I was in an all-day contained GATE class—Gifted and Talented Education class. I vividly remember doing so many amazing projects. We built this big, giant—she brought in a big ol’, like, TV box. It was big, big, big. And you could stick like three kids inside there, standing up shoulder-to-shoulder. And we built this big dragon. The head, and we had the whole rest of the class in a big sheet behind us, and we would do a little parade around the school. And she had that thing for years after. They had to repair it every year, and they would do the little parade around school. She did a lot of traveling and when we would go on vacation and then come back, that was always the big deal: “Where did Mrs Sheldon go?” And she had sand from Egypt and pictures from the rainforest. And later when I became a teacher and then I looked her up and we reconnected I did ask her, “Did you go to those places? Or did you, like, lie about it? <Laugh> To get us engaged?

Eric Cross (35:52):

You went for the real questions!

Ryan Renee Rudkin (35:54):

I did. And she laughed and thought that was funny. And she did travel for real. But yeah, she’s an amazing woman. We still keep in contact. And I remember, you know, little things…like we would be out there doing our PE time and she’d have her long skirt, you know, dress on, with her tennies, and she’s out there playing kickball with us. Just a very kindhearted, smart, amazing woman. I’m very fortunate and I’m grateful that we are able to keep in contact. Love social media for that reason. So.

Eric Cross (36:33):

Yeah. And that’s Miss Sheldon?

Ryan Renee Rudkin (36:35):

Mrs. Sheldon. Marlene Sheldon. Yeah.

Eric Cross (36:37):

Shout-Out to Marlene Sheldon influencing the next generation of teachers, with engagement with your world travels and all those different things.

Eric Cross (37:04):

Ryan, thank you so much for one, serving our students. And in the classroom, our middle-school students who need us. I think that middle school especially, elementary school, those years are when students are really starting to decide, “What am I good at?” And the experiences that we create for our students really shape what they believe they can do. These really cool, engaging experiences, these projects that you’re giving them, whether they’re doing these car sales, Shark Tanks, or they’re doing penpals, or you have guest speakers, or they’re designing planets. These are things that students don’t forget. And then when they move on to higher grades, they remember more than anything, I think, how they felt about something. And it sounds like you’re crafting these awesome experiences. And so I just wanna thank you for your time. I know as a teacher it’s very short. And I thank you for being on the podcast with us.

Ryan Renee Rudkin (38:04):

Thank you. This has been a great experience. I just—I really enjoy my students. And I feel very, very grateful and very blessed for finding where I belong.

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What Ryan Rudkin says about science

“I like to make my class and my learning environment enjoyable. I know there’s other goals in mind… but at the end of the day, I want to come back and I want [students] to come back. It’s so rewarding as a teacher to see these kids that are just on fire… and you know that one day they’re going to go off and do amazing things. ”

– Ryan Renee Rudkin

Middle school science teacher

Meet the guest

Ryan Rudkin is a middle school science educator near Sacremento, California. Although she originally thought she would teach elementary students, Ryan connected with middle school and never looked back. Now in her 16th year in the classroom, Ryan also supports teachers in her district with professional development. Ryan’s favorite part of teaching science is seeing students grapple with concepts and explore phenomena.

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair smiles at the camera, wearing earrings and a dark top. The background is blurred green and gray.

About Science Connections: The podcast

Welcome to Science Connections: The Podcast! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher.

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Amplify Science

Amplify Science is Chicago Public Schools’ recommended K–8 core science instructional material. Looking for support ordering? Contact ScienceCPS@amplify.com or (855) 559-5757.

A powerful partnership

Amplify Science was developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify.

Learn more about the Lawrence Hall of Science.

Looking for pricing or ordering support? Email scienceCPS@amplify.com or call (855) 559-5757.

What sets Amplify Science apart?

  • Authored by the industry-leading science curriculum team at U.C. Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, who have 50 years of experience in K–12 science education and who will continue to enhance and update the program for years to come
  • New curriculum built to meet 100% of the Next Generation Science Standards
  • State-of-the-art, highly engaging curriculum that invites students to take on the role of a scientist or engineer in every unit to solve relevant real-world problems
  • Flexible, truly blended program that combines comprehensive print components and compelling online content with hands-on learning in every unit
  • Robust teacher support for ease of use by a wide range of teachers in diverse classroom contexts, with carefully crafted lessons, standards alignment, differentiation strategies, and ELL supports throughout the program
  • Embedded assessments throughout the program, including both formative and summative assessments for every grade level

Grades K–5 overview

Each unit focuses on a specific learning goal in the form of an overarching unit question. Rather than following linear steps in an experiment, the program leaves room for students to make connections across concepts and make their own discoveries. In this way, Amplify Science replicates the realities and ambiguities of scientific research and thinking.

Learn more about the program structure
Download the K–5 unit sequence
NGSS correlations
Hear from K–5 teachers

Amplify Science blends physical materials with a suite of digital tools, presenting students with the resources they need to investigate real-world problems, and empowering and supporting teachers as they lead instruction and gain insight into student growth and progress.

  • Student Investigation Notebooks for every unit allow students to interact with content while taking notes, answering questions, and conducting investigations. Review a sample from the Grade 2 Plant and Animal Relationships unit.
  • Student Books enhance science topics and allow students to practice reading within the science content area.
  • Instructional materials for teachers. The Amplify Science curriculum website hosts all lesson content, media, digital simulations, and more, and is the primary tool “open” for teachers during class time. You can view complete unit samples by accessing the curriculum at the bottom of this page.
  • Robust digital simulations (grades 4–5) and digital applications, developed exclusively for the Amplify Science program. Supported devices include: iPad 3+, Chromebook, Windows PC, and MacBook.
  • Unit kits for each unit in the program including consumable and nonconsumable hands-on materials, printed classroom display materials, and the students books.
  • Embedded formative and summative assessments are meant to support and guide student instruction.

View an on-demand webinar.

Grades 6–8 overview

Each unit focuses on a specific learning goal in the form of an overarching unit question. Rather than following linear steps in an experiment, the program leaves room for students to make connections across concepts and make their own discoveries. In this way, Amplify Science replicates the realities and ambiguities of scientific research and thinking.

Beginning in school year 2018-19, Chicago Public Schools recommends that schools follow the integrated scope and sequence for middle school science. The decision to shift from discipline-specific to integrated science was informed by a group of 30 CPS middle school science teachers who served on an Advisory Team during school year 2017-18 as well as guidance from other state and national committees with expertise in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards. Amplify’s 6–8 curriculum and CPS’ 2018-19 REACH Performance Tasks align to the integrated scope and sequence.

Learn about the program structure
Download the 6–8 unit sequence
NGSS correlations
Learn about the flexible, blended program

Amplify Science blends physical materials with a suite of digital tools, presenting students with the resources they need to investigate real-world problems, and empowering and supporting teachers as they lead instruction and gain insight into student growth and progress.

  • Student Investigation Notebooks for every unit allow students to interact with content while taking notes, answering questions, and conducting investigations. Review a sample from Metabolism.
  • Instructional materials for teachers. The Amplify Science curriculum website hosts all lesson content, media, digital simulations, and more, and is the primary tool “open” for teachers during class time. You can view complete unit samples by accessing the curriculum at the bottom of this page.
  • Robust digital simulations and digital applications, developed exclusively for the Amplify Science program. Supported devices include: iPad 3+, Chromebook, Windows PC, and MacBook.
  • Unit kits for each unit in the program including consumable and nonconsumable hands-on materials, and printed classroom display materials.
  • Embedded formative and summative assessments are meant to support and guide student instruction.

View an on-demand webinar.

Science and literacy

The Amplify Science program capitalizes on the wealth of opportunities provided by science to learn about the world via reading and writing, and on the strong link between science and literacy practices. It is a core science program designed for three-dimensional learning and can also be considered a supplementary literacy program because it addresses the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) related to disciplinary literacy.

Through its integration of literacy practices authentic to science, Amplify Science addresses the ELA Anchor Standards as well as the standards for Reading Informational Text, Writing, Listening/Speaking, and Language that are related to acquiring and using academic vocabulary. (Less discipline-specific reading standards, such as the “Reading: Foundational Skills” and “Reading: Literature,” fall outside the purview of the Amplify Science program. Please see each unit’s Overview of Standards and Goals for a list of which Common Core ELA standards are addressed in the program.)

The focus of literacy instruction in Amplify Science is on increasing students’ facility with reading informational text, engaging in scientific discussions, and writing scientific explanations and arguments. The program takes into account the specific needs of young students as they are learning to read, write, and discuss science concepts, but does not take full responsibility for teaching basic skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, or writing mechanics.

Learn more

Access and equity

Diversity in the science and engineering classroom is an asset. It offers countless opportunities for creativity and innovation and opens the door to multiple perspectives and cross-cultural understanding. Historically, however, certain groups of students — including ethnically diverse students, English learners, standard English learners, students with disabilities, girls and young women, foster children and youth, and students experiencing poverty — have not had equitable opportunities for intellectually stimulating, language-rich, and culturally relevant science and engineering education. The vision of the new standards is “all standards, all students.” Amplify Science is designed to fulfill this vision by providing quality and supportive materials for teachers so that every student — regardless of their background, where they live, the language they speak at home, or their learning characteristics — has access to and benefits from deep and engaging science and engineering learning opportunities. Two overarching conceptual frameworks informed Amplify Science’s approach to ensuring access and equity for all students: Universal Design for Learning and Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching.

Learn more

Start your review

Amplify Science is not a textbook. Each lesson in the program consists of a sequence of activities that engage students with a variety of materials, including scientific texts, hands-on materials, digital simulations, engaging media, formative and summative assessments, and so much more. Learn more about the grades K–8 program by reviewing the following pages:

Looking for support ordering?
ScienceCPS@amplify.com
(855) 559-5757

Winter Professional Learning Schedule for Chicago Public Schools

Ready to look inside Amplify Science?

S3-01: Science as the underdog, and the research behind it

A graphic with the text "Science Connections" and "Amplify" features colorful circles and curved lines on a dark gray background.

Get ready for season 3 of Science Connections: The Podcast!

In our first episode, we unpack the research around our season theme of science as the underdog with Horizon Research, Inc. Vice President Eric R. Banilower and  Senior Researcher Courtney Plumley. Eric and Courtney dive into the research they’ve found and their experiences as former educators to show how science is often overlooked in K–12 classrooms. We discuss how the science classroom compares to other subjects in terms of time and resources, how schools are a reflection of society, and what’s needed to change science and its impact on a larger scale.

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Courtney Plumley (00:00):

We asked teachers how much science, professional development, they’ve had in the last three years, and nearly half of elementary teachers said none.

Eric Cross (00:10):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. I am super-excited to be kicking off the third season with the show. This entire season will be exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And we’re gonna make the case for science, by showing how and why it can be used more effectively. In the coming episodes, we’re gonna talk about how science can be better integrated into other content areas like literacy and math, and explore some of the benefits that you might not be thinking about good science instruction. But first, science as the underdog. I bet some of you out there feel like science is the underdog in your community at school. I know I have at times. To kick off this season, I’m gonna talk to two people who really studied this question by looking at the state of science instruction across the US. Eric Banilower is Vice President of Horizon Research and Courtney Plumley is Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. Eric was the principal investigator and Courtney an author of the latest in a series of studies called “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” We’re gonna dive into the findings of their most recent report to see what the data’s showing us. Please enjoy my discussion with Eric Banilower and Courtney Plumley. Courtney, hello. And thank you so much for joining us.

Courtney Plumley (01:25):

Hi Eric. It’s nice to be here.

Eric Cross (01:26):

And Eric, welcome.

Eric R. Banilower (01:27):

We’re thrilled to be here, so thank you for having us.

Eric Cross (01:30):

I was reading through the report. Four hundred…a very thorough report, 471 pages, I think, as I got it?

Eric R. Banilower (01:37):

And that’s only one of the many reports from that study.

Eric Cross (01:40):

Yeah. You all have done your work, so I’m really excited to to talk to you about this. And on this season of the show, we’re exploring the theme of science as the underdog. And I think a lot of our listeners, we feel like science is an underdog either in their school or in their district. But you’ve actually done some research on this, in a 2018 study, “The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education.” So I wanna talk about this report. But first I was hoping you can kind of set the stage. How did you come to work on this report, and then, big picture, what were you hoping to find out?

Eric R. Banilower (02:10):

So the 2018 study that you just mentioned was actually the sixth iteration of a series of studies dating back to 1977. And we collect data every decade or so—you know, plus or minus a few years. And really, what we’re trying to do is get a snapshot of what the science and math education system looks like in in the nation. So my role grew. I started working at Horizon in about 1998, after teaching high school for five years in California. And then going to graduate school. And right about that time, the company was doing the 2000 iteration of the survey. And I worked on it with the team here at Horizon. And then we did it again in 2012. And I had a much more prominent role in that study, and became the kind of leader of the study. And in 2018, the most recent version, we just did it again. So the goal of this study is really to kind of examine key aspects of the K–12 STEM education system. And the main audience of the work has traditionally been policy makers, researchers, and practitioners who work at the federal, state, and district level.

Eric Cross (03:30):

So this study, you took kind of a sample size, but it’s reflective of trends that we tend to see across the nation as a whole. Would that be fair to say?

Eric R. Banilower (03:38):

Yes, definitely it is. It is a random sample of schools in the country. So we start with a list of all the public and private schools in the nation, and then do a random sample of those schools, and then work really, really hard to recruit schools to agree to be in the study. And that has gotten harder every time we’ve done the study, for many understandable reasons. And then once we have schools on board, we sample teachers within schools. So we don’t even survey every teacher in a school. It’s really a sub-sample. So that we can make inferences about the nation as a whole.

Eric Cross (04:14):

Makes sense. And so Courtney, what did you find out about the time spent on science instruction in US schools?

Courtney Plumley (04:22):

So, I’m gonna talk about elementary teachers to begin with.

Eric Cross (04:26):

Because that was your past life, right?

Courtney Plumley (04:28):

I am a former elementary teacher, yeah. So that’s kind of where my head is. And that’s relatable for me. Right? So we asked teachers, like, how many days of the week or weeks of the year that they teach elementary school. And fewer than 20% teach science every day of the school year. They kind of do one or two things, for the most part. They teach a couple days a week or they teach every day of the week, but only for, like, maybe six weeks, and then they swap with social studies and they kind of do that across the school year. Which is really different from, like, math, right? We also asked elementary teachers, how often do they teach math, and it’s every day of the year. Then we also asked them how many minutes they teach when they’re teaching, and we kind of did the math to figure out, all right, if they taught science every day of the school year, how many minutes would it be in a single day, so that we could make a more comparable comparison with math and ELA. If you were to work it out, how many minutes of science an elementary teacher teaches across the year, and break it down to per day, it’s like 18 minutes for the lower elementary grades, 27 for the upper elementary grades. Which is not a lot. But it’s pretty much an hour a day in math, and 80 plus minutes in ELA. So, a lot less. And then, you know, when I was teaching, the first thing to go was always science, right? If there was an assembly, if there was early release or whatever, that was the first thing to go. So those numbers might even be higher. Just because they aren’t factoring that kind of thing in, too.

Eric Cross (06:05):

So, now I’m curious. That is something that I’ve seen just anecdotally, science being the first thing to go. I feel like I’ve seen that almost…it’s almost become a meme, that I’ve heard that so often. Just in your experience, why do you think that is that huge disparity between the two?

Courtney Plumley (06:26):

Well, I mean, when I was teaching, I was teaching third grade. I had an end-of-grade test in math and ELA for my kids. I didn’t have one in science. So the administration said, “Hey, if you’re gonna drop something, drop something that’s not tested.”

Eric Cross (06:41):

Simple as that. And Eric, you, past life: physics teacher. High school. What did you see? ‘Cause our listeners run the gamut from elementary all the way up to high school. What did you see, as far as relative science instruction in the secondary level?

Eric R. Banilower (07:00):

Sure. You know, secondary is just a whole different situation than elementary. Rght? Because you have departmentalization. I taught science. I didn’t have to teach other subjects. And students had periods, and they still do, sorry, they still have periods, even though it’s been a long time since I taught. And you know, they rotate from one class to another. So all the classes were essentially the same length. So, you know, when I was teaching, it was about 50-minute periods. So in terms of minutes of a class or minutes on a subject, it’s not really different. But what is different is what students are required to take in order to graduate high school. One of the things we asked schools about in this study was how many years of a subject do students have to take in order to graduate? And what we saw was in mathematics, over half the schools in the nation require students to take four years of mathematics to graduate. OK? And the vast majority of the rest, about 44%, require three years in science. Most schools require three years. Very few require four years. And many, or a fair number, still only require two years to graduate. So the expectation of what students are taking is lower in science than it is in mathematics.

Eric Cross (08:20):

So you were seeing the same trend in secondary, essentially.

Eric R. Banilower (08:24):

Yes.

Eric Cross (08:24):

The amount of time devoted to the instruction of science…we’re kind of seeing it mirrored just across K–12 across the board.

Eric R. Banilower (08:33):

That’s correct.

Eric Cross (08:34):

And that’s across the country. ‘Cause the sample size represents teachers from Alaska, Hawaii, the South, SoCal, everywhere. So what’s been the reaction to that number? Like 18 to 20 minutes is…I mean, it’s, it’s half of my lunch at our school. What’s been the reaction to that number since this data has been published?

Eric R. Banilower (08:58):

I don’t know, Courtney, if you want to take that…

Courtney Plumley (09:00):

It’s a lot of what you just did. Like, what??? Like, how is it possible to teach all the things you need to teach in such a little amount of time?

Eric R. Banilower (09:08):

What’s really kind of surprising to me, though — though now that I’ve worked on three iterations of the study, it no longer surprises me, but it did at first — is that these numbers really aren’t changing since we’ve started doing this study. You know, people thought maybe with No Child Left Behind and the increase in accountability, time on science might actually go down, because there was more testing in math and English Language Arts. It didn’t happen. It was pretty much constant, that this has been kind of the state of science education for a long time.

Eric Cross (09:44):

So Eric, if I’m hearing you right: The past studies, we’re not seeing an increase or a decline. This has been this way for how many years, roughly, would you say? Since it’s been studied?

Eric R. Banilower (09:54):

You know, I’d have to go back to the 1977 report to get the numbers, but I’m gonna say since then, it has not changed much, if at all.

Eric Cross (10:03):

So this has kind of been entrenched. This has been the norm for almost for the career of a teacher, almost generationally. We’re looking at anyone who’s been in the highest levels of leadership to someone just entering the classroom, this has been the way it’s always been. This is kind of for many people what they’ve only known.

Eric R. Banilower (10:20):

Right.

Eric Cross (10:21):

Kind of become the norm.

Courtney Plumley (10:21):

We didn’t even have science when I was in elementary school. We had science on a cart that came by, you know, every other week.

Eric Cross (10:28):

Was that like a food truck, but like the science version of it? It shows up and does quick science and takes off?

Courtney Plumley (10:35):

And New York was, I mean — we always watched Voyage of the Mimi. I don’t know if you ever watched that. But that’s what we watched every single time the Science on the Cart came. So it’s like a marine biology show. Ben Affleck was on it when he was a kid.

Eric Cross (10:48):

<laugh> Really? For me it was, Mr. Wizard. For some of my students, even now, Bill Nye. You know, the Bill Nye show or something would come on. So what happens when you look at less wealthy districts? Is there a relationship between community resources and science instruction, or is it pretty much equal no matter what the district resources are, the school’s resources are? Did you see any data there?

Eric R. Banilower (11:12):

Yes. We actually did a lot of disaggregating the data by community type, student demographics in the schools, to look to see whether there were areas of inequities across the country. And, you know, one of the factors we looked at was kind of a measure of socioeconomic status. You know, wealth in the community. By looking at percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. And interestingly, in terms of time on science instruction, there is actually not a relationship between income level and how much time is spent at the elementary level on science, which actually surprised us.

Eric Cross (11:54):

Because you might have expected it to be the other way now. And granted, it’s 18 to 20 minutes, there isn’t much more to shave off off of that. But were there other differences, like when you compared those communities? Maybe it wasn’t the amount of science instruction, but was there anything else, like teacher preparedness, resources? Were there anything else that you did see discrepancies in? Or was it equal across the board?

Eric R. Banilower (12:13):

No, unfortunately there, there have been, and still are, a number of areas where community resources are related to pretty substantial differences in educational opportunities that students have. So, you know, we’re talking about the high school science requirements. One of the things that we saw was that high schools in less wealthy communities tend to offer less rigorous science courses than high schools in better-off-financially communities. So they may not be AP courses or second year advanced courses to the same extent that there are in the wealthier communities. That’s one big difference that we saw. Another one was what you were just saying about, sort of, the teachers who teach in these communities. You know, I think that for many years people have had a feeling that the best teachers go to the better off schools because it’s easier to teach there. Well, we see that the schools with the most poverty, they tend to have the newer teachers, who are just starting their career. They tend to have teachers who are less well prepared to teach their subject. And there’s a host of other differences we found. And you know, you mentioned the report being 400 pages. This other report that looks at these differences is also quite long, and, you know, identified a number of areas where there are these disparities in the system.

Eric Cross (13:43):

Well, we appreciate you synthesizing this for us, because this is super-important. And you’ve fleshed out a lot of things. And the fact that it’s driven by data, we as science teachers, we as scientists, being objective, really, really value that. Because this is actually validating a lot of the things that our listeners and myself, we experience anecdotally. But you don’t have a lot of things to network you. And sometimes, when you see this, you wonder if it’s just you, or is are other people experiencing this? And so as you start talking about this data, realizing, oh wow, this is not something in isolation. This is systemic. This is something that’s impacted. And then Eric, what you said about schools that were lower-income, that were under-resourced, and didn’t offer those advanced classes, what are some of the impacts of that, maybe downstream, of doing that? Not having those AP classes? I just kind of wanted to put that out there and ask you.

Eric R. Banilower (14:31):

You know, this is a really…this is a current debate right now, about what the goals of schooling K–12 should be. You know, are all kids meant to go to college? Should there be alternative paths? And you know, I know when I was teaching, I would have students say, “Why do I need to know this? I’m not gonna go into science. I’m not gonna study physics. Why do I need to take this?” And, you know, the answer I used to give them was, “You never know where your life is gonna end up and what opportunities you’ll have. And by having these educational experiences, you have more opportunities available to you. Whether or not you choose to go down those paths, you have opportunities. And when you don’t take this kind of coursework, you know, even if you don’t want to go to college, you limit your potential careers. Because so many careers nowadays require some technical knowledge, some knowledge of science, even if it’s not explicitly a science job. It is embedded in our society now. We are a technological and science-based society.”

Eric Cross (15:37):

It reminds me of something that I’ve told my students, that if you become a scientist, that’s awesome. I love that. But if you don’t, and you want to be a dancer or an actor or a lawyer or anything that may not be directly related to STEM, I want you to choose it because it was a choice, and not a lack of options. So as long as you’re choosing not to go in STEM, and you don’t make that decision because you can’t, or because you weren’t given the opportunity. So that’s how I’ve always had this mindset as a teacher. And I’ve explained it to my students. So if you say, “Cross, you know what I want to do, I wanna be an awesome chef,” which, you know, low-key that’s science, right? <laugh> Molecular gastronomy, we know that. But like, you be the best chef. But as long as you’re being a chef because you choose that, and you’re like, “I love science, but I don’t wanna go that direction,” we’re good.

Eric R. Banilower (16:26):

Right. And if you think about, a lot of social justice issues with pollution and climate change, and you look at which communities are more affected by some of these larger environmental problems and challenges, it tends to be the lower socioeconomic communities, the more poverty-stricken communities have worse water, have worse air quality. And so if, if people from these communities are going to make informed decisions about who they’re gonna vote for, about what policies they’re gonna support, those are science topics that you have to have some understanding in order to make informed decisions in your life.

Eric Cross (17:09):

Courtney, you were one of the Swiss Army Knife teachers. This is how I perceive it for elementary. You had to teach everything. And shout out to all of my elementary school teachers that have to be mathematicians and grammar whizzes and scientists and PE instructors and social emotional, all of those different things. you also looked at teacher preparedness. How did teachers feel about teaching science compared to other subjects like language arts and math? Did you see anything there?

Courtney Plumley (17:39):

We did, we did. And I’m glad you said, “How did they feel about it?” Because one thing that, you know, in a survey you can’t really do is capture how someone actually…how good someone actually…the quality of someone’s instruction. But you can ask them how prepared they feel. And you can even ask them like stats, like, “What did you major in in college?” You know. But you really are going on based on what what they say. So we ask them how prepared they feel to teach all the core subjects. And two-thirds of elementary teachers felt very well prepared to teach reading. They felt very well prepared to teach math. But when it comes to science, it’s less than a third felt very well prepared. And you know, like you said, when you’re teaching elementary school, you’re teaching all the subjects. But also in science, there’s usually four main instructional units in a school year. And they’re all from different science disciplines. So not only are you going on, like, “Maybe in college took a lot of bio classes, but I didn’t take any physics classes, and now I have to teach physics to my kids and I have no experience there.” So, you know, we also ask them how well-prepared they felt in these different disciplines. And the numbers are even smaller, you know. Fewer than a quarter felt very well-prepared in life science. And like 13% felt very well-prepared in physical science. So there’s definitely a big difference between how much teachers feel prepared for ELA and math versus science.

Eric Cross (19:08):

And just from a human perspective, when we don’t feel prepared for something, we’re not really gonna probably lean into it as much as we are into our strengths. Like, that’s just kind of how we are across the board.

Courtney Plumley (19:18):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (19:18):

I’m even like that with my own chores in the house. Or when I have things I need to get done, and I might not be as good at doing those things—it’s gonna be a heavy cognitive load; I’m gonna have to do some background research—I tend to find other areas to excel in. Like, I’m gonna be productive in this other area. I’m gonna really crush it here. But this other thing gets put to the back burner.

Courtney Plumley (19:36):

Totally. And the same reason I might skip science today, <laugh> ’cause it’s scary.

Eric Cross (19:41):

Yeah, exactly. But I love this book. <Laugh> Or we could do this math, and let’s really, really dive deep into it. Now, did you also look at professional development and instructional resources that are being provided?

Courtney Plumley (19:53):

We did.

Eric Cross (19:54):

And on the whole, how was the amount—and I’m seeing a trend here, so I’m kind of feeling like I know where this might go—but I wanted to ask it, did the amount of professional development and resources for science, was there much of a difference between that and other subjects?

Eric R. Banilower (20:10):

Well, I’ll start on this, and Courtney, feel free to jump in. You know, one of the things that we asked was how much kind of discretionary funding do schools devote to science and how much to mathematics? So, for consumables or equipment and supplies or computer software for teachers to use in the classroom. And it’s hard to compare, I think, across subjects because the demands for this kind of supplies, et cetera, is very different, I think, in science than it is in mathematics. Right? We have a lot of, you know, equipment for doing investigations, consumable supplies in science. And those things need to be replenished on a regular basis. It turns out, when we look at the data for school discretionary spending on this kind of stuff, the median school spends less than $2 per student at the elementary level on science, compared to over $6 for mathematics. At the high school level, it’s kind of reversed. Schools spend more money on high school science than they do on high school math. but even still, at the high school, it’s less than $7 per student. Which is not a lot of money being devoted to thinking about all the materials, supplies, chemicals, et cetera, that you need to teach science well, at the high school level. More disturbing is the fact that, you know, we were talking about inequities before, schools that serve less well-off communities spend less than schools that serve wealthier communities, by quite a big amount.

Eric Cross (21:46):

So essentially the per-student thing just kind of popped out to me: So, like, an expensive Starbucks drink is what we’re spending on science per student.

Eric R. Banilower (21:57):

At the high school level. Yes.

Eric Cross (21:58):

At the high school level. And I get those catalogs in the mail, from all of those big science companies. You can’t get much for seven bucks. At least, nothing high-level. And I know I do a lot of 99-cent store science. I go down the street, go to the 99-cent store. Thankfully we could do a lot of awesome science with just, you know, cheap things. But a lot of the higher level experiences, they’re pricey. But the experiences are so rich! And $7 at the high school level is nothing. It’s not much at all.

Eric R. Banilower (22:28):

Yeah. It is definitely, you know, kind of shocking to think about what we’re investing in our children’s future.

Eric Cross (22:37):

Now, just to put you both on the spot, ’cause I feel like that we’ve identified some…we’re seeing a trend here, we’re seeing a pattern. We’re talking about, you know, being science teachers. There’s a pattern going on here. Do you think it’s fair to characterize science as the underdog?

Courtney Plumley (22:52):

I think in elementary school, it is a fair statement. Because, like we said before, I mean they’re gonna preference math and ELA almost all the time. I mean, the other thing you’d asked a little bit ago was about professional development, too. And we do have some data on that. And we ask teachers, you know, how much science professional development they’ve had in the last three years. And nearly half of elementary teachers said none. And I know I didn’t have any science professional development. If I was gonna pick from among the catalog, I was picking one that I needed more, like math. Math and ELA. I keep making that statement, but just over and over, it’s the truth.

Eric Cross (23:31):

And going back to what you said earlier, because that’s where the accountability was, right? And that kind of came top-down.

Courtney Plumley (23:38):

Yes.

Eric Cross (23:38):

And influenced everything else.

Eric R. Banilower (23:40):

Yeah. Now, really interesting thing that we did, a year or so ago, ’cause someone asked us, you know, “Hey, could you look at this?” is we compared elementary science instructional time among states where science counted towards accountability versus states where science doesn’t count towards accountability. And at the upper elementary grades, more time was spent on science in schools in states where they had science accountability. Now I’m not arguing for adding science to accountability systems. But that’s a pretty telling piece of data.

Eric Cross (24:19):

What gets measured gets done.

Eric R. Banilower (24:20):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (24:20):

Or what was getting evaluated was getting done. And that raises, that opens up a myriad of other questions about testing, and what that reveals, and all of those different things. But at the end of the day, what you’re finding is that the things that were getting tested were the things that were getting the priority.

Eric R. Banilower (24:36):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (24:37):

How did we get to this point? And Eric, you said it goes back at least to ’77, but we look at society and we’re…I wanna say we’re post-pandemic, but we’re we’re not. but we’re trying to, we’re trying to get past that. But we’re looking at…we had innovations in biology, we have innovations right now in green energy and electric cars and all of these things that are STEM-based. We know that these are things that have moved humanity forward. And we look at the pipeline of people who are in STEM and we, we see the disparities and things like that. Why was science given less of a priority? I’m just curious. Maybe, Courtney, we could start with you, if you have any ideas. Or Eric. Either one. But how did we get here?

Eric R. Banilower (25:22):

<laugh> I think Courtney wants me to take that one. I’m older so I’ve seen more <laugh>. So, you know, I have the gray hair. She doesn’t. I think it’s complicated. And I know this sounds cliche, but but schools are a reflection of society, right? And, and so science education, you know, if you think back when Sputnik was launched, there became this great demand in America to improve and produce more scientists and engineers in response to this Cold War threat. Right? And then in the ’80s there was rising, oh, the gathering storm was an economic argument that we needed to increase science and math, you know, education and people going into those fields in order to compete economically against the global competitors. And I think that America has always produced a fair number, a large number, of high-quality scientists and engineers, you know. And we still lead the world in many ways. But where we’ve identified as a problem is who has those opportunities to go into those fields. You know, it used to be a very select, a very male-dominated, white male-dominated field. Right? And other people didn’t have the opportunity, or they were shown the way out pretty early. And we, I think, have come to realize as a country that, you know, the, the greater the diversity of thought that we can get into these discussions, the more innovative we can be and the more productive as a society we can be. And so I think we’ve had this shift in the country to, instead of thinking about just the quality for the select few, but to be thinking about the quality for everyone. And so that makes it seem like some of these challenges are greater than they used to be. And I think they’re different challenges, right? We’ve evolved as a society and I think schools have evolved.

Eric Cross (27:40):

There is a conversation I was in on a plane with a person who was a materials manager for a company that made the adhesive for sandpaper. And we were flying…I was flying to Denmark and he was flying to some other Scandinavian country. And we were just talking about it. And he came from another industry, and somehow the conversation led to science. I don’t know how that happened. But somehow I just started talking about science and I asked him about, Eric, kind of what you said about the US kind of leading the way in science innovation versus the rest of the world. And I asked him why. And he said one of the reasons why is because the heterogeneous thought. The different groups of people that are coming to a problem actually create more innovative and novel solutions. Versus when it’s more homogeneous. And everyone’s either culturally or just for whatever reason, kind of thinks a certain way. While they might have a more efficient way, the variety of solutions are not as varied and not as novel. I was reminded of that story based on what you just said. So it’s really interesting. So it seems to be that it benefits if we have more heterogeneous groups, more folks who are contributing to STEM, because that’s gonna be solving the next problem more efficiently. Or I guess maybe in my head it seems like the next we need…we do really well when we have a dragon to slay. I mean, it seems like we come together when that’s the case, right? Like, I dunno.

Eric R. Banilower (29:06):

No, I think that’s…I think that’s accurate.

Eric Cross (29:09):

Later on the season of the podcast, we’re gonna explore ways to better integrate science with other subjects like literacy and math. Were you able to study at all any more integrated approaches to science instruction? Does any of your research support that approach?

Courtney Plumley (29:25):

Not on the national survey, we didn’t study that. And it’s something that we’ve talked about before, because it’s difficult to get teachers to…we were talking about instructional time. It’s hard for teachers to put a number on it when they’re integrating, because, you know, it’s not like I have my science block from 3 to 3:30 anymore. Now it’s kind of scattered about. But it’s something that has been in the ether. We’ve been looking at it in a couple of projects. So there’s some evidence that it can be effective, especially for getting more, you know…the idea is you can get more time for science if you are integrating with other subjects. But one thing to kind of caution is like, students need to have opportunities to learn each discipline when they’re doing integrated instruction. So you don’t wanna just have, like, math in your science. Kids already know to just, like, support it. Then it’s hard to take time from math to put it into science when they’re not actually learning anything new. That’s the easy thing to do, though, is say, “Oh, my kids already know how to measure. We did that in a previous unit. So now we’ll we’ll do it as part of our science instruction.” So it’s a lot of work to make it so they’re learning something new, mathematics and science, at the same time. And it’s not really something that we think that teachers should be having to do on their own, with all the other things that teachers have to do. The last thing they need to do is be creating their own, you know, curriculum. Something that’s already…you know, it’s not straightforward. So we’ve been talking about it, we think it’s really something that instructional materials maybe need to be focusing on instead of teachers having to do that on their own,

Eric Cross (31:01):

Teachers would implement it, but asking them to create it is a whole different thing, and it’s a huge ask.

Courtney Plumley (31:08):

Yes.

Eric Cross (31:08):

Yeah. And, did I hear you right? So the ideal situation would’ve been the students learning a newer math concept, but embedded in a science kind of context? Or was that the better way? Versus, “I’m gonna take a math concept they already know and then just put it into the science setting?”

Courtney Plumley (31:26):

Well, if the idea is that you can get more science time if you’re, you know, integrating things, so you can maybe take time away from a specific math block by putting it with science, or whatever, then if the math is something that the kids already know, now you’re just taking away. I think that that has to be new in both cases, in order to justify having more time.

Eric Cross (31:49):

Right. Eric, in the secondary level, any thoughts on that? On integrating these disciplines together?

Eric R. Banilower (31:56):

I think, you know, just like at the elementary level, it can be challenging to do it well. When I taught, I taught my last couple years in a kind of school-within-a-school kind of situation, where our goal was to try to integrate science, mathematics, and language arts. And it’s hard to do that in a meaningful way. And we did not have curriculum materials given to us to help us do this. We were trying to figure out how to do this on our own, while we were teaching 200 kids a day in our subjects. Right? And five preparations. And you know, it’s a big ask of any teacher. And there are teachers who thrive on this and are great at this. And, you know, that’s one thing I wanna, make clear: our data is about the system, and we are former teachers. Almost everyone who works at Horizon is a former teacher. We have the greatest respect for teachers and what they do. And what our data is showing is are kind of like areas where the system isn’t providing teachers and their students the opportunities to do great things. I think at the high school level, there has been this idea of project-based learning where students are bringing together different skills, different ideas from across disciplines. And I think there’s, again, a lot of potential in doing that. But trying to develop those experiences so that they are doing service to the different subjects, so students are learning what they’re supposed to learn in English Language Arts, that they’re learning, important mathematics, and that this is in a science context, where they are getting to do and understand what science is and how science, as a discipline, operates…that’s just a really hard thing to develop.

Eric Cross (33:53):

So what I’m hearing—and I really appreciate the nuance in this, because it’s not a simple “Yes. Integrated is better,”—I’m hearing “Yes. Quality control.” “Yes. It needs to be written not by teachers; they’re the practitioners.” It’s “Yes. And,” not just simply binary. Which…it’s so easy to wanna chunk things and say yes or no on things. But this one seems a much more nuanced approach. And in a future episode, you mentioned project-based learning, we’re gonna try and talk to people who have thoughts on this. And I really appreciate that you talked about project-based learning, because also, how do you evaluate that? How do you evaluate whether or not it is high quality? Is this is something I see? You know, high-quality standards, highest quality science teaching, highly qualified teachers. It’s something that I see often. Now, based on all your research, this is kind of the 30,000-foot view. What advice might you have for people who are thinking about changing the way science is taught in this country? Which hasn’t changed since 1977, at least since we’ve been measuring it. Any advice for people who do want to act? Another way to ask, it might be, if you were given a magic wand, <laugh>, you have all power, what might you do if you can control the entire vertical system?

Eric R. Banilower (35:07):

Yeah, so a clarification, I do think science instruction has changed. It has evolved. I think there’s a lot of really good things going on in different pockets of the country. One of the challenges is bringing those good ideas and good practices to scale. Right? There are approximately 1.2 million teachers of science K–12 in this country. That’s a lot of people. And about 80% of those are elementary teachers who are responsible for teaching other subjects as well. So my thinking is often about, “How do we take what we know and that we’ve learned through decades of research is effective, and impact a large number of teachers, and therefore a large number of students?” And you know, Courtney I think has hinted at this already. And you’ve mentioned it too, Eric, is that teaching is a profession, right? And it’s a craft. But in no other profession do practitioners have the expectation that they’re developing their own tools and methods for their work. I know when I was in my teacher preparation program, and it’s still extremely common, one of the assignments perspective teachers are given is to develop a unit and develop a lesson, right? You don’t have doctors being asked to develop new treatments and new tests to use. Their job is to get to know their patient, assess what’s going on, and then using research-based methods to develop a plan of action, right? And I think that analogy works really well in education and is a way that we could have a scalable approach for kind of raising the floor across the country for the quality of science education. Giving teachers research-based materials, high-quality instructional materials, that they can then use and adapt to meet the needs of their students, would allow them to focus on getting to know their students, seeing what their strengths are, seeing where they have room for growth, and using the materials they’re given to help those students progress. And I think that is definitely a way where we could have a big impact at a large scale.

Eric Cross (37:39):

Courtney, same question: Magic wand, all power. You can change systems from the elementary perspective. What would you do? I’m assuming part of it’s gonna be changing that 18 to 20 minute time. But even for that to happen, what would you do? What would you change?

Courtney Plumley (37:57):

Well, I don’t know. Like, for it to change, I don’t know the answer to that. But yes, increasing the time would be great. And like Eric was saying, giving teachers— ’cause again, I’m coming in, not enough probably background in science—and then, you know, when I was, when I was teaching, we had one set of textbooks for the entire grade. Six classes, right? Like, share them. But third graders aren’t gonna read textbooks anyway, right? So instead I’m going to the teacher store. I’m pulling things off the shelf. And like, “OK, yeah, sure, I’ll use this.” And nowadays, teachers are going to Teachers Pay Teachers or whatever. Because I didn’t have anything good to use. So like Eric is saying, if I had instructional materials that were good instructional materials that were gonna teach my kids, that they were gonna be engaged, that they weren’t sitting and listening to science, but they were doing science, you know, and I had professional development to actually help me do it? That’s what I think we need to have. And I mean, I know there are some people out there that are working on that, but it’s not a lot. I mean, if you look at Ed Reports, they rate how well-aligned science curriculum are to standards. And there are two right now that have Ed Reports green lights. There’s Amplify and there’s OpenSciEd. You know, so there’s not much out there for teachers to use. And, so it’s hard. It’s hard. Where am I gonna go and get this stuff if it doesn’t exist? And so I’m making it up by myself. Which we already said is not the best use of teachers’ time, when they’ve got so many other demands on their time.

Eric Cross (39:27):

Eric and Courtney, listening to both of your responses, it created a visual in my mind. And Eric, I loved your analogy of…I started thinking of a chef, a welder, and a farmer. And I thought about the chef saying like, “You’re a great chef! Now, can you go farm, and make your own food, so that you can cook it?” Or the welder who has to make his own welding tools and go smelting. You know, making the different rods. I’m not a welder. But you know, all those different parts. Or the farmer who has to build his own tractor and innovate all that stuff. You’re absolutely right, the way you articulated that. And then Courtney, you essentially said, “Give them the tools and then teach them how to use it so they can go and actually be effective with it, because you’re in front of kids doing so many different things.” There’s only so much time in the day, and teachers want to do these things; they want to, but you end up having to triage when you’re asked to. Going back to Eric’s analogy, if you’re in the ER, but you’re also creating the vaccines and you’re also doing the research on which types of vaccines are gonna be the most effective, that’s, that’s a lot to ask. And so, I appreciate both your responses on that. Now, last question, what are you both working on now? This report came out in 2018. What’s, what’s next on the horizon? Actually literally, that’s no pun intended. <laugh> What’s next? <laugh> What’s next for, for you both? What are you working on?

Eric R. Banilower (40:42):

Well, you know, we would love to do another national survey, in a few years. We have to get funding to do it. And you know, that’s always something that takes effort and isn’t a guarantee. We’ve written grants to do these studies in the past, and there’s also the dealing with the reality of the situation. I think a lot of schools, still coming off the tail end of dealing with Covid, are overwhelmed. And we’ve had a hard time, I mentioned before, recruiting schools, and it gets harder every time, just ’cause they have so much on their plate. And I couldn’t see going to a school now and saying, “Hey, one more thing. Do you mind?” So I think we have to kind of wait a little bit for things to settle down before we can do another one of these studies. It just doesn’t seem feasible right now. But we’d love to in the not-too-distant future. Other than that, Courtney and I actually work on some projects together and some projects not together. One of the things that we’re working on together is a study of a fifth grade science curriculum that was developed by Okhee Lee at NYU and her colleagues, that is both aligned with the NGSS and purposely designed to support multilingual learners in developing both their science knowledge and skills as well as their language skills. And we’ve been working with the crew at NYU to study this curriculum and try to figure out, how well it’s working and under what circumstances. So that’s been a really interesting project that’s going on right now.

Courtney Plumley (42:26):

I recently worked on a report with the Carnegie Corporation in New York that actually I think, compliments what we’ve been talking about a lot. It’s about the status of K–12 education in the US—or science education in the US! <Laugh>—and so as part of that report we interviewed like 50 science education experts across the country. We surveyed teachers, people in the university settings, researchers, and everything to kind of get a little bit more update of the state of science education right now. And so a lot of the things we’ve been talking about, we still are talking about with the people in this report four years later. So, work in progress. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (43:09):

And again, going back to 1977, based on what Eric was saying earlier, we’re looking at these large systems, these systemic changes don’t happen overnight.

Eric R. Banilower (43:20):

That’s right.

Eric Cross (43:21):

It’s very slow-moving.

Eric R. Banilower (43:22):

That’s right. I would say there is progress. I think we’ve learned a lot. We are getting better. Are we there yet? No, we’re not happy with where we are. But I think, you know, I think it’s important to be hopeful about the direction things are going in.

Eric Cross (43:37):

Well-said. I agree. Courtney. Eric, thank you so much for unpacking that report that speaks to, that validates what so many teachers across the country are experiencing. And thank you for your advocacy for high-quality science education and your passion for supporting teachers and being that voice from a data-driven perspective of what teachers experience and then advocating for solutions for them. It’s super-encouraging for me, and I know it’s gonna be really encouraging for a lot of our listeners. So thank you.

Eric R. Banilower (44:10):

Thank you for having us.

Courtney Plumley (44:12):

Yeah. Thank you, Eric.

Eric Cross (44:15):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Eric Banilower, Vice President of Horizon Research, and Courtney Plumley, Senior Researcher at Horizon Research. For much more, check out the show notes for a link to the 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. And please remember to subscribe to Science Connections wherever you get podcasts, so that you’re not missing any of the upcoming episodes in Season three. Next time on the show, we’re gonna start laying out the road map for using science more effectively. And we’ll start by looking at the how and the why of integrating literacy instruction.

Susan Gomez Zwiep (44:49):

When we look at Science First and build language development around it, the experience tends to be more authentic and organic.

Eric Cross (44:58):

That’s next time on Science Connections: The Podcast. Thanks so much for listening.

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What Eric R. Banilower says about science

“Our data is showing us places where the system needs to provide teachers and their students the opportunities to do great things.”

– Eric R. Banilower

Vice President of Horizon Research, Inc.

Meet the guests

Eric R. Banilower is a Vice President at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), and has worked in education for over 30 years. Eric was previously a high school physics and physical science teacher before he joined HRI in 1997, where he has worked on a number of research and evaluation projects. Most recently, he has been the Principal Investigator of the 2012 and 2018 iterations of the National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education, a nationally representative survey focusing on the status of the K–12 STEM education system.

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Courtney Plumley is a Senior Researcher at Horizon Research, Inc. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher before starting at HRI in 2009. In her time at HRI she has worked on many K-12 STEM research and evaluation projects. Most recently, Ms. Plumley has worked with Carnegie Corporation of New York on mapping the landscape of K-12 science education in the US and is managing the field test for the OpenSciEd elementary materials.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

S5.E6. Why skepticism is essential to the Science of Reading, with Dr. Claude Goldenberg

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S4 – 01. Joyful math teaching with Kanchan Kant

Podcast cover for "Math Teacher Lounge," Season 4, Episode 1, titled "Joyful math teaching," featuring Kanchan Kant, described as a math educator and transformative leader.

This season on the Math Teacher Lounge podcast, we follow the theme “joyful math” and uncover its meaning.

In this episode, Kanchan Kant joins Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer to discuss the key, early investment she makes at the start of the school year to ensure her math teaching will be joyful for herself and for her students for the rest of the year.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Dan Meyer (00:00):
Okay, we are recording. Hey folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. (laugh)

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:06):
Hardly off to a rocking start.

Dan Meyer (00:06):
Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> Did you like my energy there? Hey folks. Welcome back to Math Teacher Lounge. It’s a new season with your host Dan Meyer. And…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:15):
I’m Bethany, Lockhart Johnson. How’s your summer Dan?

Dan Meyer (00:22):
Summer for me feels really hectic as we prepare, here at Amplify, for the new school year, and everyone’s starting these new math programs. So I’ve been feeling quite amped up, like usual in the summer. But also, my kids started big kid school. So I’ve been seeing the educational system from the role of a parent and all the anxieties and I worry, will I be my kids’ teacher’s most annoying parent <laugh> … So what kind of math curriculum you using? Oh, have you heard of core counting? Can I lead a math center? What’s this worksheet about? I’m really worried my kids are just overall gonna hate my vibe when I come around their classes. Uh, <laugh> so lots going on with me.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:06):
It’s already happening for me and I have a toddler.

Dan Meyer (01:10):
<laugh> There we go. Anyway, that’s what I’m up to. That’s how I’m feeling. I’m curious how you’re doing. We haven’t chatted in a while. We’re excited about the podcast, but it’s been a bit, you know? Bethany got a break from me and my antics over the summer. So, how are we finding you here, as we ramp up to the new season?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:24):
Uhhhh. Well, let me just tell you, I have a toddler. That’s kind of all I need to say. Except that’s not all I will say. Of course, I’ll say more. I am exploring, I’m dipping my toe into the extracurricular toddler activities; the music classes of the toddler world, the creative movement of the toddler world. And yeah, I have lots of opinions and lots of things to say about the teachers. And I’m like, Ugh, I can’t wait to be room mom. And just like…<laugh>

Dan Meyer (01:55):
Just let it rip, you know?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:57):
I have opinions on everything and just hope I don’t get kicked out of the class.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:05):
It’s been an eventfully recharging summer and we are ready for this new season. And in fact, we’re so ready that we decided that we were gonna mix up this season. Just a, just a tiny bit. Shall I explain Dan?

Dan Meyer (02:21):
Yeah. Let’s do it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:22):
So we have loved all the different topics that we have explored in the Math Teacher Lounge world, but we kind of feel like we need to do some more deep dives. So for this season and the foreseeable seasons …

Dan Meyer (02:38):
We’ll see how it goes.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:38):
Let’s stick with this season. For this season. We’re going to be exploring a singular theme.

Dan Meyer (02:46):
We’re not bouncing around. Yep. We’re not bouncing around from a guest to guest going on whatever shiny thing in the river bed catches our eye. We’re gonna take one theme and see where it goes. What we working with here this season?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:57):
This season, we are going to be exploring the idea of joyful math, joyful math. And Dan, the question I have for you is, is the term joyful math one that you use on the regular?

Dan Meyer (03:10):
No, it definitely is not. I think that joy and math are very rarely, you know, connected in the popular mind. Number one, and number two, you know, I’m kind of an ornery fellow, so that’s not my natural kind of description of math. But we decided that it feels like an important one at the moment, because a lot of math teaching–a lot of teaching in general, math teaching in particular–math teaching is often not a joyful discipline for students, where, you know, I’ve done some research where you look at what people type into Google. And I looked at like, what they…why am I bad at X? And I looked at that for where X is math, where it’s science, where it’s reading, where it’s history. And it was just wild to see how many more hits there are out there on the Internet for “why am I bad at math?” People don’t really associate math with joy, but also we’re looking at joyful math in terms of joyful math teaching. Math teaching, teaching in general, is a tough field at the moment with a lot of teachers leaving teaching. And those who remain are having a lot of soul searching and thinking about, why am I here and how do I sustain this work? And in an environment that seems hostile to my interests or my talents, or work-life balance. And so that’ll be the theme that we’re gonna kind of uncover over the course of our season, talking to various interesting guests, including one today about, yeah, joyful math teaching and joyful math.

Dan Meyer (04:43):
And to help us think about what joyful math teaching looks like, we figured we’d first look at what UN-joyful math teaching looks like. It happens to be the case that we’ve been in a pandemic as you might be aware, and teaching has been challenging. And the NEA, our National Education Association, surveyed its member teachers and asked them the following question … Gave a list of issues that school employees have experienced and asked, for each one indicate how serious of a problem this is for you. This is a survey where more than half of members said they are more likely to leave or retire sooner than planned because of the pandemic. And this is almost double the numbers from July, 2020. It’s really hard to keep track of teacher departures and unfilled vacancies across states. So I don’t wanna like blow this up out of proportion, but it does indicate some real challenges in teaching. So Bethany, I was curious, what do you think like at the top of the list, like what kinds of factors, issues facing educators would you imagine there are?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:48):
So if I’m to understand you correctly, these are reasons someone is not actively experiencing joy in the profession of teaching. Like why would they leave?

Dan Meyer (05:58):
Exactly.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:59):
Well, the number one thing that came to mind for me, well, okay. Wait, wait, one other caveat I need to ask about, you said specifically pandemic-related or just in general, because if it’s pandemic-related, then I think, well, there’s health issues, right? That people are concerned about, but in general, the thing that came to mind was a lack of support from administration districts, lack of funding, and overcrowding in classrooms. Like, you know, I saw somebody had 40 students in their classroom. So those are the two things that I can imagine like top on someone’s list that would make them experience less than a joyful day.

Dan Meyer (06:44):
Yeah. There’s a bunch of you’re kind of identifying here. So number seven on the list is lack of respect from parents and the public, which is like 76% of teachers call that out as serious for them. Others that you kind of circled around in terms of resources go like, not enough planning or unstructured time in the job kind of ties into resources. Yeah. But there’s others that are on the list that I’m curious, you wanna take on the swing at it, given what I’ve said here,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:15):
I feel like too much being asked of them, like being asked to wear too many hats, like they’re being asked to not only teach their class, but also cover all the vacancies and supervise recess and, you know, make a delicious, nutritious lunch. That’s what came to mind. Am am I close?

Dan Meyer (07:33):
Yeah. Number four on the list, unfilled job openings leading to more work for remaining staff. People covering, you know, not just the kind of external to teaching work like you’re describing, but also just taking on like losing your prep period, to take on a class that has been unfilled for all kinds of reasons. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:54):
Yeah. I’ve only gotten the fourth. Give me one clue, one clue about …

Dan Meyer (07:59):
So, I mean like, so number one is general stress from the coronavirus pandemic, you know, which I feel like …

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:06):
I mentioned that.

Dan Meyer (08:07):
I’ll give you that one. Yep, yep, sure. And then number two, close behind, is feeling burned out, which I think ties into what you’re describing as well. I’m giving Bethany credit on that one. The third one is very different from the ones you’ve been describing. I think I cannot in good faith give you even partial credit for this one. I’ll just say it. Student…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:28):
Wait! Dan, this is not how you give clues.

Dan Meyer (08:31):
Here’s a clue. It’s student absences due to COVID19. It’s really hard to deal student absences. That’s your clue.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:40):
That wasn’t a clue that you told me.

Dan Meyer (08:43):
Yeah, let’s see. I think that’s largely it. There’s also pay is too low, is on the list; student behavioral issues, on the list. And I think that about covers it. So all of that, that basket of items has led to more than half of teachers in this survey, saying that they’re more likely to leave or retire from education sooner than planned. And I don’t know. I think we all know teachers who have bailed.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:08):
I’ve never played a board game with you, Dan, but if we ever play a board game, we’re gonna work on your clue giving, ’cause I want to keep guessing. And you just told me.

Dan Meyer (09:22):
Yeah. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:22):
In all seriousness, the <laugh>. In all seriousness, I think yes, the stress of the pandemic and students being absent, what some folks are calling unfinished learning, all of those pieces do play into it. But a lot of those things that you’re mentioning on the list are things that are not unique to the pandemic, right? Like those are things that I feel like there is some modicum of control that we could have over shifting the way the culture of the teaching profession is going so that we could create a more joyful experience for educators, administrators, and students.

Dan Meyer (10:03):
Yeah. Good call out. That’s exactly right. We could tax the people who are not in the classrooms more and increase the pay to classroom teachers. You know, there we go.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:11):
Oh. Bingo. Why didn’t we ask you sooner Dan, for your wisdom.

Dan Meyer (10:15):
Yeah. I’m … solved by Dan. Yeah, good point though. So I read that and yeah, I think that there’s been some … people have critiqued the NEA for being very alarmist about teacher departures as the year has ramped up. It has not been quite the flood of departing teachers as was predicted and thank heavens for that, but we should still be very bummed if teachers are unhappy and wanting to leave and feel like they can’t leave. That is definitely not good. So we were really excited to bring to the table, someone who is just a very joyful teacher and one in a very intentional way. Someone who has a lot of discipline in how she approaches the job and the students in it and tries to create a joyful environment for herself, Kanchan Kant. Kanchan is a math and computer science teacher at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts. She’s been sharing her love for math with her students for the past four years, while also being instrumental in setting the culture and ethos of the math department at her school in her role as the assistant department head. We welcome you on the show Kanchan to help us understand joy and math teaching. Thanks for being here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:29):
Welcome!

Kanchan Kant (11:30):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:33):
One of my friends, her son was asked as his first math homework assignment to write out his math bio. And I loved that idea because we got to hear a little bit about your bio from like a broader perspective. But if we were to ask about your math bio, I will speak for myself to say like, automatically certain images flash into my mind, right? To think about my relationship, my evolving relationship with math. But I’m so curious if I was to ask you, what’s your math bio? How did you become the person, mathematically speaking, that you are today? Would you mind sharing a bit about that?

Kanchan Kant (12:10):
Of course I would love to. So I was born and raised in India and I belong to a family which considers mathematics to be extremely important to succeed in life. My father used to have me add and subtract license plates since I was four years old, when we were out and about. I loved math in school, it just made like complete sense to me. It was logical and you know, it was my favorite subject. I loved it all through high school. I had a confidence speed breaker in undergrad. When in my second semester I almost failed the engineering math course that I took. That was the first time math felt like too much and not like my best friend, which it was supposed to be. So it was a while before I could summon the courage to take on another math course in college.

Kanchan Kant (12:56):
But once I did that, it was like old times. I realized I had to persevere through the challenging bits. And once I did that, it started to make sense again. And through my journey, as an educator speaking to people from various backgrounds and like coming to the United States, I realized that math is challenging for everyone at one time or another. For some people that is elementary school. And for some others, it is college or even later. Either way does not mean that you are not a math person. When I was in college, I felt I was not a math person. Whereas my sister, my very own sister said the same thing about math in middle school. Both of us use math every day. And we are definitely, definitely math people. So for me to be a math person is to persevere, to approach problem-solving in a logical manner, and to find the joy in the process ,as well as the answer.

Dan Meyer (13:47):
That’s wonderful. Yeah. A lot of people, have a moment where they feel like almost betrayed by what they thought was a close friend of theirs, with math, where it’s like, wait, I thought we were tight. You know, I thought we were cool. You and me. And there’s that moment. And I wonder if that’s been a useful moment for you to, you know, bring back now and then as a teacher with students who might feel that even, you know, in high school or in a secondary school as a kid.

Kanchan Kant (14:15):
Absolutely. Like when I talk to students and tell them, yes, I had difficulty in math too. It has not always been easy for men and there are still things I struggle with sometimes, then it’s like more modeling for them that you have to persevere, you should persevere. And once you do that, it makes sense and you can feel successful. So, almost every year I end up sharing the story with my students.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (14:38):
There’s so much value in that, right? That you are sharing that vulnerability with students. And to say your relationship with mathematics has not been, you know, smooth sailing the whole way through. There were times when you had to work harder than others.

Dan Meyer (14:55):
Yeah. Really fun to hear about you and your father as well. I tried to ask my five-year-old to do some skip counting the other day, like, okay, cool, you’re hot stuff. You can count, you know, up by ones, but what about by twos? And the moment really fell flat. And I watched myself becoming the kind of parent who is whose enthusiasm for math is one day resented by his children. I feel a lot of, yeah, I felt your anxiety Kanchan, with math itself. And now I feel anxiety as like someone who loves math and loves to teach math and may one day alienate the people closest to him. <laugh>

Kanchan Kant (15:31):
I don’t like that future. I have a three-month-old. I do not like this future of mine. If I have to go through what you’re going through. Uh, oh, <laugh>

Dan Meyer (15:38):
You got this. So Kanchan, you’re going back to the classroom coming up here at the time of this recording. It’s a few weeks out. And we’re thinking about like the kind of ways that math teachers sustain a disposition that is joyful. How are you feeling right now, as far as going back to class after this summer? Are you feeling excited, anxious, some combo, tell us about it.

Kanchan Kant (16:01):
I would say combo, but more excited than anxious. I was on maternity leave, as I mentioned, before the school year ended, and I missed the students dearly. Like, my students are what gives me hope in the darkest times. They are thoughtful. They’re empathetic. They’re so eager to learn. And very soon into my teaching career, I realized that if I take the time to get to know my students and make them feel safe and seen in my class, teaching them math would be so much easier and so much more fun. So I’m a little worried about this being like fourth year into the pandemic, but let’s see. Last year I felt the students were finding it difficult to interact with and work with their classmates because they had not been doing it for so long. So I’m hoping this year would go a little better and I’m really looking forward to working with them and building community and see how it goes.

Dan Meyer (16:53):
So if I’m understanding you correctly, you are feeling very well recharged here. You had basically an extended summer with this maternity leave, basically just like a lot of rest and relaxation over the last, like several months. Um, if I get you here. So anyway, I’m glad for that for you. And, yeah. I also hear you on the difficulties of teaching post pandemic or mid pandemic. Anyway, thanks for sharing that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:19):
What I love is I hear you being so intentional, like thinking about those relationships and thinking about that community that you want to build, you know? How do you hope that you’re gonna cultivate joy in your teaching this year? I mean like, are there certain routines or disciplines that you specifically call forth or that you think other teachers should think about?

Kanchan Kant (17:41):
So at the start of every school year, I dedicate like about three to four weeks to set up the classroom culture, both social and academic. I call my classroom a learning community. We start with community circles, we do icebreaker activities, group building and all those kinds of things. But most importantly, we do a lot of collective problem solving. So I try to present students with problems, which can be solved using multiple strategies and have multiple entry points, basically they are low floor, high ceiling problems. These could be stretch problems that they have seen before, like concepts that they already know or logical puzzles, or just wrapping their heads around different problems. Then I have students share their strategies. The more strategies they have on the board, the more successful I think the problem was. Every year, inevitably, students come up with strategies that I’ve never ever seen before for the same problems that I do.

Kanchan Kant (18:35):
And so I have students come up to the board, they would share their strategies. If they’re not ready for that, they would walk me through their strategies. And I would write their name on the board with different colored markers and everything. Basically to give them choice and agency. It also shows them that the process of doing the problem is so much more important than just getting the right answer and that it is okay to make mistakes in our learning community. I use a lot of vertical whiteboards, some concepts and problems align so well with the vertical surfaces, especially when students can explore together, learn from each other. So I do a lot of that. As for routines, I would say consistency is the key. I consistently reinforce that I want to hear multiple strategies, that it is okay to make mistakes. I am willing to learn from you as much as you’re willing to learn from me. So all like that consistency in culture more than the routines, is I feel important to bring that joy.

Dan Meyer (19:29):
That’s super interesting. Thanks for that. So I’ve heard, I hear two common objections or two common concerns to using rich tasks or doing problem solving. And I think I heard like answers to those two common reservations within what you described there, but I wonder if we can kind of bring it to the surface. And so one of the reservations is around the time that those problems take and another is that teachers often feel like, well, I might be surprised, you know, I might not know what to do with what a student does. And I thought I was hearing like some very interesting answers to both of those kinds of reservations from you, but would you just surface those up if you have some.

Kanchan Kant (20:09):
So in terms of time, I feel if I spend the time at the beginning of the year, setting up that community and doing those problems, it makes learning the math and learning the concepts much more faster throughout the rest of the year. And even when I am trying, like, even throughout the year, if we are doing a warm up problem, as I call it, which has multiple strategies, that’s gonna clarify so many more concepts when we talk about those five, 10 strategies of doing the same problem, then going through multiple problems to clarify those concepts. So for me, it actually saves time instead of taking more time.

Dan Meyer (20:43):
Hmm. That’s super interesting. It’s an investment I’m hearing from you that, yeah, you might not be hitting the curriculum quite as hard early on, but that all of a sudden you’re in the spring and it’s like, oh wow, we’ve been moving so much faster through territory that has been more challenging. What would you say to you know, comfort concerned educators or to address the concern that I don’t know what I’ll do with these five, 10 different strategies. You say, I always see strategies that I’ve never anticipated. Like, it’s a good thing, you know, like you’re happy about that. I think that’s a very intimidating thing for lots of educators. What would you say to that?

Kanchan Kant (21:19):
I think like, for me, it’s a good kind of discomfort. That means like a student is teaching me something, which is actually doing two things. One modeling for them that I’m willing to learn and that I don’t know everything. And two, also telling them that they’re mathematicians. They know what they’re doing. They’re not just receivers of math, they’re actually creating it. So for me, that is very, very important.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:43):
I love that so much. When you think about your students and you’re about to start this new school year, how do you hope your students will experience math in your classroom?

Kanchan Kant (21:53):
So I hope my students can see the beauty and joy of math. They can see that math is a way to see the world and not as something we have to do to get through school. So my hope for my classroom is that we can learn to problem-solve and persevere through problems and learn from each other and not just get through the curriculum. Because like, I think math is a wonderful way to learn these skills, which are so important when you get out of high school. Most importantly, I just wanna make sure that my students see themselves as mathematicians. And like one of the things that like I have to share with you that, because one of my highlights for the year has to be the Desmos art project. I do it every year for the past three years, I think since I’ve started teaching sophomores. And I do it as a unit assessment for functions and my students design something that is meaningful to them, using all the different kinds of functions and colors and shading and everything that you can think of in Desmos.

Kanchan Kant (22:49):
Thank you so much for that though. It is such a cool way for me to see them do that. Like I have seen such amazing creations. One of my students once made a scaled working model of a solar system wherein the planets were rotating at relative speed. The Saturn had rings and they were like asteroids and everything. And then it was beautifully done. Then there was another one who did a very, very detailed whale scenery, her reasoning. I wanna be a Marine biologist and I wanna study whales. So this is what is meaningful to me. So like that one project is just a culmination of everything that I want students to see in math and in my classroom. And like I do more of those kinds of things, but that is one thing that it’s one of the highlights of my year.

Dan Meyer (23:32):
That’s awesome. I love hearing that. Yeah. Shout out to the team at Desmos Studio for building and continuing to develop a tool list that so good for art and animation, even, in addition to some mathematics with a more computational kind. Yeah, that’s really exciting. What’s interesting to me is that you teach high school, and I think that like students at that age have a very well-defined sense of what math is and who they are as mathematicians. And then along you come, you know, and like offer this really interesting disruption, you know, in their sophomore year of high school that like, oh, this can be totally different, this relationship who I am. And that’s just really exciting. I imagine it’s a very surprising year. I would imagine that first month, I would imagine is a very surprising month for a lot of your sophomores.

Kanchan Kant (24:20):
Yeah, it is. I mean, that’s why I take that time to build that community because then that sets the tone and the relationship that we’re gonna have for the rest of the year. Students get to know how to work with each other. They get to know each other, that whole piece is like super important because of that.

Dan Meyer (24:35):
Yeah. That’s awesome. So here’s the thing, like we’re exploring these ideas about joyful math teaching and what it will take to cultivate restore, reclaim joy in math, teaching this next year. And you’ve offered us these really interesting ideas some, some very, you know, philosophical and some technical about how you spend time in ways that lead to joy in the spring for you and your students. Love that. We don’t want to as hosts, as researchers, investigators of this joyful math teaching idea, we don’t wanna say it’s all up to teachers to change their mindset, to do different technical practices, and that will lead to joy. We also wanna be really attentive to the environment that surrounds you, the people who are around to support you, the policy makers, the social structures that influence your joy in very significant ways. So what we would love to know from you is, how are you supported by the greater educational community in keeping your joy in your work? I’m thinking, especially about administrators, you know, front office, staff, parents, even, can you name a few ways for those sorts of people who listen to this podcast, how they can cultivate a math teacher’s joy this coming year?

Kanchan Kant (25:54):
I would say trust. I think more than anything, educators want administrators, parents, the greater educational community, to trust them to be professionals and experts in what they do. That does not mean that we don’t want to learn, that we don’t want feedback, that we don’t wanna get better. It just means that we keep the wellbeing of our students as our top priority. And we would like to be trusted to do just that. Also just keeping in mind that whether we like it or not, we are still adjusting to the new normal while recovering from the worst of the pandemic times. A lot of us are recovering from trauma, a lot of our students are recovering from trauma, and we need time and space for our social and emotional wellbeing.

Dan Meyer (26:35):
Yeah. I’m really curious, Kanchan, you’ve done a lot of work in your area with your grading team and in thinking about equitable and biased resistant instruction. I’m curious how you see those efforts lining up with creating joyful math learning conditions for all students, not just students from a dominant culture of math doing, let’s say.

Kanchan Kant (26:55):
For me, creating an equitable environment in a classroom is most important because once you have that, that’s when you have the relationships, that’s when you have the culture, that’s when all students actually thrive. So to that end, our school and our department has been doing a lot of work around grading practices. We actually assess how we grade students, where the bias is, what we can do to make them more bias resistant. Should we move to mastery based grading? Like that’s something I’ve been experimenting with for the past two years. Through the pandemic, I started doing mastery based grading so that my students can get more opportunities to show that they have learned the content. And so like just little things which help bridge the opportunity gap. I would say another project that our school undertakes is called the calculus project wherein we have students in Black, Latinx, and low income families sign up for that and are recommended for that. And then we do summer classes and yearlong support to preview the material for next year, not as a remedial class, but to actually set students up for success in AP classes for the coming year. So we have the community buildup. We have the courses we have like math support. It’s a very beautiful thing actually. And I’ve been working with that program for four years now. So yeah, so those are my ways of creating more equity in our school.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:19):
That’s so beautiful and I deeply, deeply wish you had been my high school math teacher. And I have to say that the theme that I kind of keep hearing is this intentionality. How you are so intentional about your work, not just with what your students are learning, but how they’re learning it, how they are engaging with this subject and how they are building their own relationship. You talked a little bit about your relationship over the years with mathematics, but how are your students building that relationship? And so I’m just very appreciative of you sharing that with us and with our listeners. And we are so excited to have learned a little bit about, like, I feel like I got a little mini peek into your classroom.

Kanchan Kant (29:03):
Thank you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:04):
And can I say that if you are listening to this prior to October at NCTM Los Angeles, you will get to hear Kanchan Kant speak at Shadow Con. Can I give that away, Dan? Is that, is that …

Dan Meyer (29:23):
You can drop that. Yeah, It’s pretty top secret.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:26):
Can I drop it?

Dan Meyer (29:27):
Yeah. Do it. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:28):
Dan and I will be in the audience cheering you on. It’s been a joy to learn with and from you, and we are so excited to just, you know, kind of keep marinating on some of these ideas about how we can continue to be intentional about creating joyful math spaces for our students. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Kanchan Kant (29:49):
Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure.

Dan Meyer (29:57):
So Bethany, I loved hearing Kanchan talk about both her, just her joyful personality, but how she cultivates joy through craft and technique through, you know, through the various ways she interacts with students in intentional ways, that those make the job more joyful for her. And I thought it was really interesting to hear her talk about how autonomy is the thing that she needs most in her job environment to feel like she can be joyful in her work. In that context, I saw … something on Twitter popped up for me in my, you know, my many Twitter wanderings. This is a segment we might call, Dan finds something on Twitter and shares it with Bethany. Which we’ll tighten that up a little bit, but I’m sending this over to you right now, and I’d love to know as you check this out, what you’re seeing and what you’re thinking and we’ll chat about how it relates to our interview here in a moment.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:47):
All right. I’m ready, send it over. It’s opening. So this appears to be a document by the way, outlining, maybe it’s a district, maybe it’s administration, they’re outlining expectation type and expectation guidelines. Hmm. Okay. And these are lesson plan expectations. Expectation type. Timeliness. Plans are due no later than 6 p.m.. Friday prior to the week of instruction. Comprehensive, all activities for the week for all subjects taught should be included and complete by due date and time. Plans should have at minimum, the following, see template for detail. Okay. So then it goes through the things that the plans need to have, the topic title, target, the objective, the activities, the sequence, the display agendas to be displayed backward design. Okay. So basically <laugh>, we were just talking about, overwhelm. And when I see this document, listeners, have you ever received something from your administrator or anyone, let’s take it more broadly, that is requesting something of you that would take so much time to complete and be so out of touch with your lived reality that it really genuinely sucks the joy out of the experience.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (32:25):
So the first thing that I see that this document, and again, the goal of whichever district’s plan this is, is that these expectations will lead–now, mind you, I am a fan of like, you know, looking ahead, I’m not a like, oh, hey, what am I gonna teach in five minutes? No, but the idea that then it lays out all of the things in such detail that you’re gonna be teaching feels like one of those pacing guides where, oh, move on to the next page, whether or not your students have any sort of sense making whatsoever. So my first thought is, oh, sad. I have to stay here. I’ll be there past 6 p.m. But I’m gonna be there trying to make the plans for the next week based on what I think my students have learned. Hmm it’s sounds like a little bit of a bummer. Dan, what did you think when you saw this and did I do a fair description of what it is?

Dan Meyer (33:25):
No, it’s, it’s a tough one to describe, ’cause it’s basically a wall of text and commands from an administrator who like, I just have to imagine has just like acres and acres of teachers trying to beat down their door to teach at this school, if this is how you’re gonna treat your teachers. I mean just, yeah. The idea of having a week… I’m with you, you don’t wanna just like, just jump in by the seat of your pants, but the idea of having a full week of lessons for every section you teach, every prep you teach, planned and submitted with every minute, basically morseled out to different goals. It says down here, you gotta like, for all of these, download a CSV of grades and whatnot and attach those. It’s the sort of thing, like you said, there are some edicts that you get from administration where you just have to laugh or just like, you have definitely missed like what I am willing to do here. It’s so far beyond. Yeah. I can’t imagine it. And it just felt like, yeah, it was a great way to get teachers like Kanchan to feel like a real lack of autonomy. Like it’s this would not work. I don’t think.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:33):
And it’s not even like willing to do. Like, let’s say you’re even willing to produce it. Let’s say that me, the rule follower is like, okay. I’m gonna attempt to meet these demands. One, most teachers were just, you know, they probably would put baloney down there anyway. Not saying that I would, but I’m saying like, it’s clearly just a hoop that they’re having to jump through and two…

Dan Meyer (35:04):
Yeah. Compliance, right?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:05):
Yeah. Compliance, compliance. There you go. And two, yeah, it feels like it’s about control and not trusting the teacher. And I love that. Kanchan said that trust is what she needs. Right? You’re hiring me. Yes. I still have lots to learn, but you’re trusting me and you’re creating an environment where I can continue to learn from and with my students. And if I was being asked to submit this tome every Friday before six, that is predicting, what does it say, anticipating the steps necessary for student mastery? You know, I kind of feel like maybe it’s like that one or two teachers where maybe they feel like, oh, I don’t trust that teacher or that teacher isn’t doing a good job, whatever. We better do this for all of the teachers, but then it’s not gonna change the practices of that one teacher and all the other teachers are gonna be resentful.

Dan Meyer (36:00):
Like if there was like feedback that came back to you on, you know, on lesson plans or there was some like something that was very constructive or productive, like maybe that would be different, but it really just feels like these are gonna go into a digital drawer somewhere and not be looked at, at all.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:15):
Yes. The digital drawer. Like I’m gonna send you this report and then nothing is going to happen with it. Except that four hours of my time. Well, you wouldn’t do it, but <laugh>…

Dan Meyer (36:29):
You’ve worn me down. You’ve worn me down. I’m now putty in your hands and more compliant for the next thing. And I also just wanna shout out the administrator today, who I emailed asking about like a teacher participating in a project and this administrator said, I have a standing policy not to email teachers over summer break, which you know, as administrators out there doing just the good work, you know, trusting teachers, watching out for them, trying to be a force multiplier for teachers, making the road wider, the way easier for teachers. So shout out to y’all doing the out there. Really appreciate that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:04):
Okay. Wait, wait. About that email thing, quick question. Did you ever check your email over the summer?

Dan Meyer (37:11):
Uh, yeah. That’s one way in which I was the, you know, I just love email, you know? Oh. Someone wanted to reach out. Oh, oh, Banana Republic wants to tell me about new clothes that are on offer. <laugh> I mean like, it’s just, I love those personal emails. So yeah, I did check my email over the summer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:26):
Somebody emailed me recently and they emailed me at like two in the morning. And because I currently have a toddler, I received the email at four in the morning because you know, the best thing to help myself fall back asleep is to hop on my phone, right? Like I’m already up trying to get my toddler back to sleep. I might as well start scrolling. Anyway, so the person had this little thing at the bottom of their email and it said, I have, something to the effect of, I have really like wonky work hours. I may be sending this outside of the like more standard nine to five. But please don’t feel pressure in any way to respond outside of your time. Would you appreciate that, seeing that or does it make you feel like you should respond? ‘Cause I almost responded at four in the morning, and maybe that says something about …

Dan Meyer (38:15):
They’re telling you not to respond.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:16):
I know it was helpful.

Dan Meyer (38:18):
It says don’t, but you’re like, what if they’re saying that because they really expect me to respond and this is one of many ways that you and I are different. I’m always happy to see that.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (38:29):
Do you respond? I’ve texted you in the evening because you know I have some wonky hours. Do you respond to things, like where’s your boundary there? Or when you were in the classroom, where was your boundary there? Did parents have your phone number?

Dan Meyer (38:43):
No. I gave kids my cell phone number for a couple years and it was a wobbly experiment. But parents will email, you know, back and forth with you. And I think the best thing to like … I love just like adding some friction, some latency into the kind of the chain, you know, like I hate going like back and forth, like da, da, da, da, and then like respond and then da, da da respond. And it just like goes back and forth. So just like just sitting back for an hour or two hours, you know, not responding, just let someone cool down, calm down. Email just gets you more email. That’s like if you send an email, you are just making it more likely to get more email. It’s a, you know, it’s a problem.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:20):
Are you one of the zero people?

Dan Meyer (39:23):
My inbox is at zero. Most days before work.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:26):
You’re joking!

Dan Meyer (39:28):
I end work every day with inbox, at zero.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:31):
You’re joking!

Dan Meyer (39:32):
That’s just, you know.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:33):
Who are you?

Dan Meyer (39:34):
You know, you should take my life coaching, Bethany. I’ll give you a discount since we’re math teacher, lunch pals. But, um yeah. I can help.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:44):
Thank you for qualifying where our pal-dom lives. I wouldn’t even tell you how many are in my inbox. Point is, if you are actively starting the school year, we celebrate you and we are here and over the next few months, we’re gonna be diving into joyful math and that definition’s gonna keep evolving. But I wanna say something that is making me feel a little joyful, Dan. You ready?

Dan Meyer (40:15):
Tell me.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:16):
You and I, in person, at NCTM, the National Council for Teachers and Mathematics. It’s coming up and we are going to be recording Math Teacher Lounge, live. Live, in person! And I hear there’s gonna be like a t-shirt cannon and there’s gonna be, you know, like musicians marching through the aisles or something.

Dan Meyer (40:46):
A marching band?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:46):
A marching band!

Dan Meyer (40:46):
Trained animals. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:48):
But the point is, I’m so excited, Dan. And you know, when I see you, I might just, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, Dan. I’d love to give you a big old embrace.

Dan Meyer (41:04):
You might just, you might just cry. Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be great. Yeah. It’s gonna be awesome for you folks to see me and Bethany have a real awkward first hug since the pandemic. And, uh, but it’s gonna be a blast to hang with us in person. We’ll have some special guests, probably, some interesting segments. You folks should stop on by at NCTM, if you’re gonna be there. Highly recommended.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (41:29):
Now, we will be broadcasting that episode. You’re gonna get to hear … we’re gonna record it live. It’s gonna happen. In the meantime, you can find us at MTLshow on Twitter, or you can find us in our Facebook group, Math Teacher Lounge. We can’t wait to hear from you. And we’d love to hear what makes math joyful for you? Where can we add a little bit more joy to you this, this season? So thrilled to be back. Thanks for listening.

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What Kanchan Kant says about math

“Creating an equitable environment in the classroom is most important because once you have that, that’s when you have the relationships, and that’s when all students actually thrive.”

– Kanchan Kant

Meet the guest

As a math and computer science teacher at Newton North High School, Newton, MA, Kanchan has been sharing her love for math with her students for the past four years. Kanchan is instrumental in setting the culture and ethos of the mathematics department at her school in her role as the Assistant Department Head. Kanchan also leads the Math Department Grading Team and has been instrumental in making grading policies which are more equitable and bias resistant. In her new role as a Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts Fellow in collaboration with Springpoint and Barr Foundation, Kanchan looks forward to making equity and joy of learning the foundation of many more classrooms.

Businesswoman with long dark hair, wearing a dark blazer and blue blouse, poses in a professional portrait against a light background, representing math programs.
A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

S4 – 03: LIVE from NCTM with Bethany and Dan

Hosts Bethany and Dan, both smiling, in a promotional image for the "Math Teacher Lounge" podcast, Season 4 Episode 3, titled "Live from NCTM!" with an

In this episode, co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer are LIVE with more than one hundred Math Teacher Lounge listeners at the recent National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. Listen in as they answer the pressing question: Who is the best teacher in film or television?

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page

Download Transcript

Presenter (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, from Math Teacher Lounge, we have Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer! <cheering>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:08):
Doesn’t go well that the door was locked. Like, I could not get in! <Laugh>

Dan Meyer (00:12):
Yeah. Gotcha. All right. We’re gonna sit a little bit. Let’s see how that works—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:16):
Hi!

Dan Meyer (00:16):
Yeah. I think we’ll stand up? Or whaddaya think, sit…?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:19):
Should we stand? Hi.

Dan Meyer (00:22):
Hello. Great to see you folks. Yeah, I can hear you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:25):
Can you hear me? That’s—I know YOU can me. Can you hear me OK? OK! We’re here. Hello. Thank you for like, lining up and coming out and being here. Thank you!

Dan Meyer (00:35):
Means so much to me that you could be here for me, on my show, with Bethany Lockhart Johnson, my co-host. <Audience laughs>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:40):
The hour has just started.

Dan Meyer (00:42):
We’re just getting going. Yeah. If you folks have heard the podcast, you don’t know how much gets cut out. And it’s like, mostly me just having, you know, anxious nerves and saying something silly and then we cut it out and we can’t do that here today. So it should be real fun for all of us, I think. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:55):
It’s not true. It’s mostly dancing. “Bethany, can you stop talking? Bethany?” Cause it’s mostly—

Dan Meyer (00:59):
“It’s my turn. It’s my turn! Bethany <laugh>! I haven’t been heard for a while.”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:02):
Dan. We’re at an in-person conference.

Dan Meyer (01:05):
In-person BIG conference, I would say. I’d say a big conference. Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:08):
And have you been to the Amplify booth?

Dan Meyer (01:11):
I have! Have these people? There’s a claw machine with free socks.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:16):
Yeah. You’re saving me socks, right? That’s what you’re saying. <Laugh> I mean, it’s exciting. How has your conference been so far?

Dan Meyer (01:21):
So far it’s been a blast. I feel fed. I feel like the community’s been awesome. How are you feeling about it?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:29):
OK. Let’s talk about me for just a second.

Dan Meyer (01:31):
Yeah. Talk about you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:31):
Last night, Dan, was the very first night that I was away from my toddler. <Audience: Aw!>

Dan Meyer (01:38):
Big commitment being here. Thank you.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:40):
I got super-emotional walking back to the hotel after dinner, and then I got in my room, <laugh> I put on pajamas, and I turned on music. I slept so good!

Dan Meyer (01:50):
Yeah. <Audience laughs> Give it up for no kids! <Audience laughs> Hey!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (01:55):
I love him so much. But I slept all the way through the night. Oh, by the way, I ordered room service in the morning.

Dan Meyer (02:01):
On Amplify.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:01):
That bill’s coming. But it’s been a great conference and I’m so delighted to be here in person and to get to share energy…and hopefully that’s all we’re sharing today. Y’all got your tests, right? Yep. Sharing energy and community today. Because we know it’s been hard. Hardness. Hard.

Dan Meyer (02:25):
Yeah.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:26):
Years. Hard. And to be in person, I know conferences reinvigorate me and I go back into my educational spaces feeling revitalized with new connections and new ideas to try. So yeah, I’ve been excited to be here. And thank you all for being here.

Dan Meyer (02:40):
Yep. I don’t care if I get six different strains of Covid here. I’m just thrilled to be here. <Audience laughs> I don’t know if you’ve had the same feeling, though, Bethany, you folks…I’m a little bit confused to some degree about what we’re doing. I just wanna be really transparent. This is my sarcastic voice but I’m being sincere here. It kind of feels like we’re in a little bit of a time capsule. Like we all got in a time capsule in 2019 and, you know, you open it back up and it’s like, OK, so we’re still, you know, talking about X, Y, or Z protocol for establishing classroom routines or whatever. And I’m like, OK! Like, I loved that in 2019! But I do admit, I’m still trying to figure out a little bit like, what are we doing now? What’s our relationship to the world out there? Things are very different. I have had some great sessions that I’ve enjoyed. I’m also like, still waiting for a session to draw a little blood. Do you know what I mean? Like there’s been sessions…no? OK. You’ve been in these sessions where it’s like, “Oh, ow.” Like, and you look down and there’s and there’s blood there. It’s like, I thought I knew what we were up to. Like, I thought I knew what teaching was and how we relate to the world. I dunno, like in any Danny Martin session in 2019, “Take a Knee” was one, where I was like, “Oh, OK. Like, I’m not as hot as I think I am here. Like, I’m part of a system.” That kind of thing for me draws blood. And I haven’t been in one of those yet. Been some great sessions. I’m a little hopeful that today we draw a little blood and think about what we’re doing here, is my hope here, if that’s OK. So Bethany’s gonna moderate that impulse and she’ll be the fun one and I’ll be the blood-drawing one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:05):
No, I don’t…that metaphor doesn’t speak to me personally. But what I will say is, I get what you’re saying about really wanting to be in that room where there’s like this synergy happening. No promises about that today other than—

Dan Meyer (04:18):
I promise. <Audience laughs> Go on.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:20):
Other than I get what you’re saying. I’ll find my own metaphor that does not involve bloodshed, but.

Dan Meyer (04:25):
Sure. There’s a lot of ways we we could go about this today. And the one that I’m excited about is, you know, we could like, you know, analyze some results from students, and talk about what went into that. Look at classroom video. Lots of possibilities. But here’s what we’re up to today. Hope you’re into it. Which is, we are here in the heart of the entertainment industry. You know, Tinseltown! Um, the Big Apple! Uh…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:47):
No!

Dan Meyer (04:47):
Come on. What do you got here? Um…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:51):
It was daytime at night. Like the lights were so bright.

Dan Meyer (04:54):
The City of Lights.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:55):
There was a movie premiere outside my hotel room, which I was not invited to, unfortunately. But so what are we doing today?

Dan Meyer (05:01):
So here’s what we’re doing. We are gonna settle, once and for all, a question you have not asked yourself yet, perhaps, but will want to know the answer to in a moment. Which is: Who is the best teacher in all of film or television? OK? We’re gonna do that. It’ll be fun. But I hope that in debating this a little bit with a special guest we’ll bring up in a moment, that we will start to uncover some truths about what makes good teaching. How that’s different from teaching as we see it in movies and tv. Why middle-class America wants teachers to look a certain way in movies and tv. What all that means. And it’ll be awesome. I think. I’m hopeful it’ll be awesome. So what we did here is we’ve invited eight people. Eight folks you people may have known. You’ve been in their sessions today, in this conference, perhaps. And asked them: Who’s your fave? Like, we might have our favorites, but we wanted to democratize it a bit. So asked some cool people who you folks like, who are very smart and thoughtful about teaching: Who’s your favorite teacher?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:58):
A few of whom are in this room. Thank you for your submission.

Dan Meyer (06:00):
Thank so much. Yeah. We’ll see what happens here. <laugh>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:03):
As they shrink down.

Dan Meyer (06:03):
Yeah. Might draw some blood that I don’t mean to right now. We’ll see. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:06):
That metaphor, what IS that??

Dan Meyer (06:07):
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I’m still going with it. <laugh> And you folks will be a huge part of this. THE part of this, really. So what will happen is I’ll share with you our first nominees. A few of us will make a case for our favorites, or least favorites, as the case may be sometimes. And then by applause, by acclamation, you folks will decide who wins and advances to the next round. Start with eight, move to four. You folks know math.You know where this goes. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:34):
No, keep going. Keep going.

Dan Meyer (06:36):
Two, then one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:36):
Yeah. Got it.

Dan Meyer (06:37):
Then a half of it. No?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:38):
He had to school me on the making of brackets. But we got it. Yeah.

Dan Meyer (06:41):
How brackets work.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:41):
But we got it. March Madness, what?

Dan Meyer (06:44):
Yeah, in order to do this right, we had to bring up—all the folks that you’ll see are also former Math Teacher Lounge guests, or like, just fan favorites. And we’re also bringing up a former Math Teacher Lounge guest to help us decide this and debate this in a respectful manner.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (06:59):
New dad.

Dan Meyer (07:00):
New dad.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:01):
You see where my brain’s still at? I miss him. <Laughs>

Dan Meyer (07:03):
Friend from San Diego. Really cool teacher.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:06):
Incredible teacher.

Dan Meyer (07:06):
Works at Desmos and Amplify. And I just want you to welcome up your friend and mine. Chris Nho!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:11):
Chris Nho!

Dan Meyer (07:13):
Come up, Chris. Let’s go, buddy. We didn’t talk about it, but did you want to do the cornball stuff too?

Chris Nho (07:22):
Wow. Would I love to do—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:23):
And then the door could be locked! And then you have to wait and like, just—

Chris Nho (07:27):
Yeah, I’ll skip that part.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:28):
Hi. Welcome. You’re here. We’re here in person.

Chris Nho (07:30):
Very glad to be here. Thank you all for having me.

Dan Meyer (07:33):
Tell me who you are.

Chris Nho (07:34):
My name is Chris Nho. I live in San Diego. I’m a new dad. A three month old, just had. Yeah, she’s actually here at the conference with us in the hotel room. And I promise you she is not by herself. She is with…come on. I was like, “Hey, just gimme one hour. I’ll be right back. I have to do very important work.” But yeah, I think I got invited here because I have opinions and I’m willing to draw…some…blood.

Dan Meyer (08:02):
There we go! Two outta three! We’re good on the metaphor now.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:06):
We’re so glad you’re here. If you haven’t listened to the episode where Chris and Molly and some other public math folks share their ideas and ideas of how to take math out into the world, please listen, because we had a blast.

Dan Meyer (08:19):
Inspiring work. Really inspiring work. Very cool. Cool. OK. Right on. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (08:23):
Let’s do this!

Dan Meyer (08:24):
Let’s get started here. Yeah! <Audience cheers> Yeah. And we might ask you who your favorite teacher is, who’s missing from our list of eight? We might have forgotten some people. Anyway. All right. So here’s our first two. Our first two are nominated by way of, let’s see, um, Mandy Jansen is a professor at the University of Delaware. Got some awesome talks here this week, a Shadow Con talk last night. She’ll be nominating one. And also, um, Lani Horn is a professor at Vanderbilt, also extremely cool, prolific author and speaker, just all-around great human and friend of teachers everywhere. And she’ll nominate another in this bracket, which is the Northeastern Comedy bracket, Northeastern comedy bracket.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (09:06):
It just worked out that way.

Dan Meyer (09:07):
Yeah. Here it is. Here is Tina Fey in Mean Girls.

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (09:12):
“OK. Everybody close your eyes. All right. I want you to raise your hand if you have ever had a girl say something bad about you behind your back. Open your eyes. Now close your eyes again. And this time I want you to raise your hand if you have ever said anything about a friend behind her back. Open up. It’s been some girl-on-girl crime here.”

Lani Horn (09:52):
I am nominating Sharon Norbury from Mean Girls as the best movie math teacher. She is an awesome teacher who is always there for her kids. She always sees the best in them. She shows that she can forgive even some pretty bad behavior, if she sees that kids are trying. She’s a strong feminist who makes sure that smart girls don’t dumb themselves down just to impress boys.

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (10:22):
“Katie, I know that having a boyfriend may seem like the most important thing in the world right now, but you don’t have to dumb yourself down to get guys to like you.”

Lani Horn (10:30):
She’s also super hard-working. She works three jobs. She’s always there for the kids. She plays piano in the talent show and takes them to Mathlete competitions. And she’s also socially aware. And when things go really badly among the girls, she does some pretty creative things to try to get them to be kinder to each other.

Dan Meyer (10:54):
OK. That’s one.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:55):
Helen Case.

Dan Meyer (10:57):
All right. Settle down. Settle down. Settle down. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (10:59):
Piano too!

Dan Meyer (11:00):
Bethany’s already trying to bias people here. All right. Chill out. Hold on. So next one is Mandy Jansen with Jack Black from School of Rock. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:09):
“What was your name?”

Kid in School of Rock (11:10):
“Katie.”

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:11):
“Katie. What was that thing you were playing today? The big thing.”

Kid in School of Rock (11:14):
“Cello.”

Jack Black in School of Rock (11:15):
“OK. This is a bass guitar and it’s the exact same thing, but instead of playing like this, you tip it on the side. Chellooooo! You’ve got a bass! <Laugh> Try it on.”

Mandy Jansen (11:25):
And I’m nominating for best teacher in a film Jack Black as Dewey Finn playing Mr. Ned Schneebly in the film School of Rock. So why this portrayal? First of all, playing a longterm sub. Those are so hard to find right now. <Audience laughs> Really hard. And then he teaches using class projects. That’s brilliant. Integrated learning. And then love this. He gives students roles and tasks that are differentiated and align to the specific strengths that each student has.

Kid 2 in School of Rock (12:05):
“I can also play clarinet, you know!”

Jack Black in School of Rock (12:06):
“I’ll find something for you when we get back from lunch. I’ll assign the rest of you killer positions.”

Mandy Jansen (12:13):
And the film culminates in a performance of a collaborative song that they all wrote and performed together. And the students experience that collaboration and teamwork and creating something beautiful is much more important than winning first place. And finally, one of the songs that the character sings in the film is “Math is a Wonderful Thing.” Can’t beat that.

Dan Meyer (12:40):
All right. That’s tough. That’s tough. So here’s the deal. What we have right now is just a quick minute—so Bethany, you ranked, we all ranked our own faves here outta the list of eight. And Bethany put Jack Black in School of Rock a bit higher than Tina Fey in Mean Girls.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (12:54):
Missed the piano part though.

Dan Meyer (12:55):
And Chris, vice versa here. So Bethany, would you start us off and just make a quick case here for Jack Black versus Tina Fey?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:01):
OK. So here’s what I’m thinking. There’s been rumor that maybe they’re putting less than credentialed people into classrooms to fill teaching gaps. I mean, just rumor. And so here’s this guy who is a rocker. He is not a substitute. He has no teaching training. And yet he goes in there and it turns out that he has the ability to see students’ potential and to recognize their unique abilities. And like Mandy said, he really tapped into, like, he saw them and said, “No, more is possible for you than what you think is possible.” And there’s like real sub anxiety. When you walk in, you can either be like, happy there’s a sub, but I was usually really nervous. Right? And he goes in and he makes that classroom into a home.

Dan Meyer (13:53):
Wow.

Chris Nho (13:54):
Wow.

Dan Meyer (13:56):
Chris, speak on it. Tina Fey needs you. Chris.

Chris Nho (13:59):
Tina Fey. Here we go. I’m gonna argue here that—when was that movie made?

Dan Meyer (14:03):
T is for terrific. I is for Interesting.

Chris Nho (14:06):
Decades ago. And I’m gonna argue that Tina Fey was very progressive for her time. OK, let’s talk about social emotional learning. Hello. <Audience laughs> Love that. Right? Stand up if, I mean, she’s getting people to talk about their emotions. And there’s a curriculum. But let’s just pause, because that’s not what’s really happening in the classroom right now. So social emotional learning, I think she’s, she’s got that a lot. And then number two, you know, if you remember the plot of Mean Girls a little bit, she gets her name written in that Burn Book. Like she sees what they say about her. Restorative justice. Let’s go. <Audience laughs>.

Dan Meyer (14:38):
Whom amongst us. Yes.

Chris Nho (14:40):
You write Mr. Nho in the Burn Book?? Well, your grade book is gonna look like a Burn Book! OK? <Audience laughs> Tina Fey, Tina Fey, she was like, “No, you know, know what? I’m actually gonna spend more time with you. You’re gonna become a mathlete.” And Lindsay Lohan discovers—she drops the most iconic line in all of math education. “The limit does not exist.” Thank you, Tina Fey, for that. For that gift.

Dan Meyer (15:04):
Bless. Bless you. Tina Fey. Wow.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:05):
Oh, man. Wow.

Dan Meyer (15:09):
Let’s see what the people say here. I do wanna just add one quick thing about—it’s interesting to me how often in these movies—just kind of go in a little bit, zoom out just a minute—how often it’s a teacher who has no training as a teacher. <Bethany laughs> I am kind of curious why it is. Like, those are the movies that get hot, that get made. Again, these are all kind of a mirror of the taste of the moviegoing public. You know what I’m saying? Like, these, these are not movies—I wanna believe they are made for me and for us as teachers. But they are not. There’s not enough of us to justify, you know, Jack Black’s, you know, M&M budget or whatever he’s got going on in his trailer or whatever. That needs to be for everybody in middle-class America. So what is it about middle-class America that wants to see teaching as something that anybody can do? Just like, you know, just, just run up there in your van and make it happen.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:54):
Magic magically manifests.

Dan Meyer (15:56):
Yeah. Manifest. Yeah. That’s just interesting to me. I just toss that out there as some red meat. Let’s see what the people say here. All right, OK, so you’re ready. Let’s get the bracket going here. The question is Tina Fey versus Jack Black. You had a moment here. Just whisper to someone real fast who you’re going for here real quick. What are you thinking here? <Crowd murmuring> All right. Crowd’s buzzing. Crowd’s buzzing. Would you folks…? All right. Bring it back. Go ahead and make some noise for Tina Fey. <Crowd cheers> OK. OK. Make some noise for Jack Black! <Crowd cheers> Judges say Tina Fey. Tina Fey moves on. All right. All right.

Chris Nho (16:44):
Stunned. I’m stunned. I’m speechless.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:46):
Tina Fey moves on. Wow.

Dan Meyer (16:48):
This has exceeded my expectations in terms of having some fun, but also getting deep, getting deep and real about teaching. I’m into this right here. Yeah. What’s up?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:54):
That’s the goal. That’s the goal. OK. You wanted blood? Oooh, this next matchup might just be where that blood comes forth! OK. Stretch. Warm up. Dan Meyer, who’s up next?

Dan Meyer (17:11):
We’ve got the animated/animatronic round here in the Southeast. And repping the two contestants here, who do we have? We have Allison Hintz, professor, author outta Washington, as one of the two nominators. And the other nominator is one of my heroes, though we’ll find out very wrong about this nomination, Jenna Laib, who’s in the crowd, and I’m trying not to make eye contact here. <Laugh> And here are the two nominations. A couple minutes each. And then we’ll chat about it. And one of us will probably die. But we’ll see how it goes.

Allison Hintz (17:50):
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, MTL, we began learning from the Jedi Master of Teaching. With the Socratic and experiential approach. With unparalleled mindfulness, compassion, and humility. The best teacher in TV and film, Yoda is. <Audience laughs> Yoda lives the values we share as teachers and learners. He humbly comes alongside us as we construct new knowledge.

Yoda (18:29):
“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Allison Hintz (18:32):
Yoda allows us to struggle and sees mistakes as critical to learning.

Yoda (18:39):
“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

Allison Hintz (18:43):
Yoda values curiosity and reminds us of the beauty and joy of teachers learning from children.

Yoda (18:52):
“Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.”

Allison Hintz (18:59):
MTL! Join the Resistance! Let the force flow through you in declaring, the best teacher in TV and film, Yoda is.

Dan Meyer (19:18):
Give it up for Allison Hintz! All right! <Audience applauds>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:20):
Alison! And to have that on hand too, which Is kind of perfect.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:26):
Just to be clear, the helmet is not a part of a Zoom background.

Dan Meyer (19:29):
You may evaluate the quality of the nomination based on the costumes of the nominator. That is acceptable. That’s acceptable.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:35):
That is a REAL HELMET.

Dan Meyer (19:35):
All right. The next nominator here, this one is from Jenna Laib, math coach, all-around stellar human. Here we go. This is Ms. Frizzle.

Ms. Frizzle (19:42):
“Single file, class. Our rotten field trip has only just begun.”

Jenna Laib (19:47):
And I think that the best teacher from TV or movies is Ms .Valerie Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. First and foremost, Ms. Frizzle believes in her students. She encourages them to take an active role in their learning, and also to advocate for change in their local community. For example, there’s an episode where there is a logger who’s gonna cut down a rotting log that would benefit the local ecosystem. And the students figure out a way to convince him to leave the log so that all of the animals and the plant life can benefit. She orchestrates really challenging situations for these students, and she allows them the space to ask questions and engage in problem-solving and puzzle their way out of these really, really difficult scenarios. Ms. Frizzle has unmatched pedagogy. She’s bold, she’s innovative, and she’s a major proponent of experiential learning. So these students are heading straight into a storm to learn about weather systems. <Audience laughs> These students are heading into the human body to learn about digestion and disease. They literally get baked into a cake to learn about some chemistry and reactions.

Children in The Magic School Bus (20:54):
“What’s happening?” <Audience laughs> “Why is it suddenly getting so hot?” “Maybe it’s because the floor is on fire!” <Audience laughs>

Jenna Laib (21:02):
This pedagogy is all led by her outstanding catchphrase, which is:

Ms. Frizzle (21:06):
“Take chances; make mistakes; get messy!”

Jenna Laib (21:14):
From her pedagogy to the classroom community that she creates, Ms. Frizzle is an inspiration, and that is why I think that she is the best teacher from TV or film. <Audience applauds>

Dan Meyer (21:25):
Right on! Give it up for Jenna. Give it up for Jenna. All right. I’m gonna take first pass at this. Chris knows my argument already, so I’m gonna take this here. I see some of you are feeling how I’m feeling on this one. OK, so I don’t have tons to say in favor of Yoda. I think it was all true what Allison said. I think the costume was banging. It was awesome. So there’s all that, but I have more to say against Ms. Frizzle than for Yoda.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:48):
No, no, no. Wait a second!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:49):
Let’s let it happen. Bethany, I’ve come prepared.

Dan Meyer (21:54):
I may have made a misstep here, I realize.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:56):
I’ve come prepared.

Dan Meyer (21:56):
So I think Jenna is all correct. I think those clips spoke for themselves. I think that what they add up to, to me, is not “great teacher,” but more “someone who should be locked up.” <Audience laughs> Or at the very minimum, “someone who should be kept away from children.” <Audience laughs> Do not let that woman around children. I mean, check it out. Look, I don’t wanna throw down credentials. I’ve been to grad school, though. I know how this works. When your brain is stressed, you get these—all the cortisol happens. Your working memory shrinks up. You cannot learn when you’re stressed. And those kids, like whatever lesson Ms. Frizzle is teaching by sending them into an oven, I repeat, an oven <audience laughs>, like, they’re not gonna learn anything ’cause their brains are freaking out with stress and fear. OK?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:41):
“What’s happening??”

Dan Meyer (22:43):
“What’s happening? Am I on fire? Well…I’m learning lots, though! Sure is magical!” <Audience laughs> It’s like, “No. Get that woman out of a classroom.” That’s my opening and closing argument. Right? There’s all it is.

Chris Nho (23:01):
All right. All right. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (23:02):
Chris knows.

Chris Nho (23:03):
I’ve got, I’ve got lots to say. First off, I think Dan was in charge of the editing of those video clips. So let’s let that be—you know, let the record stand. <Audience laughs>

Dan Meyer (23:11):
Where’s the lie though? Where’s the lie?

Chris Nho (23:14):
And, you know, second, I think, um—this is the guy up here saying, “I wanna see blood.” You know? And then he has a teacher who literally takes the students into a blood cell and, and you get a little scared! You get a little worried for the students, you know? So I just don’t get it, Dan. This or that. OK? I think Ms. Frizzle—so I actually went to a project-based learning school. I taught at a project-based learning school. And the best thing about it is like, your learning, it doesn’t just stay in this box of math lesson or writing lesson, history lesson. And I think with Ms. Frizzle, like you can’t help but learn things because you are getting baked in a cake. <Audience laughs> Yeah, it is a little scary. And I imagine there’s cortisol and things happening, but guess what? Probably the next episode, they go into their own brains and explore what’s happening. That kind of thing. You know?

Dan Meyer (24:07):
The kids that survived, just be clear. <Audience laughs>

Chris Nho (24:10):
Yeah. OK. Would I want Nora, my three-month-old, to be babysat by Ms. Frizzle? Maybe not. <Audience laughs> But what I have to say about Yoda is Yoda maybe wins the best tutor award. Give it up for Yoda’s Best Tutor Award.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:24):
Oh, yeah…

Chris Nho (24:25):
That ratio’s looking really nice. I could teach the heck outta Luke Skywalker. OK? But 20 little Luke Skywalkers running around. I’m not sure. OK?

Dan Meyer (24:34):
Luke did survive the training, though. <Audience laughs> So that’s awfully nice to say about it. All right, Great words from Chris here. I’m still not convinced. We’ll see how you’re convinced here. Would you whisper to someone where you’re leaning here? Frizzle or Yoda? <Audience buzzing>

Chris Nho (24:47):
I tried. I tried.

Dan Meyer (24:53):
All right. That’s enough of that. Let’s hear it folks. Give it up for Yoda. <Audience cheers> Give it up. Give it up. You. Give. It. Up.

Chris Nho (25:05):
Hey, next. Next.

Dan Meyer (25:06):
All right. All right, all right. <Mutters> Give it up for Ms. Frizzle. <Audience cheers louder> I dunno, it’s pretty close. Call a tie. Maybe Yoda? Yoda by nose? <Audience laughs> All right. All right. Let’s…let me see who’s it. Let’s get the people advancing here. I’ll keep on moving here.

Chris Nho (25:26):
As you’re doing that. Um, Dan ranked Ms. Frizzle last in his personal ranking. And I ranked Ms. Frizzle very high, so we knew this one would be spicy,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (25:36):
<laugh> Spicy it was. Are you having a good time so far? <Audience cheers> So while we love seeing these images and we love seeing these video clips, at the core, what are these things about how teachers are portrayed? And how accurate is that to our real lives? I mean, besides the cake part, right? That my chemistry class did often feel like I was on fire. I was so stressed in it. Um, we’re ready?

Dan Meyer (26:05):
Yep. Great. We’re ready, we’re up here. So the next two nominees are coming to you folks from Tracy Zager, who is the editor of my book, forthcoming in 2027 at the earliest and 2032 at the latest. And also your very own Zak Champagne from Florida, here in the room. Hey, Zak. Zak, let’s see who the nominations are. I’m gonna skip past that, didn’t work out so well for me. Here it is. This is Marshall Kane from the TV show Community.

Michael K. Williams in Community (26:32):
“You two complete your case to the class and let them decide your grades.”

Joel McHale in Community (26:37):
“Professor, thank you.”

Michael K. Williams in Community (26:40):
“It’s not a favor, Mr. Winger. Man’s gotta have a code.”

Joel McHale in Community (26:44):
“Awesome.”

Zak Champagne (26:46):
This is a pitch for an underdog. This teacher didn’t stand on desks or encourage his students to follow their musical passions. In fact, this teacher was seen only in a few episodes of my favorite TV show of all time, Community, Community has set at Greendale Community College in Colorado. And in season three, we get to meet Dr. Marshall Kane, a biology professor whose story is an inspiration to anyone who just takes the time to look and listen. Dr. Marshall Kane slowly earned his PhD while in prison, serving a sentence of 25 to life. In his classroom, he inspires students to love biology, question why LEGO has become so complicated, and randomly pairs his students for group projects to ensure no one feels left out. His greatest performance comes when a group of students believe their yam project was intentionally sabotaged. Dr. Kane took this as an opportunity for some trans-disciplinary real-world learning. So yes, at community college, he felt that a middle-school mock trial was the best way to determine who killed the yam. So let’s all pick the underdog and vote for Dr. Marshall Kane. After all, man’s gotta have a code. <Audience goes “oh!” and applauds>

Dan Meyer (27:53):
Thank you, Zak.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:54):
I have a code.

Dan Meyer (27:56):
Next up is Tracy Zager, nominating an unusual nomination, not a single person, but an ensemble performance. A bunch of people from a movie called Searching for Bobby Fisher. Here we go.

Rapid-fire movie dialogue (28:11):
“What’s that?” “Schleimann attack.” “Schleimann attack? Where’d you learn that from, a book?” “No, my teacher taught me.” “Aw, your teacher. Well, forget it. Play like you used to, from the gut. Get your pawns rolling on the queen’s side.”

Tracy Zager (28:26):
Hey, Math Teacher Lounge. This is Tracy Zager. I’m excited to share my nominee for the best movie teacher. But I have to admit that when I first got the email, I thought, oh, who am I gonna nominate? Because most movies about teachers are highly problematic. They usually have like a saviorism thing, usually white saviors. And I just felt like I couldn’t suggest any of those. So rather than nominate a movie about a single teacher, I wanted to nominate a movie that taught me something about teaching. And that movie is a deep cut. It’s Searching for Bobby Fischer. It’s a movie about a chess prodigy. And what I love about it is that all of the different adults in the movie are in teacher roles in some way. And the student, Josh, the chess player, is a fully realized character, not an empty pail, who pulls from the strengths of each one of those adults while also dealing with their flaws and humanity. And there’s just beautiful synergy in the way he gets the best out of everybody, but also has to overcome some of the barriers that they put in front of him. So I feel like it’s a much more authentic and humbling, but also inspiring, movie about the power of teaching. So if you haven’t ever seen it, check it out. And I can’t wait to see who the other nominees are. Thanks so much.

Dan Meyer (29:53):
Right on. Thank you, Tracy. Wherever you are. <Applause> We’ll move a little quicker here. I’m curious, Bethany, you put Marshall Kane pretty high. I put Bobby Fischer pretty high. What do you have to say about Marshall Kane for us here?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (30:04):
Well, I just wanna say two things. One is that, like Zak said, he has this code of conduct that he brings in. And he stays true to it no matter what happens. If you saw him in in Community, you know that he held himself up to such high esteem, but not just himself, his students as well. And he took accountability when he felt he had done wrong, even though, well, that’s controversy. But first—oh, the other thing, rest in peace, Michael K. Williams. Oh my gosh. The actor who plays Marshall K. And the thing that I wanna say most of all about it is that he brings his whole self to the classroom. He was in prison for decades. He brings his whole self and says, “This is who I was. This is who I am today. And this is how we can work together as a community.”

Dan Meyer (30:58):
That’s big. I love your comments about code of conduct too. It makes me wish that Ms. Frizzle had a code of conduct also.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:05):
I knew that was coming back!

Chris Nho (31:06):
Two slides ago, Dan. That was two slides ago.

Dan Meyer (31:08):
Can’t let it go. So yeah, I love what you said there. I have no strong beef here either way. Bobby Fischer’s a movie I have loved dearly and can’t be objective about it. I love that the kid in that movie, more than any other movie here, the kid teaches the adults so much through his innocence and how he challenges them and how they’re treating him. Dig all that so much. Will not, will not begrudge anyone any vote either way here. I do begrudge many of you your vote in previous rounds. <Audience laughs> So let’s just, let’s hear. We’re not gonna ask you folks at all to chitchat. We’re gonna move on this one. So would you folks make some noise here for Marshall Kane in Community? OK. OK. And would you make some noise here for Bobby Fischer, the kid in Bobby Fischer, the ensemble? <Audience cheers, applauds>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:56):
Marshall Kane.

Dan Meyer (31:57):
Marshall Kane takes it. All right. Good job, Marshall Kane! All right. Zak’s feeling good. Moving on to the final four here, Zak, right on. OK. Our last—the Northwest Division here is also the large urban district division here. We have a couple different teachers in sets of large urban schools. They’re nominated, they’re advanced by a couple people here. One is past president of NCTM, Robert Berry. And another is Fawn Nguyen, Southern California phenom. Great teacher and friend of lots of us. Um, let’s see who they nominated here. First from Robert Berry, let’s see, who is it here? Janine Teagues from Abbott Elementary.

Abbott Elementary dialogue (32:37):
“Hey, you know what? I’m probably probably gonna be Kenny’s second-grade teacher. Why don’t you just let him get a head start with me today?” “That’d be great.” “Yeah? OK. Hey, Kenny, would you like to be in my group today?” “Not really.” “That’s the spirit.”

Robert Berry (32:54):
My nomination is gonna be Quinta Brunson, the Emmy Award-winning Quinta Brunson from Abbott Elementary. Janine Teagues is the character. She exemplifies care not only from an affect way, but she also exemplifies care in the things that she does for her students. While the scenes in the show are entertaining, they do represent the challenges that teachers experience when they’re trying to meet the needs of her students. So she goes, goes all out for her students and finding resources. She accesses other people to get resources for her students. But the care shows up in the way that she is mindful of their needs. And so, for me, when I think about teachers and teaching, sometimes we can talk about pedagogy, but sometimes we also can talk about those kind of intangibles that makes a teacher a great teacher. It is apparent from her students that she cares about them, she supports them, and she goes all out 100% for her students. Janine Teagues, Quinta Brunson is, I think, is my choice of the best teacher on television because of the realism and the representation that she brings to this character of what teaching is about. <Applause>

Dan Meyer (34:28):
Right on. Right on. OK. OK. Next up, we’ve got, Fawn Nguyen is nominating Erin Gruwell from Freedom Writers. Here we go.

Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers movie (34:39):
“Look, you can either sit in your seats reading those workbooks or you can play a game. Either way, you’re in here till the bell rings. OK? This is called the Line Game. I’m gonna ask you a question. If that question applies to you, you step onto the line and then step back away for the next question. Easy, right? The first question. How many of you have the new Snoop Dog album? <kids move around> OK, back away. Next question. How many of you have seen Boys in the Hood?”

Fawn Nguyen (35:26):
We all learn about Miss G and her 150 students in the movie Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank. All great teachers share a common set of traits. They care deeply about their students, have high expectations of them, and always believing wholeheartedly that they will succeed. Great teachers go above and beyond, not because they extraordinary—as Anne Gruwell would always refer to herself as an ordinary teacher—but because extraordinary things happen to people when we believe in them, give them hope, help them write their own story with a different ending. So what stood out for me with Miss G is the scope of her reach, the ever-expanding sphere of her humanity. The red tape she had placed on the classroom floor for the line game shows just how much we all have in common despite our differences. Her students didn’t just learn from her; they learned from one another. If you’d like to be part of this expanding sphere to give voice and hope, please check out Freedom Writers Foundation dot org.

Dan Meyer (36:38):
OK. This right here is a tough one for us. Thank you, Fawn. We collectively ranked—that’s our number one seed and number eight seed, which I hasten to say does not have to do with Erin Gruwell, a person, but the portrayal and the movie. So we don’t have like a whole lot of…there’s not a lot of defense we have to offer here of our eighth seed. And I heard like a kind of a little bit of a murmur over the crowd on Erin Gruwell. So I’m more interested than having a defense back and forth. I’d be curious what you, Bethany, think about what, like, what both movies have to say about like, what teaching is, especially teaching urban schools with black and brown kids and lower-class kids, for instance. They both have, I think, very different things to say about them. Do you have thoughts about that?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:19):
Well, it’s interesting because there is some overlap in the sense that the arguments that both Fawn and Robert Berry put out, they both care deeply about their students, right? We’re not gonna argue that. They care deeply. And something that I would say about Miss Teagues is there’s something about the way that she sees not only her classroom, her students, but she sees all of the students in the school as her students. And her idea of resource generation is really helping the teachers to generate resources from their community themselves, and to also realize that the students see themselves reflected in the teachers. And I think that—you know, again, this is not about the real person—but the movie portrayal, and we often see kind of this, for Freedom Writers, we often see this like, Great Last Hope whisked in and her personal sacrifices are what makes these students, these brown and black students’ transformation possible. Because of her sacrifices. Including her marriage. Including, you know, three jobs. And it’s just portrayed in a way that I think really celebrates her sacrifices rather than what the students have already brought—they already come into the room bringing so much as they are, already, without her intervention.

Dan Meyer (38:38):
I love the portrayal of the teacher as part of a community of teachers. Versus in so many of these movies, it’s the teacher as the only person who gets it, you know, oftentimes coming from outside of the world of teaching and everyone’s against them and wants ’em just to fall in line and do the thing we always do, and they’re the outlier. But in Abbott Elementary, it’s like we all rise and we fall together. And teachers are investing in each other’s success, especially with Gregory the longterm sub. We’re all rooting for his, you know, his flourishing. I love that. And yeah. That’s bigtime.

Chris Nho (39:09):
Yeah, I think one interesting thing is that Freedom Writers, when it came out, I think it was like a commercial success.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (39:17):
Oh, big time. Yeah. It was.

Chris Nho (39:18):
It probably influenced a lot of people to try teaching out. So I do wonder what it says about us, right? Like that we want teaching to fit this narrative, and we wanna be those people who could go into a classroom and <puts on “cool voice”> “Y’all listen to Snoop Dog?” and just have that question HIT. <laughter> And you know, I’ve taught in a large urban school district, and I’ve been that person and I’ve seen other people try and be that person. And I think stepping away from it a little bit, just—it’s a reflection of what people want out of teaching and what they think better education looks like.

Dan Meyer (39:57):
Yeah, yeah. This idea that, so I’m a middle-class person, let’s say, and like, there’s this idea, like, “I know what I would do if I was going into circumstances of impoverishment.” Like I have—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (40:06):
“All they really need is…”

Dan Meyer (40:07):
…for me to give ’em some real talk and tell ’em, you know, pull their pants up or whatever, listen to Snoop Dog, that kind of thing. And that will be the key. And that’s not how it is in, you know, in Jack Black in School of Rock or Tina Fey school, which are, you know, coded as largely like upper-class or largely white schools. And in those movies, it’s interesting, like how it’s about students discovering themselves, oftentimes. And the central figures are often students. And the students need to reject an oppressive parent figure or something and find themselves. But no, in Freedom Writers, it’s like, “You need to become more like the middle-class teachers who are coming in here to give you this wisdom.” It’s just interesting. I do find it—a pet peeve of mine is when movies portray teachers as only successful if you endure, for instance, the failure of your marriage, or even in Stand and Deliver, for instance, like Jaime Escalante, they depict him having a heart attack. And, like, the job oughta be…easier. <Audience laughs>

Chris Nho (41:04):
Truth.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (41:05):
That’s the barometer for how much….

Dan Meyer (41:09):
Like, no heart attacks and no divorces related to the job, that kind of thing. I do love how in Abbott—one last thing and we’ll vote and Abbott will win <audience laughs>—is like how, like there, there is a lot of degradation in Abbott, but it’s not a divorce or a heart attack—it’s the petty indignities of asking a student, “Do you wanna hang with me?” And a student says, “Nah, not really.” And that just spoke to me like how it’s not cinematic, but teaching, successful teaching, is like a collection of developing an immunity to students saying, “You’re not hot.” <Laugh> You know? And so I love that. I do wish that there was more depiction of students in Abbott Elementary. It’s a lot of adult stuff. Whatever. Give it up for Abbott, if you would, please. Let’s just get this done here. All right. That’s plenty. That’s plenty. Not gonna ask folks about Freedom Writers. OK, let’s move on to— all right, let’s hear it for Freedom Writers! Yeah. OK, cool. We go, yep.

Chris Nho (42:05):
Plot twist!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:07):
OK, let’s see our final four. Cut and paste. Real time. Real time.

Audience member (42:12):
Where’s Dolores Umbridge?

Dan Meyer (42:14):
Oh….

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:16):
Hey, did you hear that? He said, “Where’s Dolores Umbridge?”

Dan Meyer (42:20):
All right. OK.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:20):
See, we missed so many. We could…

Dan Meyer (42:21):
So coming up here, we’ve got in the Eastern Conference, Tina Fey and Ms. Frizzle. Y’all know how I feel about that one. Let’s just get this one done. OK, let’s give it up for Tina Fey. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers> OK. All right. Yes! Let’s give it up for menace to children everywhere, the terror, the Ms. Frizzle. <Audience cheers> One more time for Tina Fey. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers> One more time for Ms. Frizzle. Let’s hear it. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (42:59):
Yeah. OK.

Dan Meyer (43:00):
It took ’em one round, but they made the right call in the end. <Laugh>

Chris Nho (43:04):
All it took was 10 minutes of constant Ms. Frizzle-bashing. <Laugh>

Dan Meyer (43:09):
Persevering and problem-solving, that’s my game. Yes. All right. So, do either of you want to influence the audience one way or the other?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:16):
That’s not how I play, Dan.

Dan Meyer (43:18):
Oh, OK. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. You’re good. On Abbott versus Marshall Kane, should we just let ’em have it? All right. All right. Give it up For Abbott Elementary. Not bad. And for Marshall Kane. OK. OK. I hear Zak and five other people. All right, cool. <laugh> Right on. All right. We got our, we got our finals,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (43:45):
We did it. We made it to two. And we know: We left out a lot of people. Right? And honestly, I kind of wish we could poll like everyone. I mean, think you put it on Twitter, right? Like, who would you pick? But I would say we had a pretty solid eight there. I’m excited to see who… Look at the little crown he put, you guys. Come on.

Dan Meyer (44:05):
I worked hard for you. For you. <Laugh> Yeah. I liked that it was a good bunch that had a lot of different kinds of qualities…and lack of qualities in some cases. And it allowed us that—I shouldn’t knock her while she’s down, and she IS down, it’s true. <Laugh> And I appreciate the conversation we’ve had, what they have revealed overall about teaching and what the world wants teaching to be versus what it actually is or actually should be. I appreciate that. So let’s settle this here. Give it up, if you would, for Abbott Elementary. <Audience cheers> And give it up for Tina Fey in Mean Girls. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (44:49):
Wow.

Dan Meyer (44:51):
That was close. I almost give that to Tina Fey.

Audience member (44:55):
Yeah, we do!

Dan Meyer (44:55):
I don’t know. That was a bracket-buster for me right there. Yeah. I lost money in the office pool off that right there. Maybe let’s just find out one more time here. One more time.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:03):
Last time.

Dan Meyer (45:03):
Time to summon up all your conviction on one or the other here. No half-measures right now. All right.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:07):
Emmy Award-winning Quinta Brunson.

Dan Meyer (45:09):
Yeah, you saw Robert Berry on that, right? He was like, “Oh, I got one more card to play. Emmy Award-winning.” That’s admissible. That’s admissible. We’ll take that. All right. So…give it up for Abbott Elementary, one last time. <Audience cheers> OK. All right. All right. And give it up for Tina Fey in Mean Girls. <Audience cheers>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:30):
Drumroll, please!

Chris Nho (45:33):
Best teacher is….

Dan Meyer (45:34):
Tina Fey in Mean Girls! Yeah. Not a bad pick.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (45:39):
I love it. And I think, too, I think we’re gonna have a little bit of a more reflective lens than we thought we did when we see depictions of teachers in film and television. And, you know, hopefully we’ll see some new tropes come in, right?

Dan Meyer (45:55):
Yep. Yeah. Every dollar we spend on movies with lousy teachers is just encouraging these people to make more lousy teacher movies, you know? Awesome. Thank you for being here for a live taping—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:06):
Thank you for being here.

Dan Meyer (46:06):
—of our podcast, Math Teacher Lounge, in a hot room. Appreciate that. Yeah, it’s been fun for us to have you here. Um, super-important, super-important final remark: Bethany loves Oprah and Oprah occasionally, in the show—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:18):
Is she coming?! Is she here?!

Dan Meyer (46:19):
Not here! Not here! Calm down. Calm down. Um, but we do have in Oprah fashion, not something—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:24):
Oh. Oh, OK. Oh, that’s, that’s OK. Sorry. I got, had really excited for a second. As if the Amplify playing cards, The Amplify t-shirts being chucked at you at high speed—I did try to get a t-shirt cannon, and that was quickly ruled out <laugh>. They didn’t know about my rocket arm, right?

Dan Meyer (46:46):
Yeah, you got a cannon. <Laugh>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (46:47):
Yeah. Oh, that’s a compliment. Oh, is that a compliment? Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Look under your seat because we have five winners. We wanna thank you for being here in person. We wanna thank the folks who are listening. We wanna thank Amplify. Oh my God. Somebody just pulled off the chair tag. You get to take that chair home with you.

Dan Meyer (47:08):
Does anybody have a prize?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:10):
OK, stand up if you…stand up if you…Yes! Stand up if you have one!

Dan Meyer (47:16):
Free set of classroom dry-erase boards, right here. Congratulations.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:22):
And for you who pulled off the chair tag, I don’t know. We gotta we gotta find something for you.

Dan Meyer (47:27):
Put that in your backpack.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:30):
Thank you again for being here. Thank you. Amplify. Thank you, Desmos. Thank you. Dan Meyer.

Dan Meyer (47:36):
Thank you folks. Chris, thank you buddy.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:38):
Chris! Chris Nho, everybody!

Dan Meyer (47:40):
We will be, we will be at—Bethany and I will be at the booth, if you wanna chit-chat and hang out, sign some stuff. Whatever. You wanna have Bethany sign you, she’ll do that. Um, come on down to the Amplify booth and we’ll—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:50):
We’ll talk to you more about Ms. Frizzle.

Dan Meyer (47:52):
Fun and prizes. I will share with my real thoughts about Ms. Frizzle down there. I’d love to see you. Thanks for being here, folks.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (47:57):
Thanks for listening. Bye.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Dan Meyer says about math teaching

“Teaching, more than other professions, is a generational profession. The kinds of joyful experiences we offer—or don’t offer—now affect the experiences students that haven’t even been born yet will have years later.”

– Dan Meyer

Meet the guests

Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer taught high school math to students who didn’t like high school math. He has advocated for better math instruction on CNN, Good Morning America, Everyday With Rachel Ray, and TED.com. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University in math education and is currently the Dean of Research at Desmos, where he explores the future of math, technology, and learning. Dan has worked with teachers internationally and in all 50 United States and was named one of Tech & Learning’s 30 Leaders of the Future.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson

Bethany Lockhart Johnson is an elementary school educator and author. Prior to serving as a multiple-subject teacher, she taught theater and dance and now loves incorporating movement and creative play into her classroom. Bethany is committed to helping students find joy in discovering their identities as mathematicians. In addition to her role as a full-time classroom teacher, Bethany is a Student Achievement Partners California Core Advocate and is active in national and local mathematics organizations. Bethany is a member of the Illustrative Mathematics Elementary Curriculum Steering Committee and serves as a consultant, creating materials to support families during distance learning.

A woman with curly hair and glasses smiles outdoors; a man with short dark hair smiles indoors in front of a blurred math teacher lounge, highlighting valuable math teacher resources.
A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

Connecticut K-5 ELA: Explore Amplify CKLA (English) and Caminos (Spanish)

Thank you for visiting Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) and Caminos website designed exclusively for you. We are very excited for you to further explore Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos and discover more about our proven, phonics-based literacy programs in English and Spanish.  Begin your journey with the Introduction below and explore Amplify CKLA and Caminos.

Introduction

We are excited for you to see how Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos provide parallel, high-quality resources in both English and Spanish for all students and multilingual learners across NYC! Both programs are flexible, offering stand-alone foundational skills instruction as well as comprehensive core English Language Arts.

Amplify CKLA Skills and Caminos Lectoescritura are entirely built on the latest reading science and provide comprehensive instruction in all foundational reading skills. These programs feature:

  • Phonological awareness, phonics, and word recognition
  • Strong, systematic sound-first instruction to support students in learning to decode
  • Language skills, including conventions, spelling, and grammar
  • Reading comprehension
  • Writing instruction

CKLA and Caminos for grades K–2 provides a two-strand approach – the first strand is the Foundational Skills Strand (as described above) and the second is the Knowledge Strand, in which students build rich background knowledge through multidisciplinary Read-Alouds in both English and Spanish. Additionally, in Grades 3-5, CKLA and Caminos take an Integrated Approach, meaning everything is focused on rich worldly context. 

We highly encourage you to check out the Grades K-2 Knowledge Strand section of the website and the 3-5 Integrated Approach section to explore these components further, gain access to the engaging, worldly, and diverse texts students and teachers are using in their classrooms daily, and discover so much more!

Access the program

Every day in the CKLA/Caminos classroom, students will practice their existing reading skills while stretching themselves toward new goals. In K–2, each day includes dedicated skills time to help you give students a solid foundation. In the upper grades, skills instruction becomes integrated with Knowledge lessons, and students engage with increasingly complex content-rich texts and writing activities.

All instruction starts with phonological awareness, which research has shown to benefit the greatest number of students.

Students begin by learning to recognize sounds, as well as to articulate them.

All instruction starts with phonological awareness, which research has shown to benefit the greatest number of students. Students begin by learning to recognize sounds, as well as to articulate them.

Once students can recognize sounds, they learn to form the corresponding letter codes. CKLA starts by teaching the sound-spellings that appear most frequently in English, which lets your students read and write as many words as possible, as soon as possible.

The lessons continue to challenge students as they progress, introducing complications like multisyllabic words, “tricky words,” and homophones. In each case, students encounter complications as they become ready for them.

While students are learning how to read, Knowledge Domains give them authentic and engaging reasons to read. Students will use their skills to explore domains that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world as seen through the eyes of many different groups. With these domains, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.

Each CKLA/Caminos Knowledge Domain gives students a base of vocabulary and concepts, building on what they’ve learned in previous domains. This helps students make connections within and across grades, building a base of background knowledge that will help them navigate new and more complex texts.

Students learn to listen and understand before they learn to read. By delivering knowledge through classroom Read-Alouds, we teach students the key comprehension skills they’ll use throughout their reading lives.

We emphasize interactions with students, challenging them and encouraging them to think about the material rather than simply receive it. Each lesson includes many options for formative assessment and immediate adjustment to your class’s needs.

End-of-domain digital assessments for Knowledge Domains are fully voice acted, ensuring that each student’s comprehension skills are being authentically tested. This not only helps build student test-taking confidence, but also gives you a more accurate picture of your class.

Step 1: Watch this video walkthrough of the CKLA/Caminos Teacher Resource Site.

Step 2: Explore the Teacher Resource Site.

  • Click the CKLA/Caminos Teacher Resource button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter your teacher usernamet.nyc-ckla-caminosK2@tryamplify.net
  • Enter your password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Toggle to access either English and Spanish

Step 3: Watch this video walkthrough of the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub.

Step 4: Explore the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub for Grades K-2.

  • Click the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter your student usernames.nyc-ckla-caminosK2@tryamplify.net
  • Enter your password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Select a grade level.

By grades 3–5, students have mastered the basics of decoding and are hungry to use what they’ve learned to reach out to the world. Although Read-Alouds remain an important part of lessons, students are also encouraged to practice independent reading starting in grade 3—striking a balance between strong teacher support and developing their autonomy and confidence as readers.

As students progress from K–2, writing activities start to emphasize analysis, creativity, and independent thinking about the material students are learning.

Each of the levels in grades 3–5 contains a Core Quest. In these special
units, all the normal rules of the classroom change, and students engage
with language in surprising new ways. Here in this grade 5 example, they
learn to love the dense Shakespearian language of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream through imagery, close reading, and performance.

Step 1: Watch this video walkthrough of the CKLA/Caminos Teacher Resource Site.

Step 2: Explore the CKLA/Caminos Teacher Resource Site for Grades 3-5.

  • Click the CKLA/Caminos Teacher Resource button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter your teacher usernamet.nyc-ckla-caminos35@tryamplify.net
  • Enter your password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Toggle to access either English and Spanish

Step 3: Watch this video walkthrough of the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub.

Step 4: Explore the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub for Grades 3-5.

  • Click the CKLA/Caminos Student Hub button below.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter your student usernames.nyc-ckla-caminos35@tryamplify.net
  • Enter your password: AmplifyNumber1
  • Select a grade level.

Key program features

The student body of our country has been changing, and it’s changing fast. Over 10% K-12 students are english language learners who speak other languages. This skews heavily to primary grades with 15-16% in grades K-3.  In 2021-2022, New York City Public Schools enrolled over 147,000 English language learners across K-12 or about 14% of students.  Over 52% of those students are in elementary schools across the district with 23% in grades K-3. 

Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both. 

Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.

Amplify Caminos al Conocimiento Esencial, a Spanish language arts program for Grades K–5 that will inspire and engage your students to become confident readers, writers, and thinkers.

It is designed to support any biliteracy model, including English as a Second Language (ESL), transitional bilingual programs, dual language strands, and Spanish immersion programs.

When used in tandem with Amplify CKLA, Amplify Caminos provides an one-to-one English and Spanish solution.

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify CKLA delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Review this Science of Reading Toolkit to learn more about the Science of Reading best practices integrated throughout CKLA.

Great reading instruction starts with helping kids develop great decoding skills. By building a solid foundation of phonological awareness and phonics, reading the words on the page becomes automatic so that comprehension and critical thinking can happen.

Our instruction is supported by:

  • Step-by-step lessons with multisensory approaches, clear lesson objectives, and embedded formative assessments.
  • Decodable books and student readers with ebook and audiobook versions that feature engaging plots and relatable characters.
  • An engaging sound library with fun songs and videos that develop phonological awareness.
  • An interactive Vocab App featuring engaging activities with immediate feedback and automated, customized instruction based on student performance.

Students build grade-appropriate subject-area knowledge and vocabulary in history, science, literature, and the arts while learning to read, write, and think creatively and for themselves.

Our instruction is supported by:

  • Knowledge builders that provide a quick overview of each domain with its key ideas.
  • Interactive read-alouds designed to build knowledge and vocabulary.
  • Content-rich anchor texts that support students as they tackle increasingly complex text and sharpen their analytical skills.
  • Social and emotional learning paired with lessons in civic responsibility.

From the printed page to the screen, we bring foundational skills and knowledge of the world to your young learners, and make the transition from classroom to home learning seamless.

Download the Amplify CKLA Components Guide to see components by grade.

Additional materials to support your review

S1-02: Community and joy within K–8 science instruction: Desiré Whitmore

Promotional graphic for "Science Connections" Season 1, Episode 2 featuring Desiré Whitmore, focusing on community and joy in K–8 science instruction.

In this episode, we join Eric Cross as he sits down with physicist and science education specialist, Desiré Whitmore. Listen in as Desiré explains her work at the Exploratorium, a public learning laboratory. Eric and Desiré discuss finding passion in science, the importance of meeting students we’re they’re at, and K–8 science instruction with real-life connections. Desiré chats with Eric about her work on supporting the science of teaching science content at the Exploratorium museum.

Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

Download Transcript

Desiré Whitmore (00:00):

I think it’s really amazing when we can realize as teachers, like, no, our job is not to just enforce rules on our students, right? Our job is to help students to achieve more learning.

Eric Cross (00:37):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Desiré Whitmore. Desiré has held positions as a science curriculum specialist with Amplify Science, a professor of laser and photonics technology at Irvine Valley College, and is now the senior physics educator in the Teacher Institute at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Her current work is focused on providing support and professional development to middle and high school science teachers to help them teach through inquiry. In this episode, we discussed Desiré’s pathway into physics, the impact of educators in her life, and the importance of representation for students in the classroom. I’m so excited for you to meet my physicist friend, Dr. Desiré Whitmore. All right. So just like a superhero, STEM superhero, you have an origin story and so—

Desiré Whitmore (01:36):

How long is this podcast gonna be? ‘Cause, you know, I can talk for days, so you—

Eric Cross (01:40):

I know, I know! But it’s, it’s…so, OK. We can give us a highlight. So, you know, 30 minutes. But what would be the origin story? You can start from any point in time, but what’s that journey like?

Desiré Whitmore (01:51):

I’m gonna start at the beginning, when I was really young, just because I think it’s important. Neither of my parents were college-educated. My mother didn’t finish high school. My father went back and got a GED later. But my father’s grandmother, her name was Claudia Pairs, and she was a teacher, right? So when I was a kid, she actually kind of raised me from, I don’t know, until I was around seven or eight. And so she was very important in who I became, I think because she taught me that college is important and she taught me to think. She taught me to ask questions. She taught me how to ask questions. Just the Exploratorium likes to do. Which is why I fit so well here. She taught me to always wonder and always think about things. And I remember as a kid, she taught me to count and read and write when I was, like, three. And she would always have bubbles at her house. And I was obsessed with bubbles. I thought bubbles were the coolest thing in the world. And just how you can take your breath and create this thing that now you can see, and it’s your breath, right? It’s your breath inside of a bubble and it’s flying around and it has all these cool colors, and then it would fly up and then eventually just pop. And you’re like, where did it go? Now my breath is just up there. Not understanding, as a kid, but my breath is always everywhere. I didn’t understand any of that, but I understood that my breath was inside of a bubble. That’s my earliest memory of thinking about science, was from that. And she was not a science teacher. She was—I don’t even know what she taught. I think she was an elementary school teacher, maybe. She died when I was 12. So I don’t have super-strong memories or of understanding who she was, only that she raised me and what she taught me as a kid. But that in itself really helped me because then when I was in the environment that I was in at home with my parents, which was not at all the environment she provided for me, I always had the things she taught me in my head, right? So I was always asking questions. My mother hated it. I was always taking things apart and putting them back together. So I used to take apart TVs and VCRs and vacuum cleaners and telephones, and my mother’s like, “Oh my God, I’m gonna murder you.” And she tried a couple times, too.

Eric Cross (04:25):

Did you ever put ’em back together and realize you had extra parts? You’re like, oh, hi.

Desiré Whitmore (04:29):

Oh yeah. All the time. Yeah. Yeah. VCRs have a lot of extra pieces. You’re like, “What do you even…it still works. It’s fine.” <laugh> You know? And vacuum cleaners too. They had a lot of extra parts, <laugh> all the time. And TVs. I should not have been playing with TVs. But like I said, I didn’t have a lot of parental, guidance as a child. So, like, whatever—I’m opening up TVs.

Eric Cross (04:54):

There’s a lot of open inquiry going on in your household. Yeah. Unsupervised.

Desiré Whitmore (04:59):

Unsupervised. But I didn’t know what it was or what it meant as a kid. I mean, I used to put things in the microwave. I did so many microwave experiments as a child, trying to cook different foods or melt different things. And so I think those kinds of experiences, where I was allowed to just be curious, kind of shaped who I am today. And then I kind of got into…you know, when I was in school, I loved math. In 10th grade, I had my first Black teacher, he was my chemistry teacher. His name was Mr. Strickland. And I was like, chemistry is cool, dude. And he was not the best teacher, but he was fun. Like you were saying, he was me, and he was talking to us the way I speak. And he was so like, just kind of chill and happy-go-lucky, I guess. But he wasn’t…he hadn’t taught chemistry in a long time. So he wasn’t a very good teacher. And me and one other kid in the class were in love with chemistry. And so we would read the book and do all the homework and he’d be in class lecturing and we’re like, “That’s not right, Mr. Strickland, like, what are you talking about?” And then he’d be like, “Oh, really, Desiré? Do you wanna teach the class, then?” And I’d be like, “Yeah.” And so I would go up and I would teach my chemistry class in high school, because the teacher was trying to make an example out of me. But he was also, I think, willing to be like, “I really don’t know.” And I really appreciated that. That he wasn’t just like, “I know all of the answers and you’re wrong.” Like, he wasn’t being a jerk, right? Like, the fact that I said, “Yes, I do wanna teach it,” and he actually let me do it? That’s pretty dope. And then I liked physics in my senior year in high school, but I didn’t think it was where I was gonna go or anything. I loved music and I loved math. Those were my two subjects.

Eric Cross (06:51):

What was it about math that resonated with you?

Desiré Whitmore (06:55):

I think it helped me understand the world a lot better. I didn’t have strong science teachers, I guess, growing up. It was a lot of reading out of books or watching laser discs in class. That’s how old I am.

Eric Cross (07:12):

Laser discs.

Desiré Whitmore (07:13):

Laser discs. And you know, so there wasn’t a lot of…I moved around a lot as a kid. I didn’t have this straight curriculum. You know, in one year, in the third grade, I went to three different schools.

Eric Cross (07:25):

Mm. Oh wow.

Desiré Whitmore (07:26):

It was kinda hard for me to latch onto school. But with math, because I could look at math and actually understand the world in it, I could see how math can be used to describe how things work.

Eric Cross (07:40):

I almost imagine, especially with so much transition in your life, it helped make sense of things. You had a lot of transition going on, but you were able to understand the world through the process of math. And then this early exposure, it kind of reminds me my own story too. Because there were these books that would do these cross sections of a cruise ship or a machine; that’s what got me really into engineering. Kind of How Stuff Works. I would watch that on Nova, How Stuff Works. I’d always be fascinated. Even Sesame Street had a segment where they would show you crayons and how the dye was added. You remember that?

Desiré Whitmore (08:19):

Yep. Yeah.

Eric Cross (08:20):

Young Desiré, doing photronics…photronics?

Desiré Whitmore (08:24):

Photonics.

Eric Cross (08:24):

Photonics. Photonics at home with the microwave and all these other things.

Desiré Whitmore (08:29):

Sure. How ’bout that.

Eric Cross (08:30):

<laugh> Right. And then loving math. So, early, I could see this combination, sort of this alchemy, happening inside you. And then, how did that lead to you becoming a physicist?

Desiré Whitmore (08:46):

It’s not as straightforward as it seems it should be. It’s obvious to everyone. <laugh>. But it wasn’t obvious to me. ‘Cause I wanted to be a lawyer. You know, because my parents weren’t educated, they didn’t really know…both of my parents and their subsequent spouses when they broke up—so my parents and my stepparents—are all bus drivers. And so they don’t know what options are. Right? So for them it’s like, “You have to be—you can be a doctor. You can be a lawyer. ‘Cause you’re smart. I know you’re smart, so you’re gonna be one of those things.” And I was like, “I don’t wanna be a doctor. That’s not actually interesting to me.” I did wanna be a teacher when I was younger, because I knew that my grandmother was one. But yeah, I went in and I was like, “I’m gonna be a lawyer. I’m gonna be a lawyer.” And then I go to college and I was like, ‘Eh, I don’t. I hate writing.” <Laugh> Like, I love reading, but I don’t writing. So I don’t think I wanna be a lawyer. I love music and I love math. I was originally going to major in music and math, but then I went to community college because I missed my opportunity to go to university for…long story. And so I’m at community college and I was like, “You know what? I’m gonna just do something new. I’m gonna be a marine biologist.” So my major was marine biology, and then they’re helping me pick out my classes. And they had zero math there. And I was like, “Pardon me. I think there’s a mistake, but I’m not taking any math.” And they were like, “No, you’re done with all your math. For marine biology, you only need calculus. And you took all of that in high school, so you’re done.” And I was like, “No, this is not gonna work for me, dude.” So I continued taking calculus anyway and moving on in math. And then I realized that biology wasn’t what I needed, but I did love my chemistry and I loved my physics classes. So I asked those teachers—chemistry, physics, and math teachers in community college, my professors—”I don’t wanna be a marine biologist and I don’t wanna be a lawyer. What do I do? What do you think I could study? I really like chemistry and math and physics.” And so all of them, all three of these professors told me, “Oh, it sounds chemical engineering would be good for you, so you should be a chemical engineer.” And I was like, “OK, cool. No problem.” That’s what I did. So I got my degree in chemical engineering. Right. And I finished community college, studying chemical engineering. I was like, “This is really cool. This is a lot of fun. I love engineering.” And then I transferred to UCLA as a chemical engineering major. And I was like, “I hate this.” <Laugh>. “I hate it a lot.” It was just…

Eric Cross (11:07):

What was it about chemical engineering that you were just not feeling anymore? What was it that just made you go, “nope”?

Desiré Whitmore (11:12):

It didn’t—at least the way it was taught to me—it wasn’t as as…exploratory, I guess. There wasn’t a lot of theory in it. There was just a lot of “OK, pull out a ruler and you’re gonna draw a thing and then this is how you’re gonna build a reactor.” And it didn’t seem very scientific to me. The science was missing. And don’t get me wrong, I understand, now that I have a degree in chemical engineering, that it’s not that chemical engineering is not scientific. But it’s that you build up the science and then you don’t focus on it. You focus on the engineering aspect of it. Which is, you have the science and the scientists will work on that aspect. But then how can WE do kind of larger batch chemistry. And for me, that was just less interesting. It was a lot of pushing buttons and just plug-and-play equations stuff. Instead of diving into first principles of why things happen in chemical engineering. There was no “why things happen”; it was “this is what happens, so this is the next step.”

Eric Cross (12:25):

You had to go so far into your academic career to realize that this is what chemical engineering is. And we were talking about representation, and not having examples or parents; your families were bus drivers. My mom was a receptionist and executive assistant, things like that. And I was the first of many, like you…we kind of had to go through and invest all this time and money to finally get to this place to realize, “This ain’t it.”

Desiré Whitmore (12:58):

This is not for me, yeah.

Eric Cross (12:59):

This is not for me. That was a long journey to get to that point.

Desiré Whitmore (13:03):

It was. Especially because I went through community college and I took a long time in community college, ’cause I was working full-time. So I was working full-time, going to community college. Took me a while. And then I finally get to UCLA. I’m like, “Yeah, I’m finally gonna get my degree and go make money!” And then I was like, “Ooh, no.” I mean, I could go and make money, don’t get me wrong. I could have graduated and made a ton of money. But I was not happy at all and I did not enjoy what I was doing. So, while I was in undergrad, I realized I don’t wanna do chemical engineering anymore. But what do I wanna do? But then I was taking…I took a quantum mechanics class. And that class blew my whole mind. And I was like, “This is the coolest thing that I’ve ever learned in my life, and this is what I wanna do.” And so I went and talked to my professor and I was like, “Can I work for you? Can I do research? Because this is amazing and I wanna do this.” I felt it was too late for me. I had been in school for so long and I was already kind of burnt out. So I was, “I’m not going to change my major. That’s just outta the question for me right now. It costs so much money for this degree and I don’t have—I’m not just gonna waste my time and keep working all these jobs.” So I had three jobs in college. And it was like, I worked at Radio Shack, I did research for this professor, and I worked in the library, the chemistry and physics library.

Eric Cross (14:28):

I love the fact that we’ve talked about laser discs; you said Radio Shack; and we talked about the analog internet of the encyclopedia salespeople. And I know all of those things. And I’ve been through all of those things together.

Desiré Whitmore (14:43):

Just in case people don’t know how old I am. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (14:47):

For our listeners who are way younger, yeah, this is how we grew up. This is how we—these things are extinct now. There’s this element of this kind of cultural connection. I think that we experience that. It kind of it flies under the radar. People don’t really realize it until you’re in an environment that’s different from what you’re used to. And you realize that, “Oh wow. this is not what I’m used to.” And the things that I’m finding funnier, the things that I connect with, it’s not what everybody else connects with. And as a teacher, it’s the same thing, right? Like, we go in the classroom and you know, you and I are rapping about laser discs and Radio Shack and I’m trying to talk to my kids about it. And they’re like, “Yo, Cross, what is that? Are you gonna give us a history lesson? What are these things?”

Desiré Whitmore (15:35):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (15:36):

And I found myself having to stay connected to pop culture, because I teach 12- and 13-year-olds all day. And it’s great for keeping things relevant for my students. But when I talk to my friends that are my peers, they’re like, unless they’re a teacher, they’re like, “I got no idea what you’re talking about.”

Desiré Whitmore (15:55):

Yeah. I have a friend who’s also a middle-school teacher and she’s always coming to me with all this. I’m like, “What are you talking about?” She did the Glow-up Challenge, but she did the Glow-down Challenge. So she invented a new thing. She’s like, “No, I couldn’t do Glow Up ’cause that’s too much. So I did the Glow-Down Challenge.” And it’s the cutest thing ever. And the students think it’s amazing. And I’m like, “That’s awesome. But I have no idea what the point of that is.” <Laugh>

Eric Cross (16:21):

And there’s this theme, too, that when we talk about teaching kids STEM, there’s this soft part of it, this relational piece of it that you mentioned, of this connective aspect that in a certain way kind of even superseded the content knowledge that your teacher even had at that point, where you’re going up and teaching the class. But just the fact that someone looked like you or spoke like you or connected with you in a certain way made a big difference to who you are as…well, the trajectory of where you went.

Desiré Whitmore (16:57):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (16:57):

“I like chemistry. It resonates with me.” And it’s something I think can get lost. And I think just to kind of a good segue, I use Amplify my classroom, and one of the reasons why is because of the representation that is in these videos. And you were part of crafting this for…was it the fifth grade?

Desiré Whitmore (17:21):

I mean, it was K–8. So I was—

Eric Cross (17:23):

OK, so you were doing the whole thing.

Desiré Whitmore (17:24):

Yeah, I was a part of the K–8 science team. My title was science curriculum specialist. But in reality I was hired to do the engineering internships, mostly. Which are middle school. And to be a sim developer. So sims K–8. I worked on several of them in both middle school and elementary. Yeah.

Eric Cross (17:47):

What was that like for you? When you were designing curriculum? ‘Cause as a teacher, it’s, you know, I think with teachers it’s kind of…I would consider myself, if I was gonna use hip hop as a metaphor, I’m more of a DJ than an MC. Where I wanna remix things that exist, versus, I don’t wanna write the lyrics in freestyle. So I don’t want to go and write the curriculum completely; I wanna take something that’s solid and then I want to go ahead and remix it. You are great at both. What was the process for you, being on that team, designing? How did you go about making, “OK, we’re gonna create this experience for kids”?

Desiré Whitmore (18:25):

It was, it was amazing. I learned so much, so much. It was the best job I had before I came to the Exploratorium. The process was amazing, because it wasn’t just me, right? It wasn’t just me. It was a whole team. And each unit had its own team. So we had a scientist, which I was the scientist we had. So we had a scientist; we had a literacy specialist, because it was really important to increase science literacy so that students understand not just that science exists, but “What are the terms that are used in science and how can I speak and act a scientist? What are the things that scientists actually do in their real life?” Then we had an assessment specialist and then we had a simulation specialist. And so, on the units that I was on, sometimes I was both the sim developer and the scientist, or sometimes I was just the sim developer and I got to work alongside another scientist, which was always fun. And so it was really nice, because I was working alongside master teachers. People who had been teaching for years, and they were able to help me better understand. ‘Cause I’ll come in and I’ll be like, “Yeah, there’s a unit on light waves, let’s come in and teach this unit on light waves!” <laugh> I was the sim developer and scientist on that unit, and there was another scientist working on the unit, but they were like, “Well, Desiré literally builds lasers, so I think she should be the science developer.” So we kinda had two science developers on that one, which was fun. But I come in and she’ll come in and she’ll be like, “Yeah, I think this is where we wanna go and this is what we wanna teach.” I’m like, “No way! Like, that’s not accurate, right?” And so I can come in, but then I’m coming in with all this crazy lingo, right? I’m up here. But then also I have taught kids about lasers and optics and photonics my whole career. So I’m also very capable of bringing it down to where kids need it to be. What I don’t know is how effective that is, right? When to do it and when not to do it. When to bring the level up; when to bring the level down. And so working alongside these other teachers and assessors really helped me to do that. And so for me it was just two years of deep learning experience. I learned—every single day at work, I learned something new. Which is something that I value and I’ve wanted in my career, my whole life. We made active decisions in that room. Like, “We want to interview scientists who are scientists of color or who have different abilities or who have different representations in all kinds of ways.” Right? And then we also have these fake internships, or not even the internships, but just in the general units. And we actively wrote scripts for those. And we actively wrote in those scripts, like, “This is a Black woman. This is an Indian woman. This is a Jewish man in a wheelchair.” Like, we specifically dictated exactly who we wanted in these videos, because we knew that representation was super-important and we knew that we wanted students to be able to connect.

Eric Cross (21:35):

Right. One of the things, I appreciate what I’m hearing a lot in that is the amount of intentionality that went into this. But even now as you’re reliving it, you’re still almost iterating on how could we improve it or how can we make it different or reach more people. And I think that goes towards when we’re talking about including more people and inclusion. Like, it’s not a binary thing. You’re always modifying; you’re always iterating; you’re always redesigning and improving to be more inclusive, to reach more students. Because you know, to your point, part of it is, “Yes, we wanna do this really awesome science curriculum,” but the other part of it is there’s more to it than just your content. And I think now more than ever…I use—we just finished the food bar unit. Metabolism. And in there there’s a simulator. They always ask me when I show the videos, “Are these, are these real people? Are these real situations?” And I tell ’em, “Well, the story is real, but these are all fictional actors. But what’s actually happening happens. It’s real.” And they get really into it. And I think one of the other things is with your simulations—especially the engineering units—there’s no one right answer. And so my students who want to go, “Mr. Cross, I wanna make the best bar! Perfect 10, best taste, cheapest!” And I’m like, “All right, good luck!”

Desiré Whitmore (23:06):

Yeah. Go do that.

Eric Cross (23:09):

Casue there’s something called trade-offs! It could happen! And they’re like, they’re trying. They get into the code. They try to open up the Inspect Element, when they feel like hackers.

Desiré Whitmore (23:17):

Yeah, they do. But these kids like, they’re so smart and they’re so resourceful. And I’m just thinking like, maybe that’s how we challenge them more, right? Sometimes we can give them these kinds of things where it’s like, “Go and create a program, ’cause that’s the level you’re at <laugh>. Go and create this program to do something similar that’s related to the work that we’re doing.”

Eric Cross (23:38):

I’ve had some of my own students redesign—I have one student who redesigns every assessment I give him. I give the project; I give the options for the final goal; and he always chooses—if I give three options, he always chooses option four. If I choose two options, he’s choosing option three. And so he’ll go into Google Sheets, he’ll pull all the data and then he’ll construct his own kind of spreadsheet with all the probabilities of different things.

Desiré Whitmore (24:06):

You tell this kid to make a GitHub right now <laugh> so that he can get a job as soon as he’s done with high school. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (24:12):

He’s amazing. And we did this one project where students had to design a Netflix show to show their understanding of metabolism. And they had to do four episodes. So I gave him a template. It’s not from me; it’s from, I think, EdTechPicks.org or something. And it looks like the whole Netflix splash page. They took photos, did the whole deal. He created NOTflix. Everyone else did Google Slides. His Google Slides was interactive. So when you clicked on different boxes, it actually took you to the next splash page of that show. I mean, it was….

Desiré Whitmore (24:48):

That’s fantastic.

Eric Cross (24:49):

It was, it was. I recorded his presentation. It was brilliant.

Desiré Whitmore (24:53):

But that’s amazing. And that speaks to your strengths as a teacher and why you’re an amazing teacher. Because you see the students and what they’re trying to do and you work with them; you meet them where they are. Right? There are so many teachers who would just be frustrated with that student. And it’d be like, “No, these are not your options. Your option was to do what I told you to do.” And there are many teachers who would do that. And I think it’s really amazing when we can realize as teachers, “No, our job is not to just enforce rules on our students. I mean, that is part of the job, because that’s what school was when it was created. But our job is to help students to achieve more learning in what we’re trying to do. And so the fact that you are so good with this student and that you encourage him to go above and beyond when he can, I think it’s so amazing.

Eric Cross (25:49):

Well, that brings me to my favorite group, organization, and the phase of your career of where you are now: The Exploratorium. And I wanted to kind of rap, talking about what you do now. Because the Exploratorium—I tell people, they go, what is that place? And maybe you can tell us what it is and then what you do. But for me, I’ll just tell everybody: It’s Disneyland for science teachers. And I love going there. I not only love going there because of what I receive from it professionally. Many of the PDs, I don’t even call ’em PDs—just communal learning experiences, that I’ve had that have been led by you and Lori and, and Tammy and the rest, and everybody that’s there have been incredible. And I have so much fun. Emotionally, I get excited when I go. When I’m on the plane, I’m like, “Here we go!” And then we go and we’re making fudge or we’re blowing darts with marshmallows across the room in the theme of Boba Fett. There’s just these rad things that are going on there. And it’s not like anything I’ve ever experienced before. So maybe we can close with talking about what the Exploratorium is, what you do there, for people who’ve never been and have been a part of it.

Desiré Whitmore (27:19):

I’m gonna give you what my definition of the Exploratorium is.

Eric Cross (27:21):

That’s what we want.

Desiré Whitmore (27:22):

So, the actual definition is, we are a public learning laboratory. We are known as the Museum of Art, Science and Human Perception. Cool. But, like, what does that all mean? Right? And I think your description of the Disneyland for science teachers, I think that’s a perfect description. ‘Cause for me, I tell people like, “Oh, I wanna go to the happiest place on earth.” And for me, that is the Exploratorium. And yes, I work there, and yes, it’s still true for me. So the Exploratorium is this huge museum. It’s an interactive science museum. And art—we have a lot of art. And it’s all about learning through doing. It’s not about learning science by going up to an exhibit and reading the little paper next to it. It’s like, no, you go up to an exhibit and you interact with it and you teach yourself science. The goal of the Exploratorium is really to help people understand that learning science, doing science, isn’t reserved for only scientists. Doing science is something that everyone in the world should and does do. And so helping people understand that everything we do is science is kind of the point of the Exploratorium to me.

Eric Cross (28:35):

Even the building itself…one of the other cool things too is, for people that don’t know, it’s the size of Costco or two.

Desiré Whitmore (28:43):

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Cross (28:44):

It’s immense! And even the building itself teaches. Like, you have that whole workshop, dead-center in the middle of the floor where they’re designing things. It’s like inside-out. And then I remember going to the one experience where I think it was Eric who showed us that it’s one of the few facilities that is actually cooled by the Bay water. And there’s only a couple of those in the state that can do that. And it has a platinum rating, something wild that. So even just the building itself…everything that if they can extract every ounce of science teaching in that, it’s in there. And you are in a very important program for me. And can you talk a little bit about maybe what you’re doing in T.I.?

Desiré Whitmore (29:33):

So I am in the Teacher Institute. I’m a physicist in the Teacher Institute. And the Teacher Institute is a group of teachers and scientists. And our job is to basically support middle school and high school science teachers and teacher leaders in the state of California, but science teachers around the world, in their pursuit of science teaching. And by support, I mean we provide professional development. We provide other things, communities of practice, and we go and do workshops in certain places. We go to India to teach Tibetan monks and nuns science. And we go to Costa Rica to teach teachers all over the country of Costa Rica about science. And so our job is really, to help science teachers feel more secure in their science teaching and help to retain them in the field, because a good science teacher is so important in helping our students thrive. And so our job—and we take this very seriously—is to help science teachers thrive. And we are made up of PhD scientists and veteran classroom teachers. So we have on the one side teachers who have been teaching middle school or high school for years. One of my coworkers, Zeke, who I work with the most, he was a high school physics and environmental science teacher for 21 years before coming to the Exploratorium. And then me, I was never a classroom teacher. I was a professor; I was a physics professor at a community college, and I was a researcher. So my deep knowledge of physics and current knowledge of physics—or knowledge of current physics—combined with Zeke’s extremely experienced pedagogy is really how we work together as a team. And it’s not just Zeke, right? We’ve got a geologist on the team, Eric Muller. We’ve got Tammy, who’s a middle-school bio teacher. We’ve got, Julie Yu, who is a chemical engineer, PhD, and also a prior middle school teacher, former middle school teacher. We’ve got Hilleary Osheroff, who was a PhD biologist who used to work at the American Museum of Natural History. We’ve got Lori Lambertson, who was a middle-school math teacher. And so, you know, we all come together to bring our experiences both in and out of the classroom and in and out of the research lab to provide teachers with the best inquiry-driven stuff we can. And we’re very—we’re so equity-focused, because we believe that that’s important, right? We know that the impact of our work is, I think, why most of us are here. It’s why I’m here. In undergrad, my grad school, and my postdoc, I would go into classrooms. I would go into science museums and teach science to people. And I probably reached out to maybe…over that whole time, I would say a couple thousand people, right? Maybe a couple thousand people total. That’s great. But over 15 years of reaching out and only reaching a couple thousand people, that’s rough, right? And now I’m at the Exploratorium, and I know that if I reach one teacher, right? If I can teach one teacher…let’s say you. How many students do you have in your classes a year?

Eric Cross (33:11):

Two hundred a year.

Desiré Whitmore (33:12):

You have 200 students a year that you teach. So if you teach for 10 years, that’s 2000. That’s 2000 students. So I have, by teaching you today, assuming that I’m actually teaching you something that’s gonna be useful for you—

Eric Cross (33:29):

You do! And you are!

Desiré Whitmore (33:30):

You are going to be impacting these 2000 students over the next 10 years. And of course you’re gonna be in teaching for much longer than that. But let’s just say in 10 years, that payoff is so much higher, right? And you’re one teacher. But I have 30 of you in my workshop! And so if all of these 30 teachers each teach 2000 kids over the next 10 years, then I’m actually doing something. I’m actually changing the way that students see science, through changing the way that you see science. Right? And so I take my job very seriously, as we all do. Like, we’re so invested in our teachers. And it’s not that we don’t care about students, ’cause we absolutely do. But we understand that without good teachers, students aren’t going to be able to thrive, as often as they would otherwise. I was able to do it somehow. But I’m one. There are so many other kids who could have gone into science who didn’t because they felt they never connected to it. So our job is to try to help teachers connect to it. And an important part of that is allowing you all to experience science as a learner. We want you to play and have joyful experiences. We want you to enjoy science and to try to think about it from the perspective of your students. Walk in their shoes. So that when you then go back to your classroom, you are able to think about like, “Oh yeah, you know, my students totally asked the same question that I asked, or that another teacher asked in the workshop because they had the foresight to think about that’s what my students would ask.” Right?

Eric Cross (35:02):

Well, I think it’s really effective to create empathy for the learner. Because I find myself in that position. I don’t know if some kind of memory displacement field happens to me when I sit in those workshops, but Hillary will ask a question that I know the answer to and I’m like, “I don’t want to answer the question. I don’t—I might be wrong.” And I teach the subject! And I embody what it’s like to be a student. And when I leave, I might have to go back and reference exactly what the lesson was, but I remember how I felt when I didn’t know. And very rarely as teachers do we get put in positions like that. And so it helps me be in the position of my students emotionally, of what it’s like. Even even the intentionality of how do you ask questions and not showing an affect on your face when somebody says the right answer or the wrong answer.

Desiré Whitmore (35:55):

Well, I’m still learning that. I’m not great at it. Julie is the mast.

Eric Cross (35:59):

Julie’s got it nailed.

Desiré Whitmore (36:00):

I’m still trying to learn from her. She’s amazing. And I really would like to get there one day. But I’m still not there. I’ll be like, “Oh! Oh! Well, that’s…”. I have a terrible poker face. So I’ll be like, “Oh yeah, but you think that? Maybe…”. That’s a piece of it that’s really important, right? It’s this not giving away the answer, even when you have the right answer. Allowing people to ask the questions and explore and become invested in the problem, before giving away the answer. That’s something that I learn here at the Exploratorium. And like I said, I learn every day. And it’s something that I think is so important for us as teachers to learn and try to implement. Because oftentimes you’ll come and you’ll have students who are like, “I’m too stupid. I don’t know the answer.” And then somebody else will say the answer, and then the student is like, “Yeah, I was right. I’m too stupid.’” But it’s like no! But if you have that student actually think about it, then the student—once they do hear the right answer—they might be like, “Oh yeah, that would make sense.” Instead of “I’m stupid.” It’s like, no, this is, “I explored this and I figured it out on my own.”

Eric Cross (37:08):

Things keep coming back to how this experience and the process of them learning science even outweighs the content of it. ‘Cause the content is almost easier to share, it’s easier to get, you can look it up really quickly. But in your story and in many other people’s stories, the exposure, the experience, how they’re going through that process—I know that’s something that I’ve learned a lot in just watching. Not teaching science, but actually the science of teaching. Sitting in the workshops and watching how we’re treated as students, how you interact with us, and then being able to take that back to the classroom. And just to add onto the value that it’s created, I think one thing that it’s also done is given us community. And in addition to being able to impact students, it’s also been able to build resilience in teachers. Because we as teachers can feel very isolated. And especially now when things are incredibly difficult, and every teacher’s experiencing Covid and shutdowns and low staffing across the country in different ways, when you don’t feel you have community or people that you can connect with, it just makes everything feel exponentially harder. And you’ve done a great job at being able to build community with us in our community of practice. The Exploratorium has been able to do that. And it’s something that I’m super-grateful for probably more than anything else is that through these last two years, being able to connect really made me feel like, “OK, we’re gonna be able to do this.” And it’s not just about Cross or my other teacher in eighth grade or my sixth grade teacher who’s doing this. That message, I think, is really, really important. I wanna ask this: Was there a teacher or an experience that impacted you or inspired you throughout your educational career? You know, kindergarten all the way to college? Was there a moment or a person or anything that that really stuck with you, that you felt maybe influenced who you became? Met you where you were at? I know you mentioned your chemistry teacher at that point, but is there anyone else, or was it that person that was really the person who sticks out for you?

Desiré Whitmore (39:21):

There actually have been a few. Of course, the first is my great-grandmother, Claudia Pairs. But I think in the fourth and fifth grade I had the same teacher. She stayed with us going from fourth to fifth grade. And fourth grade was a new school for me. New town. I was the only Black child in the school, me and my sister. And my teacher recognized that I had no real help at home, I guess? And she really kind of…she saw that I was really smart. She would give me extra assignments when she could tell I was bored. It meant that someone outside of my house cared about me in a way that I didn’t feel cared about at home. Her name is Ms. Comet. Mrs. Comet.

Eric Cross (40:11):

Like…comet?

Desiré Whitmore (40:13):

Yeah. Mrs. Fran Comet. And I’ve tried looking her up as an adult and I can’t find her. But I work with so many teachers, and I know how hard teaching is and how degrading it can be…or demoralizing, I guess, to not be appreciated. And so I know what it feels to me when a student has reached out and shown me like, “Hey, I’m now in dental school,” or “I’m now getting a PhD in science,” and I’m just like….

Eric Cross (40:40):

I got a message this morning on Instagram from a student. And none of my students use their real names in their Instagram handles. So I got a message from Moonshine. <Laugh> And I was a seventh grade teacher. And through deduction, deductive reasoning, I figured out who it was. This person’s now in college and they responded in that…you know, you get one of those every once in a while. And I feel it just fills your tank. It’s just so important that we—it’s funny because, kind of to your point, we don’t realize who or how we’re making impacts on people. And in what ways. We just know that we are. And I tell other teachers, I said, “You have one of the few professions where you fall asleep worrying about other people’s kids.” And it’s the words that we speak, the things that we do, people are always watching. I know, no pressure, right!? Hopefully, someone listening can find Ms. Comet.

Desiré Whitmore (41:37):

Ms. Comet. Teacher at Buena Vista Elementary School back in the ’80s. But your talk about this impact, it reminds me of the thing I wanted to say, but I didn’t. But I’m gonna tell you right now. I mentioned how science was not a priority when I went to school, in my hometown. That’s Lancaster, California. But recently I got a phone call from a family friend and she was so excited. And she called me to tell me that her daughter was super-excited when she picked her up from school. Because I was in her classroom. She said, “Auntie Desiré was in my class today! And she works on lasers! And she does spectroscopy! And I wanna learn about spectroscopy now. So can we call Auntie Desiré?” And I was like, “Wait, what?” My friend was kind of confused. She’s like, “Desiré didn’t tell me she was in town.” She had no idea why her daughter was saying I was in her classroom, ’cause I was not physically there. And then I had to put the pieces together and I was like, “Oh my God, your daughter’s in eighth grade already.” It made me feel really old, ’cause I know this girl from a little baby. But I was like, “Oh my God, that’s the eighth grade unit on light waves for Amplify that I wrote, and I’m featured as the scientist.” Because we have real scientists in the units. And they featured me in that one, in my laser lab. And so this little girl who knows me really well, who lives in my hometown, is seeing representation in science. She doesn’t necessarily know I’m a scientist. She knows that—I don’t know what she knows about me. She just knows I’m Auntie Desiré and, you know, I like gumbo at Christmas. That’s what she knows about me. <Laugh>. And so she comes back and she’s so excited ’cause now she knows so much more about me. And she knows that if I can do it and I came from where she’s at, she can do it too. And she was super-excited. And I was just…it brought me to tears. I was just crying in the car. I was driving <laugh> at the time and I was like, “This is amazing. Work that I did is teaching you and all of your friends in this tiny little town that you live in. And that to me is so important because now this little girl knows that, like, she knows me as just a normal human right. Who likes Star Trek and Star Wars and The Owl House. And now she’s over here like, “Oh my gosh, this normal human wrote the science curriculum that I’m learning from.” Which I think is just so fantastic. And it really brought home for me kind of the importance of my work and why I’m doing what I’m doing. And that’s pretty awesome. And I get messages from Instagram, you know, from teachers who are like, “Hey, did you work on this? ‘Cause you were featured in the video, but did you write this light waves unit?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And they’ll tell me, “I have students, this is their favorite unit. I’ve gotten notes from students saying, ‘This was my favorite unit in all of middle school.’” And I’m like, “Ohhhhhh!”<Laugh>

Eric Cross (44:33):

That story just gives me chills. Because I just can imagine how surreal that must feel. And you’re directly making that impact on those kids. And I’m glad that you shared that story so that everyone can hear it, because it’s a powerful story and I lived—I feel I was living it through you, just now, as you were discussing it.

Desiré Whitmore (44:54):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (44:54):

And I feel that way in the classroom to a small degree, because I get to have—when my students create posters of scientists that we don’t typically see, I’ve got you on my list of scientists, and I’m they’re like…And I’m like, “I can call her!” Like, “Mr. Cross, you KNOW her?!” I’m like, “Yeah, she’s a friend of mine! I was talking to her the other day!” And they’re like, “Whoa. She works with lasers?!”

Desiré Whitmore (45:17):

<Whispers> I do.

Eric Cross (45:18):

Desiré. I’ve held you for so long and—

Desiré Whitmore (45:23):

Yes, I’m sorry! I told you, I talk so much! I’m a teacher!

Eric Cross (45:26):

No! No, no, no, no. It was great! I wanna honor your time. Can you tell everybody where they can find out more about you again?

Desiré Whitmore (45:33):

So first off, you can find me on Twitter at Darth Science, D A R T H S C I E N C E, and you can also find me at Instagram at Dr. Laser Chick: D R dot laser chick. Even though I don’t post on Instagram that much. I also have a website, which is laser chick dot net. I’m still working on it. It’s not the best website yet. But, you know, it’ll, it’ll be better in the future.

Eric Cross (46:02):

Would you be willing to come back later on in the year and do a part two?

Desiré Whitmore (46:07):

Oh, for sure. Yeah. So I can actually finish telling you the story of how I got into physics! ‘Cause I totally didn’t. ‘Cause I’m all over the place.

Eric Cross (46:15):

So, everybody, cliffhanger! Next time she comes back, she’ll continue to tell us the story. Desiré, thank you so much.

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What Desiré Whitmore says about science

“I think it’s really amazing when we can realize as teachers… our job is not just to enforce rules on our students… our job is is to help students achieve more learning.”

– Desiré Whitmore

Senior Physics Educator, aka “LaserChick”, Exploratorium

Meet the guest

A Southern California native, Desiré earned an associate of science from Antelope Valley College, a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from UCLA, and a master of science and Ph.D. in chemical and material physics from UC Irvine. Her research focused on developing very fast laser and microscope systems that could capture molecules vibrating and rotating in real time. She was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, where she designed and built attosecond lasers (the fastest laser pulses, which emit x-ray light, ever measured). At the Lawrence Hall of Science she wrote an all-digital K–8 science curriculum (Amplify Science), which aligned to the NGSS, with the Learning Design Group (LDG). Desiré left LDG to teach hands-on laser technology and physics courses at Irvine Valley College before joining the TI staff. She is the proud mom of Stella, a four-year-old boxer-pit mix. In her spare time, Desiré is restoring her 1967 VW bug.

Person with curly hair wearing a blue jacket, smiling at the camera with a blurred background.

About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. Listen here!

S3 – 03. Math professional learning experiences with Elham Kazemi

Podcast episode poster for "Math Teacher Lounge" featuring Elham Kazemi, a Mathematics Education Professor at the University of Washington.

How do we continue to grow and be more reflective about our own teaching? In this episode, Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer chat with Elham Kazemi to explore how to look at teaching as a collaborative experiment. Moving more toward analyzing student thinking and how that contributes to teaching itself, leaves more space for one’s own understanding of math to grow throughout your career. When one revises their teaching based on the data we’re collecting from students and peers, this allows us to be both teachers and learners forever.

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page.

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Dan Meyer (00:04):
Hey folks, welcome to math teacher lounge. My name is Dan Meyer

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:07):
And I’m Bethany, Lockhart Johnson.

Dan Meyer (00:09):
And this is the teacher learning week. We’re thinking this week about how we grow as teachers. And to start with, I just wanted to ask Bethany, uh, first Bethany, how are you doing? And second <laugh>. Um, what is, what, what has been your like most favorite and least favorite, most effective least effective professional learning experience when you were a classroom teacher?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:30):
I think for me, most effective was definitely when I could use it right away. Right. Whatever we were talking about, whatever we were learning, like I got to go put it into practice. Sure. Uh, I, I remember we did something where we designed a lesson and then we went and taught it like one person taught it and the rest of the people watched. And then we kind of like got to workshop it, which that was like a one off the fact that we got to go out of our classroom and go observe somebody teaching. It was gold. It was gold. Um, so that was probably the most effective, because there was so much opportunity for reflection and least effective was something that felt like just completely unconnected to, you know, kind of either so theoretical that it wasn’t like touching on what we were navigating right there in the classroom. I don’t know. What about you? What can you think of times that, are you gonna say times you led a PD? Those were the most effective?

Dan Meyer (01:26):
Yeah. My favorite ones are my sessions, of course. But if I had to throw those out for a second, um, yeah, I, I like, I want, I want both, I want it all. I want the, um, the big ideas that take a long time to settle in that also have like small bits that can carve off and use relatively quickly to test my understanding of the ID is, yeah. I’ve had some, some PD where I’m like, this is very relevant to tomorrow. And I also don’t care. Like for instance, like how to use the CD, the, the, like the, the software, you know, on the, on my curriculum, for instance, it’s like, okay, yeah, this is just a little, little too practical. You know what I’m saying? I want some bigger ideas to chew on. Um, I would also say like, I love my favorite PD by a long was writing up thoughts about how the day went and putting that on the internet in a public place that we used to call a blog and where people would come along, cuz there was like 10 blogs and like, tell me like that’s no good.

Dan Meyer (02:16):
Like the thing that you like is not a thing you should like, here’s the thing you should like instead, or try instead, or just this weird community that sprung up, you know, when I was, uh, starting to teach relatively new teacher and uh, I feel like I grew a lot

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:28):
Go back to this idea blog. If people would call you, they’d call you on the phone. What, what

Dan Meyer (02:32):
Was they would fax me? They, it would be a fact. So

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (02:35):
Fax,

Dan Meyer (02:36):
I got it. Fax a comment. Yeah. Got it. So, uh, that’s, that’s Bethany and I, and we’re super excited to have people who have a bit broader of a perspective, a bit more of the land than what, what the two of us, um, think about with our own professional learning experiences.

Dan Meyer (02:52):
We’ve invited on an expert. We hope will help us understand alternate ways to do professional learning as teachers to grow as teachers besides, you know, all of us getting into the same room once every, every, uh, few months together, Elm Cosmi is a professor of mathematics education at the university of Washington, Elm studies, how strong professional communities develop in schools and how schools can be organized. So teachers learn from and what their students, this work is informed by equity oriented research on thinking, uh, on children’s mathematical thinking and classroom practice. She is co-author with Allison hints of intentional talk, which focuses on leading productive discussions in mathematics. And she edited coral counting and counting collections with Megan Frankie and Angela tau, which focuses on the importance of counting from preschool to fifth grade. Looking forward to a great chat with Elham, welcome Elham to the show.

Elham Kazemi (03:43):
Thanks for having me, my favorite topic ever to talk with you both about,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (03:47):
I think something that I just deeply, deeply respected admire is that I feel like you are constantly sharing about how you are learning. You’re continue to learn, continue to, to try out new ideas and you do a very good job of like highlighting things that you’ve learned, whether that’s sharing it through a tweet or sharing it amongst colleagues or peers. And I, I just really appreciate that because I feel like being in the mathematics community with you, I feel like I grow by, I just like paying attention to like, Hey, she’s a learner, she’s done all these amazing things and thinks in these amazing ways and has shifted my thinking in such amazing ways. But she’s saying, Hey, I I’m still learning. So yeah. Hi, thank you. Thank you for your, I don’t know. We’re just glad to have you here.

Elham Kazemi (04:41):
Thanks. I do feel like the perpetual student, like I’ve never left school and I wonder like one day maybe I will, when I grow older, when I grow up, will I ever leave school? Maybe not.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (04:52):
<laugh>

Dan Meyer (04:53):
Great. Let’s dig in. Yeah. So please tell us you partnered with a school for some professional learning that wasn’t the sort where you would go in and offer brilliant ideas and then leave. But rather it, it seemed like it was more of a job embedded sort, the sort of thing that might have a life of its own after, you know, after the, the grant ends or the program ends. Can you describe what it was you did and what the effect was?

Elham Kazemi (05:15):
I think I wanna first say that everything that I have done and experimented with as really the result of working with fabulous people, teachers, coaches, principals, other, um, colleagues and peers in the field who are constantly trying to work on what good teaching looks like and how you learn to do it. And mostly because we care about kids and we care about what students experience in the classroom. And we want kids to love school, to have school, be a place where they’re known, they’re loved, um, that they look forward to being in every day. And I think there’s that, um, the why that, that, um, per that makes you want to learn is really about the students and being, doing things in service of them. Because when, uh, as one of my colleagues said, when children thrive, teachers thrive. So what does it mean for us to thrive?

Elham Kazemi (06:06):
If we are focused on our kids’ experiences in schools, what we did at this, this particular school and a group of schools is kind of tap into a, all that curiosity and drive that teachers have to do a good job and to use their imaginations well, and to engage the actual ideas that children have in their classroom together, not separately, not like get a great idea and be inspired by it and then go figure it out by yourself, but be inspired by ideas and then try to figure them out together. Because, um, as you both know, very talented teachers, uh, who also have been inspired to change your classroom teaching. Once you figure something out or as you’re figuring it out, there’s all kinds of intricacies. Like I remember when I first learned about three act tasks, I thought what a brilliant idea, but it’s not so simple to try to enact the brilliance of it because you can simplify it too much or you can get stuck and not really know how do you move from one act to the next, or what’s the point of the third act?

Elham Kazemi (07:12):
Do you just like reveal the answer and that’s it. And then you move on. Um, how do you even do design the tasks to begin with all of those things, raise questions and working on them together, uh, and carving up that space and time to work on them together is sorely missing in schools. And so that’s what we were able to do with the schools that I parted and it is find the time and then design the structures so that teachers could, um, <affirmative> think about their teaching together and then also be in the classroom together with kids. So the kids see that we are also learning to be responsive to them. That’s the point. So we have to work stuff out when kids are present, which is the part that usually trips a lot of people up.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:55):
Well, that to me is I think the part that shifted my teaching and continues to is this, it is a culture shift to tell your students, to invite your students into your learning, to tell them I’m, I’m learning too. It was an invitation to, to be vulnerable in a way that I think sometimes teachers are very afraid to be vulnerable. Uh, if they don’t know what the student response is gonna be, or they don’t know, they don’t wanna seem like they don’t know the answers or they don’t know how to figure out a problem. I think that’s a real shift in the, in the culture for, for compared to maybe what we, we experienced growing up.

Dan Meyer (08:33):
I hated not knowing the answer to a math problem. I admitting I, I was uncertain with the mathematics, but to admit that I am like a, a work in aggress as a teacher, feels like an extra admission, an extra layer of humility, which is, I don’t know, it’s a really special thing that you were up to with that school. I’d love to hear like about specific structures that you worked with to help make that transition feel, you know, more natural, more welcoming, more productive.

Elham Kazemi (08:58):
So, I mean, you probably have experienced common planning time, right? This is a thing that often happens for us teachers. I think that common planning time looks a lot sometimes like, uh, what are we gonna do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? Okay. What do we need? What are the materials we need? Who is gonna do that? Will you write this? And that’s what kind of common planning time, and then it’s over. And then you might see each other at lunch and say, well, how did that go? And you’ll talk a little bit about it, but common planning time and learning labs, which is sort of what the, what we call the, the PD that we designed means. Okay. So let’s take three act task. We, we write a little bit about it. We’ve seen a couple, but okay. What would it really mean to plan this particular one?

Elham Kazemi (09:42):
So common planning time is thinking like, how are we gonna launch that first act? What are we actually gonna say? What do we think the kids are gonna say? Why would we say it that way? What if they say something else? Um, and then, okay, so what does it actually sounds like to transition from act one, to act two? What might we say, what would happen with this particular task and actually getting into the details of how you imagine, like, what, what you would do when you were actually planning the specifics of a particular lesson, but leaving it loose enough that you’re not trying to make it perfect. And I think that’s the trick. So, so that you are not so invested, that goes in that particular way or that you fail. If it doesn’t go that way. Um, but that you have something you wanna learn together and trying out this three act task with a particular group of kids so that when you go into the classroom, first of all, you’ve all thought through the full R of the lesson.

Elham Kazemi (10:40):
And you’re curious enough about what’s gonna happen at particular points that you’ve left room for uncertainty and the taking of some risks. So then when you go together into a classroom and kids start to say things that you didn’t anticipate you or, or they start to do something that you’re so jazzed about, that you didn’t anticipate that you’re like, this is the thing we should pursue more. You give each other permission to do that. You’re like, whoa, wait, did you hear what so? And so said, I think we should follow that road and see where it takes us, or, huh. Okay, hold on. And that’s what we call teacher timeouts, where you actually confer briefly and you tell the kids, this is a super special day. We’ve tried to design something. We’re very curious how you are gonna react to it. So we’re gonna try it out. And along the way, we might pause to get your ideas or for us to make some decisions and steer the ship in a, in a new directions and see what happens. So we’re gonna be sitting closely to you among you. Um, and you get to be our teachers today while we teach. That’s how it’s framed.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (11:46):
Like, what were you seeing in professional development or in that wasn’t happening amongst teachers? Like where, where are the gaps? Because it feels like so much of your work. You’ve just looked in such nuanced ways at how teachers can continue to grow and be more reflective of their own teaching. And I’m just kind of curious where that came from or where you’re seeing the landscape.

Elham Kazemi (12:10):
Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, I, oh, everything I know about, children’s thinking to Megan Frankie and the beautiful body of work called CGI, but, um, one of the things that we noticed, there’s so many great CGI workshops, and even like all the seminars and conference presentations and amazing things that you can design to have engaging work time for teach in, in professional development, outside of their classroom, people get super jazzed, you know, they get, um, uh, they have meaningful experiences, but to contextualize that back into their classrooms with their own students is like where, where often I would see like, wait, the same group of teachers I just saw in my classroom or in either in math methods or in this PD seminar, or even myself, like noticing, like I have seen and thought about stuff a lot. But when I went to go do it with a particular group of kids, holy moly was that so hard. And I saw all kinds of new complexities that I didn’t anticipate. And if I were just left to my own devices, I might very easily say, whew, this seems a little too hard.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (13:21):
Right,

Elham Kazemi (13:22):
Right. And that’s the thing that I always hated. I was like, oh, if only we had, or you, or if you watched somebody do a demo lesson and you saw something that was like, kind of cool that you wish you had done afterwards. I often this happened in reflections. I wish we had, because we weren’t allowed to interrupt each other during teaching. Cuz somehow that would be rude or that would undermine the teacher’s authority. But that’s only the way we frame it. If we say actually we’re all capable people. So a question we ask ourselves during instruction doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing. It means actually we’re thinking together then the interruptions aren’t about undermining authority. They’re about thinking together.

Dan Meyer (14:04):
There’s a performative aspect to a lot of teaching. Like the like teaching feels like a performance and you don’t, the movie’s playing or there’s a play that’s going on. It feels like inappropriate to interrupt that in any way. Cause the performance is going and I, I love what this that’s. I love what this idea does to kind of, to redefine teaching is not a performance, but this, this co-constructed thing. Or if it’s a performance, it’s a performance, the stars, all of us, like we’re all a part of the cast and always a it’s always the dress rehearsal.

Elham Kazemi (14:30):
<laugh> it is like the dress rehearsal. Although some of my brilliant colleagues with backgrounds in drama and theater, Sarah Kavanaugh and Holly GU and Elizabeth dure, they actually were at a meeting together. And they talked about how this like breaks the fourth wall, you know, mm-hmm, <affirmative> like, which is out of theater, um, where the performer speaks to the audience, you know, I know you’re there and I have something to say to you. Yep. And I was like, well, we should, why can’t we do that in teaching? So we actually wrote a little paper, um, that’s called breaking the fourth wall as a way. That’s so cool as a metaphor for understanding and reframing what these interruptions could meet. Cuz we often get people when we about this for academic audience who say like, aren’t you using the children and what are the children gonna do while you just pause? Are they supposed to freeze? And uh, you know, while you talk about them, but it’s not really that it’s like, Hey students, we’re here because of you. So shouldn’t, we try to involve you and are decision making. To some extent, it’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re doing things because we wanna advance your learning.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (15:40):
I mean, I still remember the first time I did a teacher time out and it, it was, I, it was breaking the four, it was this like, okay, you’re gonna see what happens, kids like, look at my, my tap dances stopped. And you’re you mean like, you know, whoa, wait a second. And I think it is about how you frame it. Right? It’s a celebration of their thinking and you, you use the term ambitious teaching and it, to me that is such a joyful way to think about it.

Elham Kazemi (16:06):
It is risky. And you would never say anything to shame any student, no. Or to shame your colleagues. Clearly it’s not a about that kind of discussion. Right. And they’re so brief. They’re like, it, it seconds. It’s not like you’re wasting time. You’re actually trying to understand what’s happening here. And I’ve just had so many instances where something goes on. Um, like we were doing a growing patterns task in a classroom and the student built the fourth term and they built stuff that did not follow the pattern. And I was so confused. I, I just didn’t understand like what was going on. And one of the kids said, well, if you, if you did follow the pattern, that’s not her words. But you know, she’s like, well, if we built it this way, that would be too obvious. Because if you just, if you saw that and you’re like, oh, that lesson failed.

Elham Kazemi (16:59):
Now we, our kids don’t understand what patterns are. We did it. Like, we gotta pause here and we gotta say, and we’re like, well, what do you mean? Can you say more about that? And basically what they said is that, um, well, first of all, they’re, they’re right. A pattern could change at any time, but it’s like, it would be more interesting if they, they knew how many cubes it would take for the fourth term that it would be nine, but they’re like, Hey, let’s rearrange that nine in some cool new ways. <laugh> cause that’s more interesting. It was like more interesting to them if, if they didn’t keep the pattern. So like, you kind of had to wrestle with that in the moment <affirmative> with them. And that’s how they can actually be partners with you in the teacher, timeout.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (17:40):
Right. That’s making it about them and their learning. It’s not about that. It’s not about your performance and like looking all shiny and, and I’ve got it all together and I know exactly how this lesson’s gonna go. It that’s so interesting.

Elham Kazemi (17:53):
And sometimes you pause and like some cuz somebody else who’s watching is noticing something about what the kids are doing. And while you’re, if you’re happen to be the person who’s upfront at the time leading, you’ve got so many things going on in your head that some times the person who’s just been sitting on the rug with the kids mm-hmm <affirmative> has noticed something. And they’re like, can I ask something right now? And that’s a great teacher timeout too. Mm. Because they’re interrupting you cuz they’re like, I think I, I wanna see what kids will say. If we ask this question next and those moments have been like amazing because someone has noticed something that another person hasn’t in the room and it’s been very helpful to illuminate how kids are processing something or what two ideas they could connect. That would be really powerful based on what we were hoping to learn that day or do with the kids that day.

Dan Meyer (18:47):
It’s like you have a bonus brain attached to you there in the room. Sounds really powerful. I wonder a couple about the student experience of this. I’m imagine if I was a student in the room and I heard the two teachers like kind of pause, take this time out and like talk about how interesting my thinking was like behind my back a little bit, like trying to strategize about something interesting. I had said, I just imagine I would, I would feel very good about like, that would be a very positive experience for me. Um, but I’m just curious, can you speak to how students reacted when they’re,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:16):
You mean, if you had been a student in the class and you saw two teachers conferring about your work?

Dan Meyer (19:21):
Yeah. Yeah. Like I, my classmates had of thing that was like, it, it kind of like was so novel that it stymied the teachers and then they like had to pause and like talk about what are we doing? Oh, I don’t know. I can imagine that’d be like know a fun feeling. Maybe I just tell more about me than about the kids, but

Elham Kazemi (19:35):
<laugh> it points to like, how would you go about starting to do this work? Right. Because one is you do, you do have to tell kids, Hey, I’m here with so and so and so, and so, and so, and so it might be just two of you. It might be five of you. It might be more and you know how we’ve been working on X thing in class? Well, today we wanted to try this new thing and, but we’re not sure how it’s gonna go and we need, we need your feedback. Right. So here’s something that might happen. We might pause you, you, I mean, you really do directly tell the kids to do that. And then we’re gonna ask you how it felt and we’re gonna share those feelings with one another. So you do that, you do a little exit card or you,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (20:19):
How, what felt the pause or how,

Elham Kazemi (20:22):
How, yeah. How did it feel that, how did this lesson go or how did a lesson, how did it feel when you heard, you know, ALM and Dan talk to each other, doing this lesson and they might say, Hey, it’s cool. It’s fun. Kids have definitely chimed in, in like, if we ask a question like, should we do this next or this, somebody will pipe in and say, do that, you know, do this thing. Instead. If, if you kind of pipe in to say, can I ask a question? They just turn to you and look at you and answer your question. Right. So, and we always thank them and we just like pump it up. Right? Like this is so cool because this is all about you. And usually when you say today, you’re gonna be our teachers, especially the little kids. They like get all giggly. Totally.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:02):
Right.

Elham Kazemi (21:04):
Love it.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (21:05):
You know, you, you were sharing about this really unique situation, which I wish it wasn’t as unique where you had the whole school involved, but how did that happen? And what if you don’t have the whole school involved? What if it’s just me in my grade level, who’s like, I kind of wanna try this, but what

Elham Kazemi (21:22):
<laugh>, I think you could start with your, a peer in your school or a colleague in your school. Yeah. I mean, it’s a little seed, right. And it’s a little seed and then you could make it grow. I also believe in starting small and growing, cuz you do have to invite people into a different way of thinking about what it means to learn together. So you need to experience it, um, in order to believe it.

Dan Meyer (21:49):
Yeah. It feels like we would not want to write off any student as like, oh, they just don’t wanna learn. I think a lot of, a lot of us just like don’t buy that, that there’s other reasons why people need that. A teacher shouldn’t like shouldn’t, that’s not true of students that they have been told they can’t learn or there’s various circumstances the same. I, I suppose the same as like should be true is true of teachers. Like no teacher doesn’t want to learn more about teaching is at least a helpful Axiom to use, to approach the work of teacher growth. And so maybe they, yeah, maybe I feel like I’m the only person in my school who wants to do this, but perhaps that’s not actually true. Perhaps it’s just a matter of creating an imagination or the right kind of enticement or I don’t know what, um, but to start small and grow from there makes a lot of sense.

Elham Kazemi (22:32):
I feel now, like it would be weird and a lot harder for me to invite someone to just come in and watch me teach and sit quietly in the back when I don’t know anything about what they’re thinking and wait until afterwards to get their opinion.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:46):
Oh yes.

Elham Kazemi (22:47):
I would be much more willing to co-plan with someone so that we were both on the same page about what we were trying to do and then when you’re in the classroom with me. So that’s the other thing that’s important cuz I don’t think you can just be in the classroom together and I, you know, interrupt each other’s teachers, if you haven’t planned together, cuz you do have to have some common understanding of what are we trying to do here? Oh the

Dan Meyer (23:10):
Intent here.

Elham Kazemi (23:11):
Yeah. So I would definitely say don’t just show up in each other’s classroom and start interrupting each other. <laugh> if you don’t know what the heck is going on. Yeah.

Dan Meyer (23:21):
Yeah. I, I know that’s directed at one person on this call in particular. I hear that.

Elham Kazemi (23:25):
I know who we’re talking about, but you know, I would be way more intimidating for me if I was trying to do a three act task and Dan just came to watch me do it <laugh> and he hadn’t planned with me. He didn’t know why I selected that task. I had no opportunity to talk to him. Then it would be, Hey Dan, would you just like do this with me? Let’s think through this. Why would you do this then? What, what have you normally done? Oh, okay. Why have you done that? Right. And then to like, okay, let’s try it together. Um, and then, and then along the way, if I have questions, you’re there with me. So sometimes there is someone more experience like if right. And sometimes you’re both just like, I just don’t have that much experience with this. I’m learning this for the first time.

Elham Kazemi (24:04):
Right. And the beauty of the math ed community, whether it’s on Twitter or is that we’re kind of pretty accessible to each other. Right. So if I read something and I have a question about it, you bet I’m gonna reach out to the author <laugh> and say, I’ve been thinking about your work and this is what’s been coming up for us. Can you? So like, it definitely happened with hands down conversations. We tried it in the learning lab and we just couldn’t figure out like that. How do you intercede, like into the hands down conversation cuz the kids are supposed to have a conversation. So we had to like give Kaia and her co-author a few specific examples so they could help our thinking so that we could try it again. Right. And make it better. And I think that is, is what it means to be learning in community is that you use the resources more broadly.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (24:52):
That’s a beautiful reminder too. And it also helps me feel a little better about all the messages I’ve sent you. Like what does this mean? Can you help me with this?

Elham Kazemi (24:59):
<laugh> I mean, that just makes you feel alive. <laugh> I think

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (25:06):
So. I think P part of the beauty of you talking about starting small is that it does give those of us who maybe aren’t seeing that those opportunities for collaboration reflected in our school culture, it gives us kind of some hope for like, wait, don’t just like, think you can’t start. I, how do you, how do you see, how do you see it growing? Or, or do you think like if you could magically <laugh> like wave your wand and, and create some shifts around, around, uh, the culture where folks are feeling isolated or maybe don’t feel like they have the needs to do this work. What could that look like?

Elham Kazemi (25:51):
Yeah. What could that look like? So time, like we need some imagination around the use of time in schools and I have seen some really amazing opportunities where teachers get to co-teach, which means that they really have to co-plan when, um, there’s a break in a regular school session and there’s like an intercession or like a, like an elective that, um, that doesn’t, I haven’t seen it happen a lot in public schools, but I have seen it happen a lot in independent schools where they’ll have like, stop, stop the presses. It’s like a drop everything and read, but it’s like a drop everything and do an R arts week. And then all the kids in the school get shuffled. So they into multiage groupings and the teachers get to plan something special for like the week. But you could start with like a day, which would at least get you to plan something together and try to teach together and be just in each other’s spaces. And I think that might be kind of an interesting way to start where you have to like mess with the schedule somehow. Cuz the schedule is the beast in schools

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:59):
Is kind of the first step. Like we are going to create a shared activity, a shared instructional goal, a shared like where do I start?

Elham Kazemi (27:09):
What, where do you start? I mean, there’s so many good books. We all read, start with something that grabs your imagination. That you’re like, if I got to do this in my class, I’d be so jazzed. And I think my kids would love it. Why would they love it? You know, whatever it is. There’s so many good ideas that people are instantly blogging about publishing, um, slow reveal graphs. I love those two. I have like all these things. I was like, I would love to try these out, but I, I gotta do them with somebody cuz I need a sounding board about like how, what does it mean to do it well? And what does it mean to just do it at the surface level and do it a, you know, in a kind of a crappy way. And we don’t wanna do a crappy job. We wanna do a good job, but you have to start, you have to start sometimes in an awkward, crappy way. Like, you know, and get past that stage. Cause often we try a bunch of stuff, eh, and then we drop it. But like you gotta work on it to make it really

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (27:58):
Good. And if you’ve already tried it and it didn’t go so well it’s, this could be an invitation, like, you know, it doesn’t mean give up on the idea. It means like, Hey let, let’s let’s collaborate. Let’s you know, come into my class. Let’s co plan this.

Elham Kazemi (28:10):
So I would challenge people to think about the schedule. <laugh> try to do something just a little bit different. You know, like when we do learning labs, people are like, well, how do you do that? And there’s no money for it. Actually. We just use our money in a slightly different way to make or that everybody four people get a sub, which I know right now, sub shortages is crazy, crazy, but then combine your classes or do something different. Yeah. You know, um, involve people differently somehow in your, in your school environment to get that time,

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:43):
Really see this as a priority. This is a, this is there’s is intense value in this time to collaborate. Yeah.

Elham Kazemi (28:51):
Yeah. There’s so many side benefits for, I think for kids and teachers when you’re able to do this.

Dan Meyer (28:58):
Yeah. You’ve heard of folks. Uh, usually our, our math teacher challenge, our lounge challenge has been, uh, pedagogical in nature or a new CU. And uh, this is a different kind of one. This is, uh, go, go be a Rabel Razr go Rouse rabble at your, uh, front office and figure out the right way to get some funding or some time or shuffle a master schedule in such a way that you have collaboration, time to plan to co-teach to interrupt one another and uh, let us know how it goes. We are super excited and super interested in all of that. Thank you, uh, Elham for being with us here today and sharing all of your wisdom about how teachers grow.

Elham Kazemi (29:36):
Thanks for reminding me. You too loved

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:38):
It. We’re never done learning. We’re never done learning. Nope.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (29:44):
Aha. Thank you so much for joining us in the lounge. I think all of us have sat through effective and ineffective professional learning sessions and just helping us to envision of how this can truly help PD can truly transform our classrooms. It is it’s exciting. It’s exciting. And I think we’ve all learned a lot from our conversation. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And don’t forget, you can connect with us in the lounge on Facebook at math teacher lounge or on Twitter at MTL show. Let’s keep this conversation going. Keep it going. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Everybody. <silence>.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Tuesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Elham Kazemi says about math

“ When children thrive, teachers thrive. So what does it mean for us to thrive if we are focused on our kids’ experiences at school?”

– Elham Kazemi

Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Washington

Meet the guest

Elham Kazemi is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington. She studies how strong professional communities develop in schools and how schools can be organized so teachers learn from and with their students. This work is informed by equity-oriented research on organizational learning, children’s mathematical thinking, and classroom practice.  She is co-author with Allison Hintz of Intentional Talk, which focuses on leading productive discussions in mathematics. She also edited Choral Counting and Counting Collections with Megan Franke and Angela Turrou, which focuses on the importance of counting from preschool to 5th grade.

Follow Elham on Twitter

A woman with long dark hair and streaks of gray smiles at the camera, wearing a black top and necklace, with a blurred green and pink outdoor background—ideal for sharing in a math teacher lounge or featuring math teacher resources.
A graphic with the text "Math Teacher Lounge with Bethany Lockhart Johnson and Dan Meyer" on colored overlapping circles.

About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

1. Service Overview

As a provider of technology solutions to schools, Amplify’s commitment to data privacy and security is essential to our organization. This overview of Amplify’s Information Security Program describes physical, technical and administrative safeguards Amplify implements to protect student data in our care.

Company profile

Amplify Education, Inc. (Amplify) is a privately held company founded in 2000 as Wireless Generation. Amplify’s products include curriculum and instruction, assessment and intervention, professional development services and consulting services for K-12 education.

Service hosting

Amplify leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud hosting provider. Within AWS, Amplify utilizes Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), which provide an isolated cloud environment within the AWS infrastructure. External network traffic to a VPC is managed via gateway and firewall rules, which are maintained in source code control to ensure that the configuration remains in compliance with Amplify security policy. In addition, the production VPCs and the development VPCs are isolated from each other and maintained in separate AWS accounts.

2. Policies & standards

Information security program

Amplify maintains a comprehensive information security program based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework and the NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 family of information security controls. These provide a robust framework of best practices from which an organization can build its security policies and protocols based on identified risks, compliance requirements, and business needs. They cover critical practice areas, including access control, configuration management, incident response, security training, and other information security domains.

Governance

Amplify’s Information Security Committee has primary responsibility for the development, maintenance, and implementation of the Amplify information security program. The Information Security Committee is responsible for all information risk management activities within the company and is composed of technology, business and legal leaders from the organization. The Committee meets weekly and includes a dedicated VP of Information Security and a program manager to oversee, direct and coordinate its activities.

Policy execution

Adherence to the internal Amplify information security policy is an obligation of every Amplify employee. Amplify conducts a series of internal monitoring procedures to verify compliance with internal information security policies, and all Amplify employees undergo annual criminal background checks. In addition, any third-party contractors who come into contact with systems that may contain student data are contractually bound to maintain security and privacy of the data.

3. Data access controls

Access control

Amplify’s access control principles dictate that all student data we store on behalf of customers is only accessible to district-authorized users and to a limited set of internal Amplify users who may only access the data for purposes authorized by the district. Districts maintain control over their internal users and may grant or revoke access.

In limited circumstances and strictly for the purposes of supporting school districts and maintaining the functionality of systems, certain Amplify users may access Amplify systems with student data. All such access to student data by Amplify technicians or customer support requires both authentication and authorization to view the information.

Encryption

Data encryption is an important element of our protection of sensitive data at rest and in transit, and is reviewed and updated as appropriate annually, based on the latest standards and guidelines published by OWASP and NIST.

  • In transit: Amplify encrypts all student data in transit over public connections, using Transport Layer Security (TLS), commonly known as SSL, using industry-standard protocols, ciphers, algorithms, and key sizes.
  • At rest: Amplify encrypts student data at rest using the industry-standard AES-256 encryption algorithm.

4. Application security by design

Building the right roles into applications

Permissions within Amplify applications are designed on the principle that school districts control access to all student data. To facilitate this, Amplify applications are designed so that roles and permissions flow from the district to the individual user. For example, applications that offer schools a way to collect and report on assessment results have a web interface that requires district administrators to authorize individuals to view student data.

Security controls within applications are used to ensure that the desired privacy protections are technically enforced within the system. For example, if a principal is supposed to see only the data related to his or her school, Amplify ensures that, throughout the design and development process, our products restrict principals from seeing records for any students outside his or her school.

To make sure Amplify applications properly enforce permissions and roles, our development teams conduct reviews early in the design process to ensure roles and permissions are an essential component of the design of new applications.

Building security controls into applications

Amplify applications are also developed to minimize security vulnerabilities and ensure industry-standard application security controls are in place.

As part of the development process, Amplify has a set of application security standards that all applications handling student data are required to follow, including:

  • Student data is secured using industry standard encryption when in transit between end-users and Amplify systems.
  • Applications are built with password brute-force attack prevention.
  • User sessions expire after a fixed period of time.

We also conduct manual and automated static code analysis as well as dynamic application security testing to preemptively identify vulnerabilities published by industry leaders such as OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project)

5. Proactive security

Risk assessments

Amplify periodically engages a security consulting firm to conduct risk assessments, aimed at identifying and prioritizing security vulnerabilities. The Information Security Committee coordinates remediation of the vulnerabilities. The security consulting firm also provides ongoing advice on current risks and advises on remediation of vulnerabilities and incident response.

Penetration testing

Amplify engages third-party firms to continually conduct application penetration testing.  The purpose of this testing is to test for application security vulnerabilities in the production environment.  We work with third party penetration testing program partners. Third-party testing involves a combination of automated and manual testing.

Vulnerability management

Amplify ensures that its systems are free of known vulnerabilities in several ways. Every production server runs vulnerability detection software that compares the installed software against a global database of known vulnerabilities. Secondly, we employ real time network monitoring that reports on any potentially malicious traffic. In addition, a third-party security firm continually reviews all of our system logs for potential security breaches. Lastly we continually test our applications against common malicious internet traffic. Violations in any of these areas will alert one of our operations teams, who are available around the clock.

In addition, Amplify participates in a private bug bounty program through HackerOne, working with the security community to find security vulnerabilities and support our efforts to keep our data and systems safe and secure.

Endpoint security

Access to production systems at Amplify is restricted to a limited set of internal Amplify users to support technical infrastructure, troubleshoot customer issues, or other purposes authorized by the district. In addition, Amplify requires multi-factor (MFA) authentication methods for access to all production systems. MFA involves a combination of something only the user knows and something only the user can access. For example, MFA for administrative access could involve entering a password as well as entering a one-time passcode sent via text message to the administrator’s mobile phone. The use of MFA reduces the possibility that an unauthorized individual could use a compromised password to access a system.

Infrastructure security

Network filtering technologies are used to ensure that production environments with student data are properly segmented from the rest of the network. Production environments only have limited external access to enable customers to use our web interfaces and other services. In addition, Amplify uses firewalls to ensure that development servers have no access to production environments.

Other measures that Amplify takes to secure its operational environment include system monitoring to detect anomalous activity that could indicate potential attacks and breaches.

Security training

At Amplify, we believe that protecting student data is the responsibility of all employees. We implemented a comprehensive information security awareness training program that all employees  undergo upon initial hire, with an annual refresher training. We also provide information security training and annual social engineering tests for specific departments based on role.

6. Reactive security

Monitoring

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) are in place to analyze the network device logs, monitor the network and report anomalous activity for appropriate resolution.

Incident response

Amplify maintains a comprehensive Security Incident Response Policy Plan, which sets out roles, responsibilities and procedures for reporting, investigation, containment, remediation and notification of security incidents. Amplify works with reputable firms for incident response and digital forensics support, as well as annual table-top exercises in coordination with cybersecurity experts.

Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery

Amplify maintains a comprehensive Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Plan (BCP/DR), to guide personnel in procedures to protect against business disruptions caused by an unexpected event. The plans and related operations processes are tested on a semiannual basis, with ensuing operations improvement and remediation work.

7. Compliance

Audits

In addition to penetration testing and other proactive security testing and monitoring outlined above, Amplify undergoes annual SOC 2 Type 2 examinations of controls relevant to security. The examination is formally known as a Type 2 Independent Service Auditor’s Report on Controls Relevant to Security. The most recent examination was conducted by Schellman & Company, LLC and covers the period from April 1, 2024–March 31, 2025. The report states that Amplify’s systems meet the criteria for the security principle and opine on management’s description of the organization’s system and the suitability of the design of controls to protect against unauthorized access, use, or modification.

The Type 2 report also opines on the operating effectiveness of controls over the review period. This means that our auditors confirmed that we have continued to follow established security controls over the period of time of the review.

Certifications

SOC 2: Amplify successfully completed the SOC 2 Type 2 examination of controls relevant to security (see above, under “Audits”).

Privacy

Amplify’s products are built to facilitate district compliance with applicable data privacy laws, including FERPA and state laws related to the collection, access and review and disclosure of student data. Amplify’s Customer Privacy Policy describes the types of information collected and maintained on behalf of our school district customers and limitations on use and sharing of that data.

8. Supporting documentation

In the course of customer security assessment, the following documentation can be provided by Amplify upon customers’ request:

  • Penetration Testing Report
  • Risk Assessment Report
  • SOC 2 Type 2 Report

9. Report a vulnerability

To report a security vulnerability, click here.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE RESTRICTED OR PROHIBITED BY LAW.

These Terms and Conditions (the “T&Cs”) apply to each sweepstakes offered by Amplify Education, Inc. (the “Sponsor”) on a webpage, email, or other document that links to these T&Cs (the “Entry Page”). For detailed rules for each sweepstakes, please review the sweepstakes rules on the Entry Page (such rules, the “Sweepstakes Rules”). These Terms and Conditions, together with the Sweepstakes Rules, will comprise the “Official Rules” for the sweepstakes.

To enter

Fill out the entry form on the Entry Page. Limit of one (1) entry per person using only one (1) email address for each drawing conducted during the sweepstakes period. Eligibility of individual entries will be at the sole discretion of the Sponsor, for any reason or for no reason, though specific reasons for disqualification may include use of inappropriate language. Entries generated by script, macro, mechanical or other automated means and entries by any means which subvert the entry process are void. Multiple entries received from any person in excess of the stated limitation will be void. Sponsor is not responsible for incomplete, lost, late, stolen, misdirected, damaged, illegible entries, for address changes of entrants, or for malfunctions of electronic or telephone equipment, computer hardware or software, failure of any entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to any entrant’s or any other person’s computer or other property related to or resulting from participation in the sweepstakes, or for other problems related to electronic entries. All entries become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned.

Eligibility

In addition to any eligibility restrictions contained in the Sweepstakes Rules, each sweepstakes is open only to individual legal residents of the states of the United States or the District of Columbia, except for residents of Rhode Island, who are at least 13 years of age or older as of the time of entry.

  • Minors – Parents and Guardians: An eligible person under the age of majority in such person’s jurisdiction must have his/her parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to enter this sweepstakes. The parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of an entrant under the legal age of majority in his/her jurisdiction of residence (a) will ensure that the entrant in respect of whom they agree to the Official Rules will comply with the Official Rules; and (b) warrants that he/she agrees to the Official Rules and gives the consents contained herein, including permission for his/her child/ward to participate in this sweepstakes. The parents(s) or legal guardian(s) of each such entrant agrees to indemnify the Released Parties (as defined below) for and against: (i) any claims made by the entrant, his or her legal guardian(s), or any member of his or her family against the Released Parties in connection with this sweepstakes; and (ii) any losses (including any liability) caused by any conduct of the entrant that is inconsistent with the Official Rules.
  • Teachers/School Personnel: By entering this sweepstakes, you represent and warrant that your participation in this sweepstakes complies with your school, institution, school board and school district policies. Any entry submitted in violation of such policies may result in disqualification. Verification: Amplify reserves the right to verify an individual’s eligibility, compliance with applicable policies in the case of teachers and school personnel and, if applicable, a parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to enter the sweepstakes by requesting proof of identity, compliance, or eligibility in the form acceptable to Amplify. Failure to provide such proof may result in disqualification, such that entrant will no longer be eligible to participate in the sweepstakes and will have no recourse or other opportunity to submit an entry.
  • Entrant: In the event of a dispute regarding any entry, the entry will be deemed made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry (i.e., the natural person who is assigned to an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address).
  • Ineligibility: Employees of Amplify, its advertising and promotion agencies, its contest administration agents, and each of Amplify’s and such agencies’ respective parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates (all of the foregoing, the “Sweepstakes Entities”), and such employees’ immediate family and household members, are not eligible.

Drawing

Winners will be selected on the date(s) specified in the Sweepstakes Rules (the “Drawing Dates”). Each winner be selected in a random drawing, from all eligible entries received since the beginning of the sweepstakes period or the prior Drawing Date, as applicable. Winner does not need to be present to win. The drawing(s) will be conducted by Sponsor or its designee, the judge of the sweepstakes, whose decisions are final and binding on all matters relating to the sweepstakes. Winner will be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility/liability and publicity release, or the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner selected.

Prize and odds of winning

The Prizes and number to be awarded are specified in the Sweepstakes Rules. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Prizes will be awarded. No prize substitutions, upgrades or cash equivalents, except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor if an advertised prize becomes unavailable. Prizes are non-transferable. All taxes, if any, associated with the prize are the winner’s sole responsibility.

General

By entering, entrants agree to: (1) release the Sponsor, its agents, and any platforms used to conduct the sweepstakes, such as Facebook, Twitter, or others (each, a “Platform” and together with Sponsor and its agents, the “Released Parties”), from all liability, injuries, loss and/or damage of any kind arising from their participation in the sweepstakes and the acceptance, possession and use/misuse of any prize; (2) to be bound by the Official Rules and the decisions of the judge; and (3) to be contacted by Sponsor by mail, telephone and/or email regarding the sweepstakes. The sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, any Platforms used to promote it. By accepting a prize, winner consents to the use of his/her name and likeness for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation in all media worldwide (except where prohibited by law). The sweepstakes is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. If for any reason the sweepstakes is not capable of running as planned, including due to an infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this sweepstakes, Sponsor and its agents reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to modify, suspend or terminate the sweepstakes, and select the winner from all eligible entries received prior to the termination and/or to disqualify any individual who is responsible or who tampers with the entry process. This sweepstakes is governed by the laws of the State of New York, with venue in New York County, New York, and all claims must be resolved in the state or federal courts in New York County, New York.

Removal for future mailings

To have your name and address removed from Sponsor’s future mailings, please select the unsubscribe link in any email you receive from Sponsor. Sponsor will process your request within 60 days.

Winner’s name

For the name of the winner, email mail@amplify.com or send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to be postmarked within 15 days and received within 30 days of the relevant Drawing Date to: Amplify, Marketing Department, Winner’s Name, 55 Washington Street, Suite 800, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Sponsor

Amplify Education, Inc., 55 Washington Street, Suite 800, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

High-impact, evidence-based programs that help students make gap-closing gains in reading and math

Amplify Tutoring engages students and drives measurable academic gains. We partner with districts to ensure that children become confident, proficient readers and mathematical thinkers.

A student and an adult sit at a table, both looking at a laptop screen. The background features blue and yellow geometric shapes with a star icon.

About Amplify Tutoring

Grounded in evidence-based practices and taught by caring, consistent tutors, our high-impact tutoring programs use high-quality instructional materials and data-driven mCLASS® products to support and engage students.

  • Personalized, data-driven instruction
  • Research-backed solutions tailored to support your Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework
  • Customizable—before, during, or after school; year-long, semester-long, and summer programming
  • Comprehensive, hands-on program management and staffing support

Amplify Literacy Tutoring supports K–6 readers through engaging, systematic instruction aligned to the Science of Reading and driven by mCLASS DIBELS® data.

Amplify Math Tutoring accelerates student achievement in grades 3–5 and builds students’ confidence in speaking, writing, and thinking mathematically.

More than a program: a true partner

Hear directly from district leaders and educators who’ve experienced the Amplify Tutoring difference. In these candid conversations, they share how we partner to deliver solutions for schools, gains for students, and support for teachers.

What district leaders and teachers are saying

“Students’ enthusiasm for Amplify Tutoring is evident! From the moment they sit down for their session, you can see how motivated and engaged they are while working with their tutor and peers. … It is very helpful that the tutors provide real-time feedback to students, and it has allowed them to be more confident and committed to their own learning paths.”

—Jennifer Quartano, Teacher, NYC Public Schools

What district leaders and teachers are saying

“There has been an increase in many students’ scores. The students are always excited to participate and the small group instruction truly is making a difference … I am passionate about reaching students who require support. This initiative was very much needed in our school. Thank you, Amplify Tutoring!”

—Denise Bishop, Assistant Principal, Prince George’s County Public Schools

What district leaders and teachers are saying

“I appreciate the support and quick response we have received from Amplify Tutoring this year. We have seen lots of growth with our fourth graders with phonics, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension that we likely would not have seen without the program!”

—Heather Wasburn, Instructional Coach, Springfield City Schools

Bar chart showing that students with 2–3 literacy tutoring sessions per week outperform national growth norms across grades K–5, compared to students not in tutoring.
Bar chart showing percent correct in performing multi-digit arithmetic for Grades 3, 4, and 5 before and after Amplify Math Tutoring; scores improved in Grades 4 and 5 after tutoring.

Our impact

Amplify Tutoring accelerates learning for students who need it most. Students in Amplify Tutoring are more likely to achieve outsized academic gains than similarly at-risk peers in the same schools who are not enrolled in the program.

A hexagonal badge labeled "National Student Support Accelerator Tutoring Program Design, Amplify Tutoring 2024-2027," recognizing high impact tutoring programs that boost reading competency.

Amplify Tutoring has been awarded the National Student Support Accelerator (NSSA) Tutoring Program Design Badge by Stanford University!

Learn more

Reliable, easy-to-read data

With valid and reliable mCLASS assessments and real-time reporting always within reach, everyone involved in a child’s learning journey—from teachers and tutors to school leaders and families—can support student growth.

  • Teachers have visibility into students’ data and all tutoring lesson content.
  • School and district administrators receive regular tutoring attendance and progress-monitoring reports.
  • Caregivers receive Home Connect letters and activities to help their child practice foundational skills at home.
Screenshot of mCLASS Home Connect dashboard displaying reading assessment data, scores, and activity details with charts and text descriptions.

High-quality instructional materials that power Amplify Literacy Tutoring

Amplify Literacy Tutoring includes high-quality resources to support students’ growth.

Targeted lessons generated by precise data

mCLASS Intervention is a research-backed, ESSA rated program that targets instruction based on students’ mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition assessment results. With engaging lessons aligned to the Science of Reading that adapt based on students’ progress monitoring results, mCLASS Intervention streamlines time-consuming data analysis for teachers and makes sure that tutoring focuses on the literacy skills students need.

A line graph displays students' letter-sound fluency scores from June to May, showing progress toward a custom goal of 90, with benchmark and performance data points.
A screenshot of the mCLASS Reading assessment dashboard showing student scores, benchmarks, and assessment categories for Bolton Grade 1.

Transparency into student performance

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition is our nationally normed benchmarking and progress monitoring assessment tool to measure students’ foundational literacy skills. Students take the benchmark assessment three times a year and progress monitoring occurs every 7–10 lessons in between.

Proven impact for students who need it most

Boost Reading delivers targeted, adaptive practice that meets students where they are, while teachers get simple and meaningful insights into student progress. The program consistently moves students toward grade-level proficiency with just 30 minutes of use per week. Students can continue learning through Boost Reading between tutoring sessions or at home.

High-quality instructional materials that power Amplify Math Tutoring

Amplify Math Tutoring includes high-quality resources to support students’ growth.

Intervention Mini-Lessons aligned to core instruction

Amplify Desmos Math Mini-Lessons provide targeted intervention for students who require additional support or need more time. These lessons are aligned to the most critical topics throughout a unit; they enhance conceptual understanding while improving procedural fluency and application.

Two overlapping math worksheets on a white background with blue and orange squares; worksheets show graphs, equations, and instructional text about graph rotations.

Valuable insights into student mathematical thinking

mCLASS Math is our benchmarking and progress monitoring assessment tool. Students take the benchmark assessment three times a year; progress monitoring occurs every 7–10 lessons in between.

Personalized practice—anytime and at home

Fact fluency practice provides students with regular practice beyond rote memorization. The program is used during tutoring sessions and is available on non-tutoring days. Students also have access to Boost Math’s independent learning activities, to continue practicing between tutoring sessions or at home.

A woman and a boy sit at a table, looking at a tablet together. The background includes blue and orange graphic elements with a clipboard icon.

Consultation and collaboration

Amplify Tutoring tailors our support for educators, schools, districts, caregivers, and state-level leaders, helping to realize the promise of high-impact tutoring programs. Through collaborative partnerships at every level, Amplify Tutoring engages communities in driving academic improvement and boosting attendance.

Our services can include:

Program design consultation: Amplify Tutoring offers expert program design consultation services to help schools and districts create effective and scalable high-impact tutoring programs.

Tailored onboarding: We provide customized training sessions for school, district, and state leaders, ensuring that Amplify Tutoring services are integrated smoothly into existing systems.

Ongoing professional development and coaching: Our program management includes continuous training, coaching support, and office hours with pedagogical experts to fortify the program’s success and adaptability.

Caregiver engagement: We offer resources and support for families and caregivers, including tips for at-home support, helping them stay informed and involved in their child’s progress.

Seamless communication and support: We provide transparent communication and engage all stakeholders—district and school leaders, teachers, caregivers, and students—to keep everyone aligned and informed.

Data reporting: We provide detailed reports and analytics to district and school leaders, giving them the power to monitor progress, make data-driven decisions, and celebrate successes.

Amplify Tutoring is part of a connected early literacy and math suite.

Our literacy and math suite programs are designed to support and complement each other in a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Learn more about our related programs.

Texas ELAR Literacy Adoption

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The next chapter in the Science of Reading

Introducing Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, a K–5 core literacy program within Amplify’s literacy suite. For more than a decade, Amplify CKLA has transformed classrooms nationwide with its intentional knowledge building and systematic skills instruction. Available for the 2025–2026 school year, the 3rd Edition builds on this successful foundation to better support all students in becoming confident readers, writers, and thinkers. Together, let’s write the next chapter in the Science of Reading.

An astronaut floats in space near the Moon, with a speech bubble displaying

Amplify CKLA serves

150,000+

Classrooms

4,000,000+

Students

50

U.S. States and D.C.

Our approach

Improve outcomes with a program built on a decade of research, and that meets the strongest ESSA Tier I criteria.

Diagram illustrating the Simple View of Reading model, depicting language comprehension and word recognition pathways converging into skilled reading, with processes becoming increasingly strategic and automatic—a foundational concept in literacy curriculum for elementary education.

Grounded in the Science of Reading

As the original Science of Reading program, Amplify CKLA puts research into action with explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction and a proven knowledge-building sequence. In collaboration with education experts and practitioners, we provide powerful resources that deliver real results.

Background knowledge drives results

Amplify CKLA follows the Core Knowledge Sequence, a content-specific, cumulative, and coherent approach to knowledge building. This approach improves reading scores and closes achievement gaps by establishing a robust knowledge base that strengthens comprehension.

In Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, we’ve enriched our Knowledge Sequence with a wider range of perspectives and high-quality texts in new and enhanced units.

An infographic showing the steps to pronounce

Build foundational skills for long-term success.

Students progress from simple to complex skill development starting with phonological and phonemic awareness. Instruction in Grades K–2 explicitly teaches the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English, following an intentional progression to ensure student success.

In our 3rd Edition, we’ve added dedicated Grades 3–5 foundational skills instruction that can either support core lessons or function as an intervention, based on student needs.

Daily writing deepens learning.

Grounded in the Science of Writing—the research on how kids learn to write—instruction is explicit, daily, and woven into the curriculum’s rich content. It covers both transcription (handwriting and spelling) and composition (organizing ideas into narratives) with high-impact activities like sentence-level combining and expanding, and pre-writing exercises. Writing and reading instruction are integrated so students simultaneously strengthen their communication skills, comprehension, and confidence.

A child in a green shirt smiles while writing in a notebook at a classroom desk, engaged in their k–5 literacy curriculum, with another student visible in the background.
An open laptop displaying a children's story titled

High-quality, diverse texts

Amplify CKLA students are immersed in a variety of texts—complex read-alouds, decodable chapter books, trade books, and content-rich readers—that reflect varied experiences and connect to learning goals.

Readers are 100% decodable for Grades K–2, empowering students to directly apply what they’ve learned. Novel Study units for Grades 3–5 offer a mix of contemporary and classic literature, and Culminating Research Units in every grade include a set of authentic texts and trade books.

Reach all learners with differentiated support.

Scaffolds and challenges, developed in collaboration with education experts, make content available to every student—including multilingual and English learners. With strategies embedded right in the curriculum, teachers can deliver in-the-moment, individualized instruction to meet all student needs.

For a dedicated English language development program aligned to Amplify CKLA, explore Language Studio.

Children sit on the floor in a classroom, some raising their hands, smiling and engaged. The lively atmosphere reflects the effectiveness of the k–5 literacy curriculum being implemented.

What’s included

The comprehensive resources in Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition support effective literacy instruction in every classroom.

Image of a laptop displaying an assessment report, surrounded by books about astronomy, an illustration of the moon, and a
Various educational materials, including textbooks, workbooks, a picture book, documents, and a laptop displaying a slide titled

Easy-to-use teacher materials

Amplify CKLA teachers are empowered to deliver effective instruction with the following print and digital resources:

  • Teacher Guides (K–5)
  • Assessment Guides (K–5)
  • Authentic texts and trade books (K–5)
  • Knowledge Image Cards (K–2)
  • Knowledge Flip Books (K–2, digital)
  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens (K–5, digital)
  • Remediation and intervention resources (K–5)
  • On-demand professional development (K–5, digital)

Immersive Amplify CKLA student resources

Amplify CKLA students stay engaged with the following print and digital resources:

  • Decodable readers (K–2)
  • Student Readers and novels (3–5)
  • Student Activity Books (K–5)
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (3–5)
  • eReaders (K–5, digital)
  • Sound Library featuring articulation videos and songs (K–2, digital)
  • Assignable Practice Games (K–5)
An open laptop displaying a poem and a person, alongside two educational booklets and a green butterfly, depicts the essence of a rich core knowledge language arts curriculum. The background includes simple graphic elements enhancing the scene.
A collection of six book covers including

Rich literary experiences

All of the high-quality, diverse texts in Amplify CKLA connect to the curriculum, fostering your students’ curiosity and helping them learn to read with confidence.

  • Trade Book Collections (K–5) inspire student research in each grade’s Culminating Research Unit.
  • Classic and contemporary literature (3–5) delight students in Novel Study Units.
  • Increasingly complex Student Readers (K–5) develop students’ literacy across grades.

Hands-on phonics materials

Multisensory phonics and foundational skills resources engage students with fun, varied approaches that promote mastery and build independence.

  • Chaining Folders and Small Letter Cards (K)
  • Read-Aloud Big Books (K–1)
  • Large Letter Cards (K–2)
  • Sound Cards (K–2)
  • Image Cards (K–3)
  • Blending Picture Cards (K)
  • Consonant and Vowel Code Posters and Spelling Cards (1–2)
  • Sound Library (K–2, digital)
Image includes various vowel sounds and combinations on flashcards and worksheets, along with a playful illustrated mammal, all part of a comprehensive literacy curriculum for elementary students.

All-in-one digital platform

Our comprehensive platform simplifies your day-to-day tasks and makes it easier to plan and deliver lessons.

  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens
  • Auto-scored digital assessments
  • Standards-based reporting
  • Assignable Practice Games
  • Sound Library
  • eReaders

Professional Development

Move beyond traditional program training with Amplify’s digital PD Library, designed to fully support your shift to the Science of Reading and Amplify CKLA. Deepen your understanding with:

  • Program and planning resources
  • Model lesson videos from real classrooms
  • Guidance on using Amplify’s literacy suite to provide multi-tiered support
Two women are seated at a table with papers and a laptop. One woman is working on the literacy curriculum for elementary grades, while the other is smiling.

Ready to continue your learning journey?

We also offer live, tailored professional learning sessions by expert partners to expand your Science of Reading expertise, strengthen implementation, and improve student outcomes.

“Teachers love the ease of implementing the program, and students have fun while learning. Growth is evident in our data, and we have the support of Amplify experts who are available to answer questions and provide top-notch professional development.”

Bridget Vaughan, District K–8 Coordinator of ELA and Literacy

Quincy Public Schools, Massachusetts

A circular flow chart titled

A true Science of Reading early literacy suite for Grades K–5

Amplify has combined the critical elements of a Science of Reading system: assessment, core curriculum, personalized learning, and intervention. Based on 20 years of experience with the Science of Reading, this complete system saves you time and aligns your literacy practices.

  • Assess with mCLASS®: A universal and dyslexia screener, powered by DIBELS 8th Edition
  • Instruct with Amplify CKLA: Core curriculum to build foundational skills and knowledge
  • Practice with Boost Reading™: Personalized learning program to extend and reinforce core
  • Intervene with mCLASS Intervention: Staff-led Tier 2 and 3 intervention for intensive support
“There were other programs that claimed to be [based on the] Science of Reading, but no other vendor provided the suite of products together. We did not want to be picking from here, picking from there. [Amplify’s literacy suite] met our needs, because it aligned and provided us the best suite of products, hands down.”

Nicole Peterson, Principal, Midway Middle School

Sampson County Schools, North Carolina

Language Studio: Multilingual and English language learner support

Language Studio is Amplify CKLA’s dedicated K–5 program for multilingual and English language learners. Through daily 30-minute lessons, it strengthens reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while reinforcing core instruction. This tailored support empowers students to confidently access grade-level content as they develop academic English.

A young girl immerses herself in the science of reading at a classroom desk, surrounded by peers and diverse educational materials.

Explore more programs in Amplify’s literacy and biliteracy suite.

All of the programs in our literacy suite and our biliteracy suite are designed to support and complement each other. Learn more about our related programs:

The next chapter in the Science of Reading

Introducing Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, a K–5 core literacy program within Amplify’s literacy suite. For more than a decade, Amplify CKLA has transformed classrooms nationwide with its intentional knowledge building and systematic skills instruction. Available for the 2025–2026 school year, the 3rd Edition builds on this successful foundation to better support all students in becoming confident readers, writers, and thinkers. Together, let’s write the next chapter in the Science of Reading.

An astronaut floats in space near the Moon, with a speech bubble displaying

Amplify CKLA serves

150,000+

Classrooms

4,000,000+

Students

50

U.S. States and D.C.

Our approach

Improve outcomes with a program built on a decade of research, and that meets the strongest ESSA Tier I criteria.

Diagram illustrating the Simple View of Reading model, depicting language comprehension and word recognition pathways converging into skilled reading, with processes becoming increasingly strategic and automatic—a foundational concept in literacy curriculum for elementary education.

Grounded in the Science of Reading

As the original Science of Reading program, Amplify CKLA puts research into action with explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction and a proven knowledge-building sequence. In collaboration with education experts and practitioners, we provide powerful resources that deliver real results.

Background knowledge drives results

Amplify CKLA follows the Core Knowledge Sequence, a content-specific, cumulative, and coherent approach to knowledge building. This approach improves reading scores and closes achievement gaps by establishing a robust knowledge base that strengthens comprehension.

In Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, we’ve enriched our Knowledge Sequence with a wider range of perspectives and high-quality texts in new and enhanced units.

An infographic showing the steps to pronounce

Build foundational skills for long-term success.

Students progress from simple to complex skill development starting with phonological and phonemic awareness. Instruction in Grades K–2 explicitly teaches the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English, following an intentional progression to ensure student success.

In our 3rd Edition, we’ve added dedicated Grades 3–5 foundational skills instruction that can either support core lessons or function as an intervention, based on student needs.

Daily writing deepens learning.

Grounded in the Science of Writing—the research on how kids learn to write—instruction is explicit, daily, and woven into the curriculum’s rich content. It covers both transcription (handwriting and spelling) and composition (organizing ideas into narratives) with high-impact activities like sentence-level combining and expanding, and pre-writing exercises. Writing and reading instruction are integrated so students simultaneously strengthen their communication skills, comprehension, and confidence.

A child in a green shirt smiles while writing in a notebook at a classroom desk, engaged in their k–5 literacy curriculum, with another student visible in the background.
An open laptop displaying a children's story titled

High-quality, diverse texts

Amplify CKLA students are immersed in a variety of texts—complex read-alouds, decodable chapter books, trade books, and content-rich readers—that reflect varied experiences and connect to learning goals.

Readers are 100% decodable for Grades K–2, empowering students to directly apply what they’ve learned. Novel Study units for Grades 3–5 offer a mix of contemporary and classic literature, and Culminating Research Units in every grade include a set of authentic texts and trade books.

Reach all learners with differentiated support.

Scaffolds and challenges, developed in collaboration with education experts, make content available to every student—including multilingual and English learners. With strategies embedded right in the curriculum, teachers can deliver in-the-moment, individualized instruction to meet all student needs.

For a dedicated English language development program aligned to Amplify CKLA, explore Language Studio.

Children sit on the floor in a classroom, some raising their hands, smiling and engaged. The lively atmosphere reflects the effectiveness of the k–5 literacy curriculum being implemented.

What’s included

The comprehensive resources in Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition support effective literacy instruction in every classroom.

Image of a laptop displaying an assessment report, surrounded by books about astronomy, an illustration of the moon, and a
Various educational materials, including textbooks, workbooks, a picture book, documents, and a laptop displaying a slide titled

Easy-to-use teacher materials

Amplify CKLA teachers are empowered to deliver effective instruction with the following print and digital resources:

  • Teacher Guides (K–5)
  • Assessment Guides (K–5)
  • Authentic texts and trade books (K–5)
  • Knowledge Image Cards (K–2)
  • Knowledge Flip Books (K–2, digital)
  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens (K–5, digital)
  • Remediation and intervention resources (K–5)
  • On-demand professional development (K–5, digital)

Immersive Amplify CKLA student resources

Amplify CKLA students stay engaged with the following print and digital resources:

  • Decodable readers (K–2)
  • Student Readers and novels (3–5)
  • Student Activity Books (K–5)
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (3–5)
  • eReaders (K–5, digital)
  • Sound Library featuring articulation videos and songs (K–2, digital)
  • Assignable Practice Games (K–5)
An open laptop displaying a poem and a person, alongside two educational booklets and a green butterfly, depicts the essence of a rich core knowledge language arts curriculum. The background includes simple graphic elements enhancing the scene.
A collection of six book covers including

Rich literary experiences

All of the high-quality, diverse texts in Amplify CKLA connect to the curriculum, fostering your students’ curiosity and helping them learn to read with confidence.

  • Trade Book Collections (K–5) inspire student research in each grade’s Culminating Research Unit.
  • Classic and contemporary literature (3–5) delight students in Novel Study Units.
  • Increasingly complex Student Readers (K–5) develop students’ literacy across grades.

Hands-on phonics materials

Multisensory phonics and foundational skills resources engage students with fun, varied approaches that promote mastery and build independence.

  • Chaining Folders and Small Letter Cards (K)
  • Read-Aloud Big Books (K–1)
  • Large Letter Cards (K–2)
  • Sound Cards (K–2)
  • Image Cards (K–3)
  • Blending Picture Cards (K)
  • Consonant and Vowel Code Posters and Spelling Cards (1–2)
  • Sound Library (K–2, digital)
Image includes various vowel sounds and combinations on flashcards and worksheets, along with a playful illustrated mammal, all part of a comprehensive literacy curriculum for elementary students.

All-in-one digital platform

Our comprehensive platform simplifies your day-to-day tasks and makes it easier to plan and deliver lessons.

  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens
  • Auto-scored digital assessments
  • Standards-based reporting
  • Assignable Practice Games
  • Sound Library
  • eReaders

Professional Development

Move beyond traditional program training with Amplify’s digital PD Library, designed to fully support your shift to the Science of Reading and Amplify CKLA. Deepen your understanding with:

  • Program and planning resources
  • Model lesson videos from real classrooms
  • Guidance on using Amplify’s literacy suite to provide multi-tiered support
Two women are seated at a table with papers and a laptop. One woman is working on the literacy curriculum for elementary grades, while the other is smiling.
“Teachers love the ease of implementing the program, and students have fun while learning. Growth is evident in our data, and we have the support of Amplify experts who are available to answer questions and provide top-notch professional development.”

Bridget Vaughan, District K–8 Coordinator of ELA and Literacy

Quincy Public Schools, Massachusetts

A circular flow chart titled

A true Science of Reading early literacy suite for Grades K–5

Amplify has combined the critical elements of a Science of Reading system: assessment, core curriculum, personalized learning, and intervention. Based on 20 years of experience with the Science of Reading, this complete system saves you time and aligns your literacy practices.

  • Assess with mCLASS®: A universal and dyslexia screener, powered by DIBELS 8th Edition
  • Instruct with Amplify CKLA: Core curriculum to build foundational skills and knowledge
  • Practice with Boost Reading™: Personalized learning program to extend and reinforce core
  • Intervene with mCLASS Intervention: Staff-led Tier 2 and 3 intervention for intensive support
“There were other programs that claimed to be [based on the] Science of Reading, but no other vendor provided the suite of products together. We did not want to be picking from here, picking from there. [Amplify’s literacy suite] met our needs, because it aligned and provided us the best suite of products, hands down.”

Nicole Peterson, Principal, Midway Middle School

Sampson County Schools, North Carolina

Language Studio: Multilingual and English language learner support

Language Studio is Amplify CKLA’s dedicated K–5 program for multilingual and English language learners. Through daily 30-minute lessons, it strengthens reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while reinforcing core instruction. This tailored support empowers students to confidently access grade-level content as they develop academic English.

A young girl immerses herself in the science of reading at a classroom desk, surrounded by peers and diverse educational materials.

Explore more programs in Amplify’s literacy and biliteracy suite.

All of the programs in our literacy suite and our biliteracy suite are designed to support and complement each other. Learn more about our related programs:

What’s New for Amplify Science 6–8!

Denver Public Schools (DPS), check out what’s new from Amplify Science 6-8!  The first part of this site will take you through the updates that have been made to Amplify Science. The second will be a refresher of Amplify Science for any new users in DPS. With Amplify Science, DPS students don’t just passively learn about science concepts. Instead, they take on the role of scientists and engineers to actively investigate and figure out real-world phenomena. With culturally sustaining pedagogy, Amplify Science strives to make sure every student feels included in the science classroom.

Two students collaborating on a project using a laptop in a classroom filled with other students working in the background.

Update: The Digital Experience

The digital experience allows students to engage with digital lessons and provides teachers with everything they need in one place—ready-to-use slides-based lessons, seamlessly integrated teacher prompts and guidance, robust PD resources, and more. It’s now easier and more engaging than ever to plan lessons, present digital content, and review student work. To learn more, click here.

Update: The PD Library

All professional development (PD) content is consolidated into the PD Library, a one-stop hub for all your self-paced PD needs. As a result, the “Professional Learning Resources” tile will no longer be available on the main Amplify Science Program Hub page. The rest of the non-PD content in the Program Hub will remain as is, including the on-demand resources.

Update: Educator & Student Home expansion

Educator and Student Home landing pages will now be available for all Amplify Science users. This Home page provides a central location to access all Amplify programs in one place and a customized stream based on your activity.

Your Amplify Science grades 6–8 students will no longer access My Work for assignments, scores, and teacher feedback. Instead, they’ll find it all on Student Home, the page they already land on when logging in to Amplify Science.

Keep in mind: Amplify Science middle school teachers will continue to have access to Classwork.

Update: Caregiver Hub

Throughout the school year, teachers can share the Amplify Science Caregiver Hub with students’ families. This site provides curriculum details, an overview of what caregivers can expect throughout the school year, and resources they can use with students at home.

What is Amplify Science?

The Lawrence Hall of Science

Developed by the science education experts at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and the digital learning team at Amplify, our program features:

  • phenomena-based approach where students construct a complex understanding of each unit’s anchor phenomenon.
  • A blend of cohesive storylines, hands-on investigations, rich discussions, literacy-rich activities, and digital tools.
  • Carefully crafted units, chapters, lessons, and activities designed to deliver true three-dimensional learning.
  • An instructional design that supports all learners in accessing all standards.
Aerial view of the lawrence hall of science at the university of california, berkeley, showcasing the building and surrounding trees with a foggy city backdrop.

Proven to work

WestEd Randomized
Control Trial for Grade 1

Read More

WestEd Randomized
Control Trial for Grade 7

Read More

Amplify Science NE
Grades K–5

Read More

Instructional model

The Amplify Science program is rooted in the proven, research-based pedagogy of Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize. Here’s how each element works:

Do

First-hand investigations are an important part of any science classroom, and Amplify Science has students getting hands-on in every unit—from building models of protein molecules to experimenting with electrical systems.

Talk

Student-to-student discourse and full-class discussions are an integral part of the program. Students are provided with numerous opportunities to engage in meaningful oral scientific argumentation, all while fostering a collaborative classroom environment.

Read

Students read scientific articles, focusing their reading activities on searching for evidence related to their investigation and, importantly, on asking and recording questions as they read through fascinating texts on 21st-century topics.

Write

Following real-world practices, students write scientific arguments based on evidence they’ve collected, making clear their reasoning about how a given piece of evidence connects to one of several claims.

Visualize

By manipulating digital simulations and using modeling tools to craft visualizations of their thinking— just as real scientists and engineers
do—students take their learning far beyond the confines of what they can physically see in the classroom in an exciting and authentic way.

Program structure

Our cyclical lesson design ensures students receive multiple exposures to concepts through a variety of modalities. As they progress through the lessons within a unit, students build and deepen their understanding, increasing their ability to develop and refine complex explanations of the unit’s phenomenon.

It’s this proven program structure and lesson design that enables Amplify Science to address 100% of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and support students in mastering the Pennsylvania Science Standards.

Flowchart depicting a critical thinking process with four circular nodes connected by arrows, each node representing a step: posing a real-world problem, exploring evidence, elaborating concepts, and evaluating claims.

Unit types

While every unit delivers three-dimensional learning experiences and engages students in gathering evidence from a rich collection of sources, each unit also serves a unique instructional purpose.

In grades 6–8:

  • One unit is a launch unit.
  • Three units are core units.
  • Two units are engineering internships.

Launch units are the first units taught in each year of Amplify Science. The goal of the Launch unit is to introduce students to norms, routines, and practices that will be built on throughout the year, including argumentation, active reading, and using the program’s technology. For example, rather than taking the time to explain the process of active reading in every unit in a given year, it is explained thoroughly in the Launch unit, thereby preparing students to read actively in all subsequent units.

Core units establish the context of the unit by introducing students to a real-world problem. As students move through lessons in a Core unit, they figure out the unit’s anchoring phenomenon, gain an understanding of the unit’s disciplinary core ideas and science and engineering practices, and make linkages across topics through the crosscutting concepts. Each Core unit culminates with a Science Seminar and final writing activity.

Engineering Internship units invite students to design solutions for real-world problems as interns for a fictional company called Futura. Students figure out how to help those in need, from tsunami victims in Sri Lanka to premature babies, through the application of engineering practices. In the process, they apply and deepen their learning from Core units.

DPS Scope and Sequence

Our lessons follow a structure that is grounded in regular routines while still being flexible enough to allow for a variety of learning experiences.

In fact, our multi-modal instruction offers more opportunities for students to construct meaning, and practice and apply concepts than any other program. What’s more, our modular design means our units can be flexibly arranged to support your instructional goals.

Un gráfico que muestra los cursos de ciencias para los grados 6 a 8. Cada grado tiene una lista de clases categorizadas como Launch, GROW y GOAT, con el título de cada curso y la duración en minutos o días.

Program components

Available digitally and in print, our unit-specific reference guides are chock-full of helpful resources, including scientific background knowledge, planning information and resources, color-coded 3D Statements, detailed lesson plans, tips for delivering instruction, and differentiation strategies.

Amplify Science TG

Hands-on learning is an essential part of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. Students actively participate in science, playing the roles of scientists and engineers as they gather evidence, think critically, solve problems, and develop and defend claims about the world around them. Every unit includes hands-on investigations that are critical to achieving the unit’s learning goals.

A young person wearing gloves looks through a microscope at a table with laboratory supplies, including bottles, slides, and a tray, against a plain blue background.

More hands-on with Flextensions:
Hands-on Flextensions are additional, optional investigations that are included at logical points in the learning progression and give students an opportunity to dig deeper if time permits. These activities offer teachers flexibility to choose to dedicate more time to hands-on learning. Materials referenced in Hands-on Flextension activities will either be included in the unit kit or are easily sourced. Supporting resources such as student worksheets will be included as downloadable PDF files.

Our kits include enough materials to support 200 student uses. In other words, teachers can easily support all five periods and small groups of 4-5 students each. Plus, our unit-specific kits mean teachers just grab the tub they need and then put it all back with ease.

Assorted office and household items displayed on a white background, including rubber bands, binder clips, cardboard, and sports balls.

Our digital Simulations and Practice Tools are powerful resources for exploration, data collection, and student collaboration. They allow students the ability to explore scientific concepts that might otherwise be invisible or impossible to see with the naked eye.

Available for every unit, our Student Investigation Notebooks contain instructions for activities and space for students to record data and observations, reflect on ideas from texts and investigations, and construct explanations and arguments.

In grades 6–8, one copy of the Student Investigation Notebook is included in each unit’s materials kit for use as a blackline master. Each notebook is also available as a downloadable PDF on the Unit Guide page of the digital Teacher’s Guide.

Two booklets titled "El clima cambiante de la Tierra: la desaparición del hielo" and "Earth’s Changing Climate: Vanishing Ice" with landscape illustrations on the covers.

These customizable PowerPoints are available for every lesson of the program and make delivering instruction a snap with visual prompts, colorful activity instructions, investigation set-up videos and animations, and suggested teacher talk in the notes section of each slide.

Amplify Science Classroom Slides

Explore your print samples

With your Amplify Science print samples, you’ll find unit-specific Teacher’s References Guides, Student Investigation Notebooks, and sets of Student Books for each grade level.

A note about the Teacher Reference Guides:

It’s important that you see the full breadth and depth of our instruction. For that reason, we provide a copy of each of our unit-specific Teacher Reference Guides.

Rest assured that teachers do not use these robust reference guides for day-to-day teaching. For that, we have a hands-free Teacher’s Guide!

Three laptop screens displaying educational content on earth's energy system, including diagrams and text annotations.
  • Teacher Reference Guide: Unlike a typical TG that requires a series of supplemental books to support it, our encyclopedic reference guide is chock-full of everything a teacher needs to fully implement our program and the NGSS.
  • Ready-to-Teach Lesson Slides: For daily instruction, teachers need their hands free. That’s why we created ready-to-teach lesson slides for every single lesson. What’s more, they are editable and include suggested teacher talk and point-of-use differentiation and other instructional tips. Click to learn more.

A note about the Materials Kits:

Hands-on learning is at the heart of Amplify Science, and is integrated into every unit. In order to make hands-on learning more manageable for busy teachers, Amplify Science materials are organized into unit-specific kits.

Stacked storage bins with labels, arranged neatly; caption notes they are a sample and may not reflect actual quantities or sizes.

Our unit-specific kits:

  • Include more materials — We give teachers enough materials to support 200 student uses.
  • Are more manageable — Unlike other programs that require large groups of students to share limited sets of materials, our kits include enough to support small groups of 4–5 students.
  • Include supportive videos — Each hands-on activity provides clear instructions for the teacher, with more complex activities supported by video demonstrations and illustrations.

At your request, we did not include our materials kits with our submissions samples. However, we did provide grade-specific lists of all materials included in each kit, which you can also find with the links below.

Access your digital samples

Explore as a teacher

Follow these instructions to explore the Amplify Science digital platform as a teacher.

  • Click the Access Amplify Science Platform button below and bookmark it.
  • Select Log in with Amplify.
  • Enter the username: t1.dps68sci@demo.tryamplify.net
  • Enter the password: Amplify1-dps68sci
  • Click the Science icon.
  • Click on the Grade Menu in the top center of the screen and select any grade.
  • Select any unit.

To help familiarize yourself with navigating the digital platform, watch the below navigational video.

Spanish-language support

Amplify Science is committed to providing support to meet the needs of all learners, including multiple access points for Spanish-speaking students. Developed in conjunction with Spanish-language experts and classroom teachers, several components are available in Spanish across the Amplify Science curriculum.

Spanish-language materials include:

COMPONENTTEACHER/STUDENT
Student Investigation NotebooksStudent
Science articlesStudent
Video TranscriptsStudent
Digital simulation translation keysStudent
Printed classroom materials
Unit and chapter questions, key concepts, vocabulary cards, etc.
Teacher
CopymastersTeacher
AssessmentsTeacher
Digital student experience license
This license gives students access to the student resources in Spanish, including instructional text, articles, and assessments. Teachers can control student access to Spanish-language content through the digital Teacher’s Guide.
Teacher
Spanish teacher support license
This license includes teacher talk, projections, downloadable PDFs of all print resources, and video transcripts and closed captioning in Spanish.
Teacher

Resources to support your review

Contact Us

If you have any further questions as your review Amplify Science, please contact:

Senior Account Executive

719-964-4501

mlammers@amplify.com

What is Amplify Caminos?

Amplify Caminos is a core Spanish language arts program for grades K–5 that delivers:

  • Authentic instruction built from the ground up for the Spanish language.
  • A unique research-based approach truly built on the Science of Reading.
  • A combination of explicit foundational skills with meaningful knowledge-building.
  • Embedded support and differentiation that gets all students reading grade-level texts together.
  • Opportunities for students to see the strengths and experiences that all people share while also celebrating each others’ unique identities and experiences.
A diagram showing two strands labeled Language Comprehension and Word Recognition, intertwining into fluent reading, with examples of educational materials on both sides.

How does Amplify Caminos work?

Grades K–2: Dedicated knowledge-building and explicit skills instruction
Every day, students in Grades K–2 complete one full lesson that builds foundational reading skills in the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura strand, as well as one full lesson that builds background knowledge in the Amplify Caminos Conocimiento strand. Through learning in each of these strands, students develop the early literacy skills necessary to help them become confident readers and build the context to understand what they’re reading.

Grades 3–5: Integrated instruction
In Grades 3–5, the Amplify Caminos Lectoescritura and Conocimiento strands are integrated in one set of instructional materials. Lessons begin to combine skills and knowledge with increasingly complex texts, close reading, and a greater writing emphasis. Students can then use their skills to go on their own independent reading adventures.

What makes Amplify Caminos different?

Built on the Science of Reading

Built out of the latest research in the Science of Reading, Amplify Caminos delivers explicit instruction in both foundational literacy skills (systematic phonics, decoding, and fluency) and background knowledge in grades K–2 with an integrated approach to explicit instruction in grades 3–5.

Explicit systematic skills instruction

The skills instruction in Amplify Caminos was distinctly developed with the Spanish language in mind. Its foundational lessons are specific to the language, rather than a direct translation from Amplify CKLA’s English skills instruction.

Reading instruction begins with the vowels first, then the most common consonants, and finally the least common consonants. Students will blend and segment sounds to form syllables, and syllables to form words.

Although Spanish has a highly predictable orthography, there are a few silent letters (h is always silent, u is silent after g or q), as well as letters that can make different sounds, depending on the letters that follow them. For that reason, syllables with these letters are taught somewhat later in the progression. The same is true for syllables with infrequently occurring consonants, such as z, k, x, and w.

Coherent knowledge instruction

While students are learning how to read, the Conocimiento strand gives them authentic and engaging reasons to read.

Amplify Caminos uses spiral learning to reinforce every student’s ability to develop skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish that can be transferred to English. As students engage with their lessons, they explore the similarities and differences in grammar, vocabulary, writing, and language use between Spanish and English. This bridge helps students learning two languages to strengthen their knowledge in both.

Through cross-curricular content, students explore units that relate to storytelling, science, and the history of our world in a holistic and thoughtful way. With these units, you’ll bring the world to your students, showing them how reading can become an exciting, rewarding, and useful part of their lives.

Embedded differentiation for all learners

Amplify Caminos provides built-in differentiation strategies and supports in every lesson.

  • Apoyo a la enseñanza y desafío: Support and Challenge suggestions in every lesson provide assistance or opportunities for more advanced work toward the goal of the lesson.
  • Notas culturales: These point-of-use notes provide additional information about the traditions, foods, holidays, word variations, and more from across the Spanish-speaking world.
  • Apoyo adicional: Every lesson in the Lectoescritura (Skills) Strand provides additional support activities suggested to reinforce foundational skills instruction. These activities can be given to any student who requires extra help, including students with special needs.

Commitment to equity

Illustration of two astronauts in space, a woman singing, a person sketching outdoors, a hot air balloon, and a landscape, all connected by flowing musical notes.

We believe we have a responsibility to provide literacy instruction that gives every student an equal opportunity to succeed and even excel. Amplify Caminos builds students’ knowledge about the world, helping them see people who resemble them and their familiar situations or experiences while also exposing them to people whose appearances, lives, beliefs, and backgrounds differ from their own.

In addition to teaching all students to crack the written code (which is vital for equity), the Amplify Caminos program helps students celebrate their own unique identities and experiences while also seeing the strengths and experiences we all share.

Amplify Caminos includes both transadaptations and authentic texts written by Latin American and Spanish authors. Authentic literature exposes students to a variety of text types and perspectives to deepen their knowledge of fascinating topics in social studies, science, literature, and the arts. Authentic texts support text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections for readers.

Amplify Caminos Authentic Literature

Amplify Caminos is built on the conviction that equitable instruction is vital to an effective program. Decodable Student Readers celebrate students’ diverse experiences and feature individuals with a broad range of identity factors, including socio-economic status, age, ability, race, ethnicity, country of origin, and more.

Amplify Caminos Student Readers

How does Amplify Caminos integrate with the other parts of the literacy system?

Amplify Caminos + mCLASS® Lectura

Achieve complete parity between English and Spanish assessments with mCLASS Lectura for K–6. mCLASS Lectura allows teachers to connect with their Spanish-speaking students face-to-face, one-on-one, and in the language most comfortable to them. The result? Valid and reliable student data reports
available in both English and Spanish, enabling teachers to pinpoint where their Spanish-speaking or emergent bilingual students really are in their skill development and what instruction to prioritize.

Amplify Caminos + Boost Reading

Boost Reading is an engaging, adaptive digital program that extends the learning in Amplify Caminos. Boost Reading offers support to a large sub-group of English learners (ELs) through Spanish voice-over. Spanish voiceover instructions are available in vocabulary and sentence-level comprehension games so ELs can build their vocabulary, language, and critical comprehension skills before moving into analyzing complex texts

Language selection screen with options for English and Spanish, a cartoon girl waving and saying "¡Hola!", and sidebar menu items: Journal, Practice, and Settings.

Check out these additional resources

Caminos review resources:

Demo access

Ready to explore on your own? Follow the instructions linked below to access your demo accounts for Caminos and mCLASS Lectura.

Caminos login instructions

mCLASS Lectura login instructions

Welcome, North Carolina educators!

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Welcome, North Carolina educators!

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About mCLASS in NC

DPI is committed to providing literacy instruction for all by:

  • Aligning core curriculum, instruction, and assessments with Science of Reading.
  • Providing appropriate literacy interventions to address difficulty with reading development.
  • Implementing practices based on the Science of Reading in every classroom every day.
  • Providing aligned resources to parents, guardians and family members.

mCLASS is built on decades of research at the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon, a national center for early childhood assessment and instruction. The measures are already in use in many districts in North Carolina. With the additional mCLASS suite including reporting, grouping, lessons and caregiver support, DPI’s early literacy goals for North Carolina students will be met.

North Carolina mCLASS DIBELS 8 requirements

DIBELS 8th Edition fulfills legislative requirements for K-3 students with sub test measures for:

  • Phonemic awareness
  • Phonics
  • Fluency
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension

For the above reasons, the state will begin using DIBELS 8 data for EVAAS purposes effective 2021-22 from MOY-EOY for Kindergarten, BOY-EOY for all 1-2 teachers, and BOG-EOG for grade 3.

DIBELS measures at each grade level
Measure Grade K Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3
Letter naming fluency    
Phonemic segmentation fluency    
Nonsense word fluency
Word reading fluency
Oral reading fluency  
Maze (basic comprehension)    
Required additional measures at each grade level below 
Oral language
Vocabulary

Amplify assessment invalidation process

  1. Teacher requests approval for an invalidation from a school-level administrator and provides a valid reason for requesting the invalidation.
  2. School-level administrators reach out to the district Read to Achieve (RtA) contact to approve the invalidation.
  3. District RtA contact approves the request and notifies the school-level administrator who notifies the teacher.
  4. Teacher invalidates assessment.

Professional Learning

Stay tuned for new registration links!

Stay tuned for new registration links!

Preparing for EOY (Administrators and Enrollment)

North Carolina Online Course

All of our monthly webinars will be linked in the online course. You will access the North Carolina Online Course to view previous webinars.

  1. When you open your course you will see a navigation panel along the left hand side. 
  2. At the top of this panel, you will see a small back arrow by the title mCLASS in North Carolina Initial Training. 
  3. Click on that back arrow to be taken to the beginning of the course with the introduction.
  4. When you land on that Introduction page along the left panel, you will see the welcome to the course. 
  5. Scroll down that left panel to the section titled Monthly Recorded Webinars, within that section you will see a link to the page where we are posting the webinars, click on the “this page” link.

mCLASS DIBELS 8th Edition online course

As part of the implementation of mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition for the 2023-24 school year, all North Carolina educators will have access to a self-paced online course as a support for a successful implementation and to serve as a resource throughout the school year.

Learn how to:

  • Administer and score mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition Interpret student data Identify students’ instructional need Access skills-focused lessons.
  • Plan differentiated instruction.
  • Please contact your district for access information to the online course. Districts received the link for the course in the DPI memo. Please reach out to your DPI consultant for assistance.

Monthly Webinar recordings will be placed on the Online Course site upon the completion of each session.

In addition, PSUs may purchase additional remote or in-person training sessions. Amplify offers in-person training options pending:

  • agreement to Amplify’s Covid safety guidelines, and
  • confirmation of availability for the requested training date.

Contact us for more information on additional PD.

Reading Camp

Overview

The Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021 defines “Reading camp” as an additional educational program outside the instructional calendar that the local school administrative unit offers as a literacy intervention to:

  1. any third-grade student who does not demonstrate reading proficiency and
  2. any second-grade student who demonstrates difficulty with reading development. Local school administrative units may offer a reading camp as a literacy intervention to any first-grade student who demonstrates difficulty with reading development.

Resources

The resources below review the Summer Benchmark assessment, Reading Camp data, and explain enrollment for Reading Camp. 

Please Note: Do not make any manual changes in the Amplify platform prior to June 1st, 2026. Any changes made before this date will be overwritten. 

Additional support:

We will be hosting office hours each Wednesday from 2:00 pm-2:30 pm EDT starting May 20th, 2026 and continuing through July 15th, 2026. This is a time for you to chat directly with us so we can help answer any questions you may have regarding reading camp.

Click here to join the office hours.

Office hours will occur on the following dates:

  • May 20th
  • May 27th
  • June 3rd
  • June 10th
  • June 17th
  • June 24th
  • July 1st
  • July 8th
  • July 15th

Please note that this is not a presentation, but a chance to ask questions and receive specific support. 

Enrollment resources

Each night, DPI extracts rostering files from Infinite Campus and sends them to Amplify. Changes in the enrollment system are captured in mCLASS the next day. As a reminder, no manual changes can take place in mCLASS.

In order to be included in the staff file sent to mCLASS from Infinite Campus, staff members must have a Read to Achieve role assigned to them. It is also important to ensure staff members are active, have a district assignment (Navigation to verify district assignment: Search Staff > Census > Staff > District Assignments), and an email address associated with NCEdCloud; If a staff member receives a “user not found” message when attempting to log in to mCLASS via NCEdCloud, this means they do not have a staff record enrolled in mCLASS.

Additional troubleshooting documents around enrollment can be found here.

Infinite Campus Resources:

mCLASS reporting

mCLASS gives you instant results and clear next steps for each student. Quick and actionable reports provide detailed insight into students’ reading development across foundational literacy skills for teachers, specialists, administrators, and caregivers.

View the mCLASS Reporting Guide to learn more.

Charter Schools

More information coming soon!

Remote assessment

We at Amplify and the team at the University of Oregon are here to provide continued guidance and support around collecting and using DIBELS® 8th Edition data.

This guide offers recommendations for benchmark assessment with DIBELS as well as tips for interpreting benchmark data during our unpredictable school disruptions.

North Carolina remote assessment guidance

Service Hub

Amplify Service Hub Now Live:
The Service Hub is an online portal which allows district- and school-level administrators to create support tickets, check on ticket status, and view reports related to support cases. Educators who have an RtA Admin role have access to the Service Hub. You can access the Service Hub here. Log in with the SSO Login icon and search for North Carolina Public Schools. Your NCEdCloud credentials will enable you to access the Service Hub.

Learn about navigating, viewing insights, and more in the

Amplify Service Hub Overview.

Spanish in NC

mCLASS Lectura is available for all students enrolled in a Dual Language program. When mCLASS Lectura is used with D8 teachers have access to the dual language report. This report provides side-by-side data of the student’s performance in Spanish and English. 

Then mCLASS suggests actual strategies and specific activities to promote cross-linguistic transfer for bilingual students.

If you have students that would benefit from this assessment but are not enrolled in a dual language program, individual licenses can be purchased. Please reach out to your CSM and Jennifer Eason, your Account Executive, for more information.

Science of Reading resources

To continue your own professional learning around the Science of Reading, subscribe and join with your colleagues.

Science of Reading: The Podcast delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Further your professional development with each episode by subscribing and downloading them now.

Science of Reading: The Community is built for those committed to fostering conversation around the Science of Reading and implementing best practices in the classroom (including the virtual classroom).

What does classroom instruction look like when it is based on Science of Reading practices? We’ve outlined a Science of Reading action plan to guide your evaluation in our new FREE ebook, Science of Reading: Making the shift.

Caregiver supports

The mCLASS Home Connect website houses literacy resources for parents and caregivers, including at-home lessons organized by skill to help students at home during remote learning. Our mCLASS parent/caregiver letters in English and Spanish ensure that families know how to best support their child.

Screenshot of the mclass home connect website showing educational activities in three categories: word race, count the ways, and mystery game, with navigation options at the top.

Support

NCDPI has been provided with its own dedicated support line: +1 (888) 890-2505
The current national support line will remain available and include the North Carolina option on the phone tree throughout the fall.

FAQs

Interested in learning more?

Amplify and NC DPI are collaborating on this FAQ. Please continue to check back, as we are updating this based on questions we receive about mCLASS and the current NC implementation.

FAQ Link

Additional Amplify products

Get in touch with us to learn more about bringing other high-quality Amplify programs to your school or district.

The next chapter in the Science of Reading

Introducing Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, a K–5 core literacy program within Amplify’s literacy suite. For more than a decade, Amplify CKLA has transformed classrooms nationwide with its intentional knowledge building and systematic skills instruction. Available for the 2025–2026 school year, the 3rd Edition builds on this successful foundation to better support all students in becoming confident readers, writers, and thinkers. Together, let’s write the next chapter in the Science of Reading.

An astronaut floats in space near the Moon, with a speech bubble displaying

Amplify CKLA serves

150,000+

Classrooms

4,000,000+

Students

50

U.S. States and D.C.

Our approach

Improve outcomes with a program built on a decade of research, and that meets the strongest ESSA Tier I criteria.

Diagram illustrating the Simple View of Reading model, depicting language comprehension and word recognition pathways converging into skilled reading, with processes becoming increasingly strategic and automatic—a foundational concept in literacy curriculum for elementary education.

Grounded in the Science of Reading

As the original Science of Reading program, Amplify CKLA puts research into action with explicit, systematic foundational skills instruction and a proven knowledge-building sequence. In collaboration with education experts and practitioners, we provide powerful resources that deliver real results.

Background knowledge drives results

Amplify CKLA follows the Core Knowledge Sequence, a content-specific, cumulative, and coherent approach to knowledge building. This approach improves reading scores and closes achievement gaps by establishing a robust knowledge base that strengthens comprehension.

In Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition, we’ve enriched our Knowledge Sequence with a wider range of perspectives and high-quality texts in new and enhanced units.

An infographic showing the steps to pronounce

Build foundational skills for long-term success.

Students progress from simple to complex skill development starting with phonological and phonemic awareness. Instruction in Grades K–2 explicitly teaches the 150 spellings for the 44 sounds of English, following an intentional progression to ensure student success.

In our 3rd Edition, we’ve added dedicated Grades 3–5 foundational skills instruction that can either support core lessons or function as an intervention, based on student needs.

Daily writing deepens learning.

Grounded in the Science of Writing—the research on how kids learn to write—instruction is explicit, daily, and woven into the curriculum’s rich content. It covers both transcription (handwriting and spelling) and composition (organizing ideas into narratives) with high-impact activities like sentence-level combining and expanding, and pre-writing exercises. Writing and reading instruction are integrated so students simultaneously strengthen their communication skills, comprehension, and confidence.

A child in a green shirt smiles while writing in a notebook at a classroom desk, engaged in their k–5 literacy curriculum, with another student visible in the background.
An open laptop displaying a children's story titled

High-quality, diverse texts

Amplify CKLA students are immersed in a variety of texts—complex read-alouds, decodable chapter books, trade books, and content-rich readers—that reflect varied experiences and connect to learning goals.

Readers are 100% decodable for Grades K–2, empowering students to directly apply what they’ve learned. Novel Study units for Grades 3–5 offer a mix of contemporary and classic literature, and Culminating Research Units in every grade include a set of authentic texts and trade books.

Reach all learners with differentiated support.

Scaffolds and challenges, developed in collaboration with education experts, make content available to every student—including multilingual and English learners. With strategies embedded right in the curriculum, teachers can deliver in-the-moment, individualized instruction to meet all student needs.

For a dedicated English language development program aligned to Amplify CKLA, explore Language Studio.

Children sit on the floor in a classroom, some raising their hands, smiling and engaged. The lively atmosphere reflects the effectiveness of the k–5 literacy curriculum being implemented.

What’s included

The comprehensive resources in Amplify CKLA 3rd Edition support effective literacy instruction in every classroom.

Image of a laptop displaying an assessment report, surrounded by books about astronomy, an illustration of the moon, and a
Various educational materials, including textbooks, workbooks, a picture book, documents, and a laptop displaying a slide titled

Easy-to-use teacher materials

Amplify CKLA teachers are empowered to deliver effective instruction with the following print and digital resources:

  • Teacher Guides (K–5)
  • Assessment Guides (K–5)
  • Authentic texts and trade books (K–5)
  • Knowledge Image Cards (K–2)
  • Knowledge Flip Books (K–2, digital)
  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens (K–5, digital)
  • Remediation and intervention resources (K–5)
  • On-demand professional development (K–5, digital)

Immersive Amplify CKLA student resources

Amplify CKLA students stay engaged with the following print and digital resources:

  • Decodable readers (K–2)
  • Student Readers and novels (3–5)
  • Student Activity Books (K–5)
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (3–5)
  • eReaders (K–5, digital)
  • Sound Library featuring articulation videos and songs (K–2, digital)
  • Assignable Practice Games (K–5)
An open laptop displaying a poem and a person, alongside two educational booklets and a green butterfly, depicts the essence of a rich core knowledge language arts curriculum. The background includes simple graphic elements enhancing the scene.
A collection of six book covers including

Rich literary experiences

All of the high-quality, diverse texts in Amplify CKLA connect to the curriculum, fostering your students’ curiosity and helping them learn to read with confidence.

  • Trade Book Collections (K–5) inspire student research in each grade’s Culminating Research Unit.
  • Classic and contemporary literature (3–5) delight students in Novel Study Units.
  • Increasingly complex Student Readers (K–5) develop students’ literacy across grades.

Hands-on phonics materials

Multisensory phonics and foundational skills resources engage students with fun, varied approaches that promote mastery and build independence.

  • Chaining Folders and Small Letter Cards (K)
  • Read-Aloud Big Books (K–1)
  • Large Letter Cards (K–2)
  • Sound Cards (K–2)
  • Image Cards (K–3)
  • Blending Picture Cards (K)
  • Consonant and Vowel Code Posters and Spelling Cards (1–2)
  • Sound Library (K–2, digital)
Image includes various vowel sounds and combinations on flashcards and worksheets, along with a playful illustrated mammal, all part of a comprehensive literacy curriculum for elementary students.

All-in-one digital platform

Our comprehensive platform simplifies your day-to-day tasks and makes it easier to plan and deliver lessons.

  • Ready-made and customizable Presentation Screens
  • Auto-scored digital assessments
  • Standards-based reporting
  • Assignable Practice Games
  • Sound Library
  • eReaders

Professional Development

Move beyond traditional program training with Amplify’s digital PD Library, designed to fully support your shift to the Science of Reading and Amplify CKLA. Deepen your understanding with:

  • Program and planning resources
  • Model lesson videos from real classrooms
  • Guidance on using Amplify’s literacy suite to provide multi-tiered support
Two women are seated at a table with papers and a laptop. One woman is working on the literacy curriculum for elementary grades, while the other is smiling.

Ready to continue your learning journey?

We also offer live, tailored professional learning sessions by expert partners to expand your Science of Reading expertise, strengthen implementation, and improve student outcomes.

“Teachers love the ease of implementing the program, and students have fun while learning. Growth is evident in our data, and we have the support of Amplify experts who are available to answer questions and provide top-notch professional development.”

Bridget Vaughan, District K–8 Coordinator of ELA and Literacy

Quincy Public Schools, Massachusetts

A circular flow chart titled

A true Science of Reading early literacy suite for Grades K–5

Amplify has combined the critical elements of a Science of Reading system: assessment, core curriculum, personalized learning, and intervention. Based on 20 years of experience with the Science of Reading, this complete system saves you time and aligns your literacy practices.

  • Assess with mCLASS®: A universal and dyslexia screener, powered by DIBELS 8th Edition
  • Instruct with Amplify CKLA: Core curriculum to build foundational skills and knowledge
  • Practice with Boost Reading™: Personalized learning program to extend and reinforce core
  • Intervene with mCLASS Intervention: Staff-led Tier 2 and 3 intervention for intensive support
“There were other programs that claimed to be [based on the] Science of Reading, but no other vendor provided the suite of products together. We did not want to be picking from here, picking from there. [Amplify’s literacy suite] met our needs, because it aligned and provided us the best suite of products, hands down.”

Nicole Peterson, Principal, Midway Middle School

Sampson County Schools, North Carolina

Language Studio: Multilingual and English language learner support

Language Studio is Amplify CKLA’s dedicated K–5 program for multilingual and English language learners. Through daily 30-minute lessons, it strengthens reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills while reinforcing core instruction. This tailored support empowers students to confidently access grade-level content as they develop academic English.

A young girl immerses herself in the science of reading at a classroom desk, surrounded by peers and diverse educational materials.

Explore more programs in Amplify’s literacy and biliteracy suite.

All of the programs in our literacy suite and our biliteracy suite are designed to support and complement each other. Learn more about our related programs:

MTSS vs. RTI in literacy instruction: What’s the difference?

MTSS, RTI, SoR—it seems that teaching students to read requires educators to be literate in an ever-growing number of frameworks, approaches, systems, and types of developmental reading assessment and educational intervention.

It’s understandable, then, that not all educators know the differences and nuances among these terms, or that they may use them interchangeably or to mean one thing, when they actually mean another.

So, what is MTSS? What is RTI? What is MTSS vs. RTI? That is: What is the difference between an MTSS framework and RTI? What roles do they play in structured literacy? How are they informed by the Science of Reading (SoR)?

We’re here to help you sort it all out.

First, the core definitions

Science of Reading: As we described in an earlier post, the Science of Reading refers to the pedagogy and practices that extensive research has found to be most effective for teaching children to read.

And it’s not just optimism—it’s science. With explicit, systematic instruction, all students can learn to read at or near grade level.

When implemented in a classroom, the Science of Reading is part of a system—one that aligns with a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports): The Center on Multi-Tiered System of Supports offers this go-to definition: “A multi-tiered system of supports is a proactive and preventative framework that integrates data and instruction to maximize student achievement and support students’ social, emotional, and behavior needs from a strengths-based perspective.”

Its four defining components are as follows:

  1. Screening
  2. Progress monitoring
  3. Establishing a multi-level prevention system
  4. Making data-based decisions

RTI (Response to Intervention): The very name of RTI shows that it’s a response to an identified problem. Actually, it’s a process and series of academic responses that use data to pinpoint and address the specific challenges of struggling students.

MTSS and RTI are similar in that “they are both problem-solving models,” notes Dr. Brittney Bills, curriculum coordinator at Grand Island Public Schools, speaking with host Susan Lambert on a recent episode of Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Podcast.

Now, the fundamental differences

MTSS and RTI are similar, and can be related—even intertwined. But they are not interchangeable.

  1. RTI is part of an MTSS framework—not the other way around. “MTSS is that broader umbrella,” says Nancy Nelson, assistant professor of special education at Boston University, in our webinar Data-driven Instruction Within an MTSS Framework: The key to implementing the Science of Reading.
  2. MTSS starts with all students. “With the MTSS model, the thought is that the universal tier is the first intervention for all students,” says Dr. Bills, referring to the curriculum, instruction, and assessments provided to all students at a given grade level. We can ask: “What does our data demonstrate that our students need within that universal tier? And how can we apply evidence-based practices, as they relate to the Science of Reading, to beef up opportunities for our students there first? Then it’s a layering-on of supports and problem-solving at those other layers, the targeted and intensive tiers, after that.”
  3. MTSS supports prevention. This distinction goes hand in hand with those already mentioned. We start universal, then identify issues. Though RTI is necessary and effective, MTSS has the aim, and the capacity, to both get at-risk readers back on track and prevent the need for intervention down the line. “It’s proactive and preventative,” says Dr. Bills.

Putting it all together

Amplify’s early literacy suite aligns instruction using the Science of Reading. Blending instruction and knowledge-building (Amplify CKLA and Boost Reading, formerly Amplify Reading) with assessment and intervention as needed (mCLASS®), the system works with both MTSS and RTI models.

Where you can learn more

Amplify’s Science of Reading: The Podcast’s MTSS playlist

Webinars:

High-impact literacy tutoring for K–6 built on the Science of Reading-NEW | Amplify

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Dyslexia and the Science of Reading: Finding kids at risk and helping them read

The Science of Reading is also the science of reading struggles. Research helps us identify kids with challenges or at risk for learning disabilities, and helps us offer effective interventions that will make a difference.

Amplify understands the power of early assessment and early intervention. mCLASS®, built on the Science of Reading, offers an evidence-based solution that can flag reading risk and difficulties associated with dyslexia. Getting students on the right track early is crucial to unlocking the potential of all students to read at their best.

A teacher and a young student sit across from each other at a desk, talking, with a tablet on the table in a classroom setting.

What is dyslexia?

Here’s the definition of dyslexia developed by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and adopted by many state education codes: 

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability characterized by difficulties in word reading and/or spelling that involve accuracy, speed, or both and vary depending on the orthography. These difficulties occur along a continuum of severity and persist even with instruction that is effective for the individual’s peers.”

A graphic titled "Dyslexia: Fact vs. Fiction" with a grid of random letters in colored and white squares below the title.

Key signs of dyslexia

Difficulties with phonological processing—such as phonemic awareness and decoding skills—are hallmark characteristics of dyslexia.

Three colored squares display lowercase letters: "a" on an orange square, "c" on a blue square, and "g" on a yellow square—dyslexia-friendly design features each letter clearly arranged in a row with slight tilts.

Key signs also include difficulty with: 

  • Understanding the sounds in words
  • Reading fluently
  • Spelling, rhyming, and sequencing information
  • Finding the right words when speaking

Prevalence of dyslexia

According to the IDA, between 15 and 20 percent of the U.S. population exhibits characteristics of dyslexia. With this in mind, it’s crucial educators have dyslexia resources that help all of their students be successful.

A 3x3 grid of colored squares with the letters c, e, t, a, n, t, b, o, g in a typewriter font, each on a different colored background.

Importance of early identification and early intervention

Research shows that students who struggle to read in third grade are at high risk of continued struggle … and academic failure. And according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 33 percent of U.S. fourth graders are proficient in reading. We need to help students with dyslexia,  and we need to start early.

Dyslexia can’t be “cured,” but it can be identified and successfully addressed, starting as early as kindergarten. Students with dyslexia do have the potential to read at grade level when they have access to early intervention, targeted supports, and a structured curriculum. A University of Washington study found that only eight weeks of specialized instruction strengthened students’ neural circuitry—and improved reading performance.

Students establish reading trajectories early. Without intervention, readers on a low trajectory tend to stay on that trajectory or fall further behind. Being on grade level by the third grade is widely considered the most important predictor of high school graduation and college and career readiness. (Good, Guba, & Kaminski, 2001Morgan, Farkas, & Wu, 2011Shaywitz, Escobar, Shaywitz, Fletcher, & Makuch, 1992).

The later the onset of intervention, the lower the odds that struggling readers will become proficient readers (Torgesen, 2000). Response to intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) are built on research in prevention and early intervention and designed to help educators implement strong literacy systems. The screening and progress-monitoring data they provide enable educators to design instruction and intervention that prevent difficulties and close skill gaps for students.

Without early, intensive intervention, struggling readers won’t catch up to their average-performing peers. In fact, the gap between good and poor readers widens over time. (Adams, 1990Good et al., 2001National Research Council, 1998Stanovich, 1986).

What dyslexia looks like

Signs of dyslexia may emerge before children start school, but they become more apparent in the classroom.

Two young students sitting at desks in a classroom, focused on writing in notebooks with pencils. Other students are visible in the background.

They may include the following:

  • Delay in learning tasks such as tying shoes and telling time
  • Difficulty expressing oneself
  • Inattentiveness, distractibility
  • Difficulty with following directions
  • Left-right confusion
  • Difficulty learning alphabet, times tables, song lyrics
  • Difficulty with rhyming
  • Poor playground skills
  • Difficulty learning to read
  • Mixing orders of letters or numbers when writing
  • Reversing letters or numbers

Dyslexia legislation across the United States

A map of the United States showing states with universal screening laws, dyslexia laws, both, or neither, using different shades of green and gray for each category.

Recent efforts to increase awareness of and protections for those with dyslexia and other reading difficulties have triggered major shifts in state-level educational legislation. According to the National Center on Improving Literacy, 49 states have passed laws addressing dyslexia in public schools. Common themes in the legislation:

  • Increased emphasis on intervention
  • Dyslexia screening procedures
  • Adoption of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)
  • The use of explicit instruction
  • Changes to teacher preparation and training
  • Establishing rights for individuals with dyslexia (e.g., creating state task forces to study educational issues/needs)
  • Preventing the use of dyslexia screening requirements to supplant or postpone IDEA or Section 504 eligibility determination process.

How does mCLASS help you screen for students at risk?

Amplify’s mCLASS system includes DIBELS® 8th Edition’s teacher-administered one-minute measures and other built-in dyslexia screeners, as well as intervention and robust reports for teachers and administrators. It’s all you need to monitor and support every student in your classroom.

DIBELS 8th Edition logo with University of Oregon College of Education text and a yellow arc above the letters.

The most critical early reading skills—including phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, and oral reading fluency (Good, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 2001National Reading Panel, 2000Torgesen, 2002)—are best measured through direct observation. This is a key feature of mCLASS’s content validity. Early literacy skills, defined as the  ability to translate letters to sounds and combine sounds to read and comprehend, are directly measured in mCLASS through a student’s active production of sounds and words, ultimately followed by reading and demonstrating comprehension

Groups driving change

The following organizations advocate for dyslexia legislation, supports, and other early literacy efforts:

Decoding Dyslexia is a national network of parent-led grassroots groups across the country, organized around the issue of equity and concerned about limited access to educational opportunities for all students, including those at risk for dyslexia in the public education system. Through Decoding Dyslexia’s 50 state chapters, tireless parent leaders work to share dyslexia resources, raise awareness, remediate and support students with dyslexia, inform policy makers on best practices to identify at-risk students, advocate for the drafting and passage of state policies, and empower families to support equity for all children.

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit education and advocacy organization devoted to issues surrounding dyslexia. Serving individuals with dyslexia, their families, and professionals in the field, the IDA provides information about dyslexia on its website, publishes a peer-reviewed scientific journal called Annals of Dyslexia, and provides referral services to individuals and professionals who use the federal legislative systems to advocate for individuals with dyslexia. 

The University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning—a UO College of Education research and outreach center that develops educational interventions and assessment tools—developed DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). DIBELS is a research-backed instrument for evaluating reading in kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms. In developing DIBELS 8th Edition (University of Oregon, 2018), the Center on Teaching and Learning made significant efforts to ensure that the measures meet state-level dyslexia screening requirements and help maximize testing efficiencies for schools.

The National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL) is a partnership among literacy experts, university researchers, and technical assistance providers, with funding from the United States Department of Education. Its mission is to increase access to, and use of, evidence-based approaches to screen, identify, and teach students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.

What my wedding taught me about choosing curriculum

The right curriculum choice isn’t only about the product—it’s about who’s by your side from start to finish. Here’s how one district found that with Amplify CKLA.

By Kelly Pruitt, Instructional Facilitator, Peninsula School District | May 28, 2026

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Winter Wrap-Up 02: Mathematizing Children’s Literature

Promotional graphic for Math Teacher Lounge podcast, episode 2, featuring Allison Hintz and Antony Smith, discussing how mathematizing children's literature can build math fluency.

While we’re hard at work producing the exciting fifth season of Math Teacher Lounge: The Podcast, we’re continuing to share some of our favorite conversations from our first four seasons. This time around, we’re revisiting our popular episode that connected literacy and math!

In this episode, we sit down with Allison Hintz and Antony Smith, authors of Mathematizing Children’s Literature, to talk about what would happen if we were to approach children’s literature, and life, through a math lens–and how we can apply those same techniques to classroom teaching!

Explore more from Math Teacher Lounge by visiting our main page

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Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:02):

Hi, I’m Bethany Lockhart Johnson.

Dan Meyer (00:04):

Hi, I’m Dan Meyer.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:05):

And we are so excited for another episode of Math Teacher Lounge. And as you know, podcast format; you’re listening now. I think one beautiful thing about the podcast format is that it gives us a little bit more time to have these rich conversations. And I promise I won’t do it, but I could talk to our guests for hours, hours! Authors Allison Hintz and Tony Smith have just released Mathematizing Children’s Literature: Sparking Connections, Joy, and Wonder Through Read-Alouds and Discussion. And today we get to talk to the authors. Allison, Tony, welcome. Welcome to the lounge.

Allison Hintz (00:53):

Thank you. We’re so grateful to be here.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (00:55):

We’re so excited to have you here. And I wanna say that my very first—was it my first math conference? Maybe it was my first math conference—up in Seattle, the CGI conference, and I’m all like, you know, wide-eyed and just like, “Can this be a place for me, this math community?” Re-envisioning my relationship with math and thinking about myself as a math teacher, what? And I went to your session on mathematizing children’s literature, and I was just so fired up. I was so wowed by your ideas, your energy, and your passion for students’ thinking. And I feel like as I read this book, I felt like I was hanging out with you. Like you were just so encouraging all the way through. Of educators, of other folks working with young people, and really guiding us how to listen with joy and with an open curious mind.

Dan Meyer (02:03):

Yeah. I would love to hear a bit about the genesis of this book for you folks. Like, I’m coming at this from a secondary educator lens. I’ve got small kids, so that’s also part of my interest here. But I love any book, any idea that seeks to merge what seems like two disparate worlds. Like it’s often the case that we feel like, well, there’s approaches for ELA and approaches for math, and they’re kind of separate disciplines. And these poor elementary teachers have to learn all of them and be experts at all of them. And here you both come along and say, “Hey, what if they are the same kind of technique?” Can you just speak to how this came about?

Allison Hintz (02:38):

Definitely. Tony, do you wanna take a try? Do you want me to start us off?

Antony Smith (02:42):

I can start. We oftentimes present and talk together and so we kinda switch back and forth. So that’s just how we are. So probably about eight or nine years ago, Allison and I, our offices were next to each other on our small campus. We’re both professors and we just happened to have a few children’s books that we looked at together and we were just thumbing through the pages. We really liked children’s literature. And we noticed that I would stop at certain points wondering about character motive or plot or sequence of events or language use. And Allison would stop at very different points in the book and notice number and concepts or something about mathematics. And that’s when we started to wonder, what would it be like if we were sharing a children’s book with a group of children and we put our ideas together? Where would we stop? What would we talk about? What would we ask children about in terms of their thinking and what they notice?

Allison Hintz (03:42):

And so we started playing with these questions that we had and started approaching stories with multiple lenses to see what kinds of things would children notice and what kinds of things might they say. And we were also on our own journey in trying to understand how to plan for and facilitate lively discussions and classrooms that surface really complex mathematics. And it felt like stories were a place where that might be a fruitful context for hearing children’s thinking. We’ve worked with a lot of teachers and students in our region. We live in the Seattle area and we’ve applied for some funding over time that’s really helped us be in a lot of community-based organizations and educational contexts and libraries and pediatricians’ offices and classrooms, various classrooms, and see what’s interesting about this and what might teachers and children do with stories that would surface complex mathematics to think about together.

Antony Smith (04:41):

Over time, we came to the realization that if we wanted to hear children’s ideas, we had to stop bombarding them with questions. <laugh> Yeah. And at first it made it worse that we were asking them math and literacy questions at the same time. And so we realized that what we needed to do was to back off and to ask children what they noticed and wondered.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (05:01):

Can you say more about that and how that kind of evolved into mathematizing children’s literature?

Antony Smith (05:07):

We did work with a number of very thoughtful, talented classroom teachers and children’s librarians in public library systems who were just so masterful at asking open-ended prompts and questions, rather than kind of like the de facto reading quiz, that a read-aloud can become, which I’ve always disliked as a literacy educator. And we realized in our observing these read-alouds or interactive read-alouds or shared reading experiences that given the opportunity in the space and an adult who was actually listening, that children came up with all of the ideas we would have asked them about and more. So we didn’t have to be bombarding them with questions. They were already much more thoughtful than what would’ve been sufficient to answer our questions.

Allison Hintz (05:58):

And much like mathematics, it was really an iterative process. You know, we had some clunky read-aloud discussions where we were trying to accomplish so much and toggling multiple chart papers and different colored pens and all sorts of “how do we capture these ideas” and “do we separate ’em? do we keep ’em together?” And so it’s really been over time that with partners, we’ve learned these ways of having multiple reads of the same story that allow us to hear what children notice and wonder, and then to delve more deeply into their questions and their ideas through multiple reads where we might spotlight literary ideas that they notice; we might spotlight mathematical ideas that they notice. We might make purposeful integrations between those. But we found it to be most productive—and Kristin Gray really help us think about this—to have an open Notice and Wonder, get everything out much like an open-strategy share. We welcome here, record all the ideas, and it goes all over everywhere. You know, it can be a really not math-y noticing! And those are amazing! So there’s a lot of, um, yes, there is a ladybug on this page! The grandma is wearing green triangle earrings! Oh, your grandma wears green earrings! I mean, it all comes out.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (07:27):

Wait, have you been in my classroom? ‘Cause that’s exactly— <laugh>

Allison Hintz (07:29):

<laugh> And then, you know, we think of it a lot like if math teachers might use the 5 Practices for selecting and sequencing, or if you might move from an open-strategy share to a targeted share, how can we get out all the questions that children are asking and then step back from them, take some time to really think about what they’re telling us they’re curious about, and plan some purposeful, intentional subsequent discussions that can delve more deeply into their ideas.

Dan Meyer (08:02):

I’d love to go into that a little bit more if that’s all right. Um, I’m gonna speak from someone who doesn’t have an elementary background and I’m gonna voice some worries that I had, some anxiety. One anxiety I have like in a classroom or a curriculum is when there’s no room for student ideas. Right? When it’s like, oh, there’s just room for the curriculum author or the teacher here. That is a sadness. But I when I see an instructional environment like you’re describing here, where there is openness to all kinds of different student ideas, of different levels of formality, from different kinds of cultural fonts of knowledge or wherever, I also get a little bit nervous because that, like, increases the risk that a student might come to understand that “my ideas are not good enough,” whereas in the class with no room for their ideas from their home or their language or their hobbies, like, they’re not gonna internalize the message that, “that wasn’t good enough.” And so I’m really curious as you move from the open Notice and Wonder where kids share all of themselves with you, and then you move to a targeted focus on some sort of disciplinary objective, how do you navigate that tension and help students feel like their contributions are valuable, even though we aren’t taking them up per se?

Allison Hintz (09:18):

That’s such an important question. I mean, I think we’ve grappled with this broadly in math education. I think any time we’re thinking about which ideas we choose to take up to pursue to consider, we have a responsibility to think carefully about whose ideas are being taken up and heard and considered. And so one of the tensions I hear you naming, I think, Dan, is when we engage in lively discussion where children’s thinking’s at the center, how do we make sure to upend and interrupt kinda status norms that run the risk of being deepened? Um, and I think by paying attention to whose ideas are taken up as much as which ideas are taken up, and what’s the mathematics we wanna explore is one tension. Um, another tension I might hear you naming is, you know, the complications that teachers face with time and pressure and coverage, and which mathematics ends up getting worked on. And, um, you know, it’s something we’ve really had to struggle with in mathematics education, where we move to more discussion-oriented classrooms that are really centered in sense-making to know that it takes a lot of time to do this thoughtful, thoughtful work. Um, does that begin to get at some of the tensions you’re raising? Is there, is there more you’re thinking about?

Dan Meyer (10:53):

I think it’s really helpful that you kind of broadened the scope of the question beyond your book to “this is an issue that we are, you know, really challenged by and focused on broadly in math education.” And, um, I appreciate you bringing the element in of whose idea—not just which idea is taken up, but whose idea is taken up—is an opportunity where, let’s say, multiple people raise an idea that is towards an objective the teacher has, they have the opportunity to disrupt certain kinds of status, like ideas about status, in that moment. From your perspective, like, are there techniques to say, I don’t know, parking-lot certain kinds of questions and say like, “Hey, like these are awesome”? I don’t know. I just know that I see kids at like ninth grade. They are very reticent, often. They’ve internalized totally this sense of like, “I’m not gonna just, like, share about the pants the grandma’s wearing, you know; that will not be received well.” And so I’m just kinda wondering how that happens and like, what are the ways we can disrupt that? That process?

Antony Smith (11:54):

So thinking about that, Dan, from the teacher’s perspective, in those kinds of scenarios where you wanna honor each child’s contribution, a couple of things that come to mind: One is that by, you know, initially by modeling what I as a teacher, something that I notice or wonder about, helps kind of set the expectation for what kind of response would be encouraged. And it’s broad, but it gives an example. And then also we really try to record or to chart all of the ideas that are shared so that we can revisit and honor those together. And then either later or on another day, if we choose one or two of those to explore in some way within a more focused read, then another thing that we do is have the idea investigation afterward that continues that thought, but goes back to being as open-ended as possible, so that those students or children who maybe didn’t have their idea as the one that was focused on by the group could go back to that or explore some other idea of their own, so that the idea investigation isn’t a lockstep extension activity, which is why we don’t call it that. So they could again bring in their own perspective. But I have to say from the teacher’s point of view, there is that moment of potential panic <laugh> because there is that power transfer when you’re asking children to help steer where this is going. And if you really mean it, you have to let them steer a little bit. And that can be terrifying. And, um, I always think of one teacher, Ashley, we worked with who read an adorable book, Stack the Cats, by Susie Ghahremani. And in that book, there’s a point where there are eight cats and they’re kind of trying to be a tower of cats and they fall and they’re sort of in the air on that page. And she asked her first graders—she stopped, and she asked, “How, do you think, how will the cats land?” And for about a minute and a half, the entire <laugh> class, was silent. They had their little papers; they had chart paper; they had clipboards; they had everything they needed. But that unusual phenomenon of a group of six- and seven-year-olds actually just sitting and thinking and not being peppered with activities was really stressful, but amazing. And then, after about the 90 seconds, they started out into their exploration of how the eight cats might land. They just needed a minute to think. And it’s so rare that we’re able to let children have that.

Allison Hintz (14:40):

In that same moment, Ashley, who’s a learning partner to us, she turned to us kind of quietly, like, “Should I pose a different question?” And <laugh>, we’re like, “No, let’s stick with it. Let’s see what happens.” So I think it creates this space too, this thinking culture, right? And this culture of “what does that mean to really pose a rich task?That’s open-ended, where there’s multiple access points?” Those eight cats could land in so many different ways. And there was broad access, there was a wide range of all the cats landing, and one’s on their feet, ’cause cats always land on their feet <laugh>, and there was every combination. And so, um, I think what’s really interesting—and to me, this brings back to your wonder, Dan—is, you know, “What’s the risk in openness?” And there’s always risk in openness. Um, it’s scary as a teacher, right? If I’m not the authority of knowledge and I don’t have control over where we’re gonna go, it might get into places that I didn’t anticipate. Or I don’t really feel as solid in the math as I want to. Or I don’t know what it sounds like to stick with silence and wait time, to know if my students are really in productive struggle or if that question was a flop. And so, um, I think this is some practice space for young mathematicians and teachers of mathematics, and just teachers, to explore with that openness and kind of the risk of the openness required for complex thinking to emerge.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (16:12):

You know, it feels like the way you’re both describing this, it really is a culture shift, right? I kept feeling like I was given permission to be a beginner as I read this book. Like I was really…I loved how you said, I believe it was you, Allison, when you were in the class, you had a couple index card that you kept on your clipboard and that as you walked around, you were like, “Hey, if I don’t know what to ask, I ask one of these questions.” You know? And just this idea that, that, like Dan was saying, there is that loss of control, but that’s also a way to create this culture where students ideas are valued and we are allowing students to really generate the questions, which I thought was such an important idea to explore.

Allison Hintz (17:00):

We started this work long ago, super-excited about math-y books. And we saw a lot of potential in them and we still do. But the limitation we saw is that math-y books, they, they put forth a certain mathematics to be curious about. In some ways they tell you what mathematics to think about. So we started asking ourselves what would happen if we considered any story a chance to engage as mathematical sense-makers. And we started playing with non-math-y books and we got to a place where we could consider every story an opportunity to engage in mathematical thinking. And so we started noticing things over times, oh, these books tend to be really math-y. We call those text-dependent. We’d have to pay attention to the mathematics to understand the story. Whereas this pile of stories, these, they’re not overtly math-y. You could really enjoy the story and not pay attention to mathematics and have an amazing conversation. But what would happen if we thought of about this story as mathematical sense-makers and how might it deepen our understanding of the story? And then this other teetering pile of books, these are books where, you know, children didn’t tend to engage as overtly as mathematicians in it, but there’s opportunities in this story to go back to something—to a moment, to an illustration, to a comment—and think as mathematicians. And those were more about illustration exploring. And so, as we notice these different kinds of books, we really broaden what we thought about. And I think one of the things we really wanna think about in community through this book is what happens if we approach any story, every story, as mathematical sense-makers, because stories are alive in children’s lives, in homes and communities and in schools. And it’s a broad opportunity that we wanna take up. I was thinking, as I stay in this strait for just a moment about book selection, before we move into that process, um, Bethany in a previous MTL, you talked about representation.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:12):

Mm, yeah.

Allison Hintz (19:14):

And do you remember when you shared the image of hair braiding?

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:19):

Yes. Vividly, yes. <laugh>.

Allison Hintz (19:22):

Yeah. And can you say just what that meant to you? What that….

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (19:27):

Yeah. Well, it was from a conference; Sunil Singh had used it and was talking about the artistry in mathematics and beauty in hair braiding. And, um, particularly, he was showing this particular image of this Black woman with her hair braided in profile and looking at the angles and the symmetry. And I shared that, you know, I spent so many hours in the beauty shop with my aunties and my mom and my grandma and continue to, to this day, that it just, it struck me immediately as familiar. And it struck me immediately as seeing an image that was reflective of my lived reality, projected as valuable and worthwhile for consideration in the world of mathematics. Which is not what I felt as a student of mathematics as a young adult or child. So it was this beautiful moment of, for me, the power of when we see images and we allow opportunities for re-envisioning what may be a common practice for that student, or may be something that they see every day.

Allison Hintz (20:44):

And in that same way, that image that was put up, we wanna think really carefully about representation in the stories that we select. And when we think of stories as mirrors or windows, we really wanna be mindful in story selection of whose stories are told and whose stories are heard. And when you said that you would sit down to listen to a story and you felt at ease or that you saw an image and you saw yourself that can be and should be something we really think carefully about when we select the stories that we select.

Dan Meyer (21:21):

It’s a wider path for representation of different kinds of people in literature, because people’s stories seem so much more present and towards the surface of their lives, versus, say, the abstractions and numbers and shapes in mathematics. It feels like more of a struggle to find ways to show people, hey, like you’re here, this, this place belongs to you. So in all these reasons, I think it’s really great you folks are using literature, which has this history of humanities, literally humanities, as a vehicle for mathematics. That seems pretty special here.

Antony Smith (21:56):

We both go to libraries and bookstores and look through books as often as we can, but also our partner, a children’s librarian, Mie-Mie Wu, helped us go through—when we would meet, she would bring three or four hundred books at a time.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (22:13):

When you described her wheeling in the cart, oh, I wish I been in that room! <Laugh>

Antony Smith (22:18):

And the cart was, you know, probably three or four times bigger than she was sometimes. And we would go through hundreds of books and look at them and listen to her thoughts as a skilled librarian sharing with families, diverse families, and what catches the attention of a three-year-old sitting with her grandfather. And that was really a valuable, helpful experience. And it’s a partnership that continues. So in Last Stop on Market Street—and this is in the book; we talk about this, this children’s book quite a bit—in this story, CJ with his Nana, his grandmother, are riding the bus to the last stop on Market Street in San Francisco, to go, as we will find out, to help serve in a soup kitchen to help the community. And the teacher, Susan Hadreas, had the children record their ideas. She charted them in an open Notice and Wonder read. And one of the ideas that a young boy noticed was that CJ on the bus…a man with a guitar starts playing the guitar on the bus and CJ closes his eyes and it says CJ’s chest grew full. And he was lost in the sound and the sound gave him the feeling of magic. So this boy said, “I wonder, what does that feel like if you’re feeling the magic? What’s that?” And that was one of many ideas in the open Notice and Wonder, and Allison will talk about the math lens read, but first Susan went back and read with them. She had that idea, she circled it on the chart paper, and another day that week, she said, let’s go back and visit this story we really liked. And remember, we wondered what feeling the magic was like. Let’s go back through and let’s keep track of all the feelings and emotions that CJ had across the journey to the soup kitchen in this book. And so they did another read of the story; they were very familiar with it, of course, but they noticed new things and they also, every few pages, stopped and she helped chart all of the emotions that CJ experienced from envy to excitement to sadness. There’s a huge range in this book. And it was fascinating.

Allison Hintz (24:36):

I think one of the things that the children noticed was that CJ’s feelings were shaped by community. And that he shaped and shaped…he was shaped by and helped shape his community. And so the ways that he felt across the story were impacted by the other characters that he comes across. The guitar man on the bus. The bus driver who can pull a coin out from behind someone’s ear. The lady with the butterflies in the jar. Nana helping him to see the rainbow. And the students started, you know, being curious about that. How do we shape and how are we shaped by community? What communities are we a part of? This class is one community. I’m in many communities across my life. And they started to quantify the number of people in the story. So Mrs. Hedreas went back for a math lens read, and she said, let’s just keep track of and pay attention to how many people are in CJ’s life in this day. Because I can hear you starting to think about quantity. This class at the same time in other areas of the day had been working on counting collections, how to keep track, so they got out their tools. Some people pulled out ten frames, some people pulled out clipboards. They had a wide range of things they could use to help them keep track. They developed their own strategy, keep track however you want. She did a quicker read through it, flipping the pages, and then they get into these debates: <laugh> “We already counted that person!” “But they took their hat off and put it down to collect money!

Antony Smith (26:10):

“What about the dog?”

Allison Hintz (26:11):

“That’s the same person!” “Yeah, there’s a dog pound in his community!” <laugh> “Do animals count in our community?”

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (26:17):

I love it!

Allison Hintz (26:17):

“Yes, they count!” Uh, and so we went through and quantified and there was really this understanding as you saw these people throughout the story that communities can be of different sizes, but community has impact. And you have responsibility in your community to show up and to lean in and to know that bringing your full, authentic, vulnerable self, you shape people and they shape you. And what communities are people a part of. And it turned into this really interesting discussion about quantity and helped us think more about quantity and community. I think a really important moment for us and for that class was the transition from being people who almost did mathematics to a story, like counted things on a page, um, count acorns on a page in an autumn book, to being mathematicians who thought within the story.

Antony Smith (27:17):

And then two idea investigations that came from that —not at the same time, of course, but with the same group of children—one was they identified an emotion of their own and wrote and drew about that. And also, who helped them address or get out of or acknowledge that emotion. And then the other idea investigation was that all of the children drew or kind of mapped out a community that they were part of. Whether it was their neighborhood or their classroom or their soccer team or whatever it was. And so then those investigations strengthened the connections of those concepts to the lives of those children.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (28:05):

Well, I, actually wanted to ask you about idea investigations. Because I feel like that was such an important invitation in your book. And the way I understood the idea investigation is you’re really paying attention to what’s coming up in your other reads. Right? And then these are opportunities to extend the thinking, or like you said, to extend a particular aspect: What’s your community? Can we map your community? Or what’s a particular emotion? And it was in such contrast to what I think I have probably done in my classroom more than once, which was like, “Oh, we read this story about seals. So now my story problem is gonna be about seals, right? <laugh> Like in the story, you know, Jojo, the seal had five balls. <laugh> So if Jojo still had five balls and two of them bounced away…” You know, or whatever. Right? But that’s not what an idea investigation is. Right?

Allison Hintz (29:03):

Yeah. I think this is where we also had some stumbles and can totally relate to what you’re saying as previous classroom teachers as well. We have come to a place where we are pretty in favor of a super open-ended idea investigation that takes up the things that have surfaced in the multiple reads and making sure it’s a rich task with many, many ways children can engage with that. There’s many, many, many right answers or ways to engage. Less is more there. So we moved way away from, like, even a worksheet that might have an idea from it to blank paper and math tools and places to get into some productive struggle around some of the complex things that were raised.

Antony Smith (29:59):

A challenge with worksheets is that they put a frame around children’s ideas. So either there are only three lines to write on, or there’s only a small box to draw in. Whereas a blank page really opens up the possibility. Um, and so—is it Ann Jonas who wrote Splash!? sorry, I don’t have it in front of me—the book Splash!, about animals that end up in and out of the pond, including a cat that is not happy about ending up in the pond, an idea investigation after that for very young children was, with the list of the different creatures displayed at the front of the room: On blank paper, hey, draw your own pond and decide how many of which and each type of animal you want in your pond and then write about it. Just on blank paper. And so that allowed some children to draw, like, three giant goldfish. But other children drew 17 frogs and three cats. And, and just, it lets children follow—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:02):

It was theirs, right? It was theirs.

Antony Smith (31:04):

Their idea. <laugh> And that comes partly from, I think, as Allison mentioned, we both were classroom teachers before moving into academia. And I remember giving children worksheets, particularly math worksheets, where they weren’t necessarily bad, but right at the bottom, it says like, explain your strategy. And it gives two lines.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:23):

Right! <laugh>

Antony Smith (31:25):

The only thing a seven-year-old can write there is “I thought.” Or “I solved it.” <laugh> And that’s not where we need to go.

Dan Meyer (31:34):

Yeah. If I could just ask the indulgence of the primary crowd here, like, I’m trying to make sense of all this. And I just wanna like, offer my perspective. My summary statement of what’s going on here. I’m trying to—I love how you both came here—

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (31:45):

<laughs> How ya doin’, Dan? How ya doin’?

Dan Meyer (31:47):

<laughs> I’m, ah, A, I’m loving this a lot. Um, B, I came in here loving how you folks are broadening the work of primary education to kind of find commonalities between these sometimes seemingly disparate kinds of teaching in ELA and math. Love that, I wanna say. But I think you folks are describing, with all these teachers you observed and your own work, is the work of attaching meaning to what students might not realize yet has meaning. Or they might think it only has one kind of meaning. But you, the teacher, with their knowledge, realizes that there are many more dimensions of meaning that can be attached to those thoughts. And I’m hearing that from you folks, when you describe A, what math is and the power of a teacher to name a thing as mathematical. Like, “Oh, you didn’t think math was that, but math is noticing; math is wondering; math is asking questions,” for one. But also this work you’re describing of how, like, first the task has to invite lots of student thoughts and then to say like, “Oh, I see that there’s a similarity to these two.” And to raise those up for a conversation or to ask a question like to extend one person’s, one student’s question a little bit more. But it’s always…I’m just hearing you folks attaching more meaning than the student might have originally thought. I appreciate the conversation. That’s really interesting.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (33:03):

Well, and now that the book is out, I think it’s gonna keep evolving, right? Now that it’s gonna be in the hands of teachers and librarians and educators and caregivers, it’s exciting to see kind of where it goes next. Which actually brings us to our MTL challenge. Dan Meyer, do you wanna share?

Dan Meyer (33:22):

Math Teacher Lounge, we have a challenge for the folks who listen and we’d love for them to hop into the Facebook group Math Teacher Lounge, or hit us up on Twitter at @MTLShow and just, like, kind of exercise beyond listening, exercise the ideas you folks are talking about, some kind of a challenge that can help us dive deeper into your ideas. So what would you folks suggest for our crowd, for our listeners?

Allison Hintz (33:42):

I would love to invite people to playfully experiment with a favorite story, with a story that’s new to you. I would love to invite listeners to sit with a story maybe on your own, and just ask yourself as a mathematician: What do you notice and wonder in this story? Don’t feel any pressure. Maybe sit with a child or some children and listen to what they notice and wonder. Like, really listen! Don’t ask questions! But hear their questions and place children at the center and consider multiple reads. Consider continuing to pursue their questions. And we have a planning template that might support people in kind of sketching out some ideas if you’re open to playing with that too.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:34):

And we will post—

Dan Meyer (34:36):

That’s awesome.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (34:36):

—a link for that planning template in our Facebook group and on Twitter as well. So thank you so much for that resource, because I think it’ll definitely help. It could help you, like you said, it could help you kind of organize your thoughts or help you think about this work in a new way. So thank you for that resource and thank you for the amazing resource that is Mathematizing Children’s Literature. I am so excited to continue to engage with you both and with listeners as they dive into this book. If folks want to engage with you more, where can they find you? How can they reach you?

Allison Hintz (35:12):

Well, we’re on Twitter.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:14):

Great.

Dan Meyer (35:15):

What’s your home address? <laugh>

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:24):

Wait, let me try that again. <laugh> ‘Cause it does sound like I’m like, <fake ominous voice> “Where can they find you?”

Allison Hintz (35:29):

4-2-5…. <laughs>

Antony Smith (35:32):

At the bookstore!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (35:34):

Y’all, if folks want to continue this conversation or share these ideas or the math challenge, how can they tag you? How can they, they reach you on the World Wide Web, besides the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group?

Antony Smith (35:50):

Yeah. Well, we are both on Twitter, and we’ve been trying to promote the hashtag #MathematizingChildrensLiterature. It’s very long, but once you type it once, your phone or computer…

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:01):

Easy. Yeah, those click, right? Is that what it is now?

Antony Smith (36:03):

<laugh> The other is that we do for our project, we have an Instagram account that is @MathematizeChildren’sLiterature.

Allison Hintz (36:11):

We care really deeply about hearing from people. You know, we think our ideas are constantly evolving and that there’s such exciting room to grow. And we just felt compelled to share what we were learning now so that together we could learn and build vibrant experiences for young children and teachers and families through stories. So we want to hear from people! We wanna learn about stories that are important in your lives and what children say, and grow these ideas together.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:42):

And credit to Dan, you told me you went and ordered a bunch of the books they have on the suggested read list.

Dan Meyer (36:48):

Oh my gosh.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (36:49):

You read ’em to your son.

Dan Meyer (36:50):

I got such a side-eye from my significant others around here for what I dropped on Amazon in one night! <laugh> Uh, all these books I didn’t have. Some of them I did. We are not fully illiterate around here! We do love the written word at the Meyer household! But there were a bunch that that I grabbed. I’m morseling them out day by day.

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:09):

Wait, at bedtime I read my one-year-old One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab. <laugh> And let me tell you, he had vigorous pointing and “Da? Da da da da?”

Allison Hintz (37:22):

<laugh> Aww, da da!

Bethany Lockhart Johnson (37:22):

So hey, we’re on the road. <laugh> <music> Deeply grateful, not only for your work and your beautiful book and your work, but also for the invitation to dive into the world of children’s literature in a way that many of us have not before. And it’s fun! Thank you, Tony. And thank you, Allison. And thanks for hanging out in the lounge.

Allison Hintz (37:48):

Thanks for having the lounge!

Antony Smith (37:49):

It’s been fun!

Allison Hintz (37:52):

Thank you both.

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What Allison Hintz says about math

“We started asking ourselves, “what would happen if we considered any story a chance to engage as mathematical sensemakers”.”

– Allison Hintz

Author and Associate Professor, University of Washington Bothell

Meet the guest

Allison B. Hintz: Dr. Hintz’s research and teaching are in the area of mathematics education. Her focus on mathematics came about during her years as a fifth grade teacher – it was alongside her students that she developed her own positive identity as a mathematician! Today she studies teaching and learning, specifically facilitating engaging discussion. Her research and teaching happen in partnership with educators and children in formal and informal settings and focuses on beliefs and practices that support all children in lively mathematics learning. She is a co-author, with Elham Kazemi, of Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions.

Twitter: @allisonhintz124

Antony T. Smith: Antony T. Smith is an associate professor of literacy education at the University of Washington, Bothell. He works alongside teachers to create engaging literacy-mathematics learning experiences through exploring and discussing children’s literature. He is committed to the concepts of motivation, engagement, challenge, and creativity in literacy teaching and learning.

 Twitter: @smithant  Instagram: mathematizechildrensliterature

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About Math Teacher Lounge: The podcast

Math Teacher Lounge is a biweekly podcast created specifically for K–12 math educators. In each episode co-hosts Bethany Lockhart Johnson (@lockhartedu) and Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) chat with guests, taking a deep dive into the math and educational topics you care about.

Join the Math Teacher Lounge Facebook group to continue the conversation, view exclusive content, interact with fellow educators, participate in giveaways, and more!

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S3-05: Thinking is power

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Join us as we sit down with Melanie Trecek-King, college professor and creator of Thinking is Power, to explore how much of an asset science can truly be in developing the skills students need to navigate the real world. You’ll learn about “fooling” students and the importance of developing critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy in the classroom. We’ll also share real strategies and lesson examples that help build these essential skills and engage students in learning.

And don’t forget to grab your Science Connections study guide to track your learning and find additional resources!

We hope you enjoy this episode and explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page!

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Melanie Trecek-King (00:00):

We say knowledge is power, but it’s not enough to know things. And there’s too much to know. So being able to think and not fall for someone’s bunk is my goal for my students.

Eric Cross (00:12):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. On this third season, we’ve been talking about science’s underdog status. And just this past March at the NSTA conference in Atlanta, I had the chance to speak with science educators from around the country about this very topic.

Hermia Simanu (00:28):

Right now, there’s only two teachers in our high school teaching science.

Shane Dongilli (00:32):

I have 45 minutes once a week with each class. The focus is reading and math.

Alexis Tharpe (00:38):

Oftentimes science gets put by the wayside. And you know, I love math and I love my language arts, but I also think science needs to place be placed on that high pedestal as well.

Askia Little (00:46):

In fifth grade, oh, they teach science, because that’s the only grade that it’s tested.

Eric Cross (00:50):

That was Hermia Simanu from American Samoa. Her team flew for three days to make it to the conference. You also heard from Shane Dongilli from North Carolina, Alexis Tharpe from Virginia, and Askia Little from Texas. All of these teachers were excited to be at the conference and had a lot to say about the state of science education in their local schools. Throughout this season, we’ve been trying to make the case for science, showing how science can be utilized more effectively in the classroom. We’ve explored the evidence showing that science supports literacy instruction. We’ve talked about science and the responsible use of technology like AI. My hope is that all of you listeners out there can use some of this evidence to feel empowered to make the case for science in your own communities. And on this episode, we’re going to examine how science can help develop what might be the most important skill that we try to develop in our students: Good thinking. On this episode, I’m joined by a biologist who actually advocated for eliminating the Intro to Bio course at her college. Instead, Professor Trecek-King created a new course focused on critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. In this conversation, we discuss why the science classroom is such a good environment for helping students become better thinkers. Now, I don’t think that you can make a much stronger argument for science than using it to develop the skills that Melanie describes in this conversation. So, without further ado, I’m thrilled to bring you this conversation with Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College, and creator of Thinking Is Power. Here’s Melanie.

Eric Cross (02:29):

Well, Melanie, thank you for joining us on the show. It’s so good to have you.

Melanie Trecek-King (02:34):

I am so happy to be here.

Eric Cross (02:35):

Now, I went to your session at NSTA in Chicago … I think it was two years ago. A couple years ago. And I was listening to your session, and as I was listening to you, I started Reverse Engineering in my mind what you were doing with your college students. I started reverse engineering the K–8. I was like, “This is amazing.” Where has what you’ve been doing been hiding? We need this not just in the college, higher ed. We need this all the way up and down. Because I hadn’t seen it before. So I think a good place for us to start is gonna be like the story of how and why you as a biologist wound up making the case to actually eliminate the Intro to Biology course at your college. So can you start off and tell us a little bit about that story?

Melanie Trecek-King (03:20):

Sure. So I started teaching at a community college in Massachusetts. And I absolutely love teaching at a community college. And I was teaching the courses that people who don’t wanna be scientists when they grow up have to take to fulfill their science requirement. And that course was Intro Bio. And I tried every way I could figure out to make that class be useful,] relevant to students. I mean, the thing is, our world is based on science and you have to understand science to be a good consumer of information, to make good decisions. And I’m a biologist, so it pains me to say this, but you know, somewhere in the middle of teaching students about the stages of mitosis and protein synthesis, I thought, “Is this really — like, if I have one semester that’s gonna be the last chance that someone’s gonna get a science education, is this really what they need?” And I just decided, “No.” So, to my college’s credit, they were very supportive. I went to them and said, “You know, I think we should assess the non-majors courses. Like, why do we teach non-majors science?” And we all agreed, well, it was for science literacy. OK, great. Do our existing non-majors courses do that? And so we evaluated each of the courses. I made a case that Intro Bio was not doing it. And so we actually replaced it with a course that I call Science for Life. And the whole course is designed to teach science literacy, critical thinking, and information literacy skills.

Eric Cross (04:48):

And so you did this while you were looking at mitosis. And you’re looking at students who may or may not be science majors. And then kind of asking that question. I know every educator asks this, and whether or not it’s welcomed or supported is a different question: “Is what I’m teaching actually gonna be relevant and useful later on down the road for this group of students?” And you actually got to run with it and then create this course, this new course. So, what were the skills that you were hoping to achieve with the new course you developed, and and why were those skills so important?

Melanie Trecek-King (05:21):

Well, if I just go back for a second to what you said, ’cause it, really hit me: I remember the actual moment — it had been building up to that point, but the actual moment that it hit me — I was teaching students the stages of mitosis. And I was applying it to cancer, because the thought is that if we use issues that are relevant to students to teach concepts, that it will be more meaningful to them. They’ll learn it better; they’ll be able to apply it. And they just looked absolutely deflated. They didn’t wanna be there. And I had this moment where I thought, “You know, if, if these students ever have cancer somewhere in their lives, is what I taught them going to be something that they remember? Is it going to be useful to them?” And quite frankly, like, no. <Laugh> They’re not gonna remember proto-oncogenes. And quite frankly, is that really what they need to know at that moment? What they need to know is, “What does this mean? Who is a reliable source of information here? If these treatments are recommended, what is the evidence for them? What are the cost-benefit analyses? Where do I go to find reliable information?” And in that space, cancer in particular, we have this whole field of — I wanna say charlatans, ’cause they may not actually be lying, but they’re pedaling false cures, false hopes. And people need that kind of hope, and so in their time of need, they’re more likely to fall for that kind of thing. Which leads me to the skills that I teach students. I call them this tree of skills. And the order is important. I start — and there’s a lot of overlap to be fair — but critical thinking, and then information literacy, and science literacy. The idea is that students carry in their pockets access to basically all of human’s knowledge at this moment in time. And if they needed to access it, they could. The question is, do they know what they’re looking for? Are they aware of their own biases that are leading them to certain sources, or certain false hopes? Are there certain things that are making them more vulnerable to the people that might prey on them? Are they able to use that information to make good decisions? There’s a great Carl Sagan quote, and it’s something like, “If we teach people only the findings of science, no matter how useful or even inspiring they may be, without communicating the method, then how is anyone to be able to tell the difference between science and pseudoscience?” So yes, the process of science is a process of critical thinking. However, we do tend to present science most of the time. Like, here’s what science has learned. And to be fair, those things that we’ve learned from science are really useful and inspiring. But if we don’t teach the process, so you’ve got somebody now who let’s say has been diagnosed with cancer and is on their phone and they’re scrolling through social media and everything looks the same. And of course the algorithms learn who you are. Next thing you know, there’s all of these like pseudo-treatments popping up. It all looks the same. Somebody who says that acupuncture can be used to cure cancer can feel the same, from someone who doesn’t understand the process of science, as a medical fact. And so the process is the process of critical thinking. My class everything is open note. The quizzes are open note. The exams — and I say open note, they’re also open online, because I know for the rest of their life they’re gonna have resources available to them; I want them to be good consumers with that information, which to me requires metacognition and critical thinking and information literacy and all those skills that I’m trying to teach them.

Eric Cross (08:58):

You’re basically taking what … we’ve taught science for so long. And more recently, it’s changed to more focusing on skills. At least in K through 12. But a lot of it was just memorization of a ton of different things that now we can pull up our phone, go on the internet. You can pull up a lot of those facts. But those facts don’t necessarily translate to actual real-world skills. When I listen to… I kind of make this analogy sometimes: students say … it’s funny, I have 12-year-olds that say this. They go, “How come they don’t teach us how to do our taxes?” And you know they’re regurgitating what they hear from adults, right? “Teach us real-world skills!” And I was like, really, if we taught you right now how to do your taxes, how many of you would really be like, “Oh, this is an awesome lesson! We’re really engaged!” But their point is that “I wanna learn something that I could actually use later on, that’s that I’m gonna carry on.” And in your course, you’re talking about these skills that actually can apply. Like you said, if I had cancer and I’m looking at different types of medical procedures, do I have the skills to really be able to evaluate and make informed decisions on that? And that’s, that’s not something that I’ve seen explicitly taught really anywhere. And I hadn’t heard anybody talk about it, really, until I heard your session, where you’ve kind of unpacked this, and over the last couple of years, have created some programs or resources for educators, where they can take this into their classroom. So what were some of those skills, again? What were were some of the skills that you thought, “I wanna make sure that my students can walk out and they know how to do this and apply it to maybe several different fields”?

Melanie Trecek-King (10:35):

Oh, that’s a really good question. Because the whole thing was a process for me. Like, when I finally let go of Intro Bio, I was so glad to see that class go, by the way. ‘Cause I just felt like I was beating a dead horse. So when I let go of it, I thought, “What do they need instead?” And for me, what I realized was I was trying to make the class I would’ve wanted to take. I realized the things that I personally didn’t know, that my own education maybe let me down a bit. But things that I thought were important. So then I took all of those, synthesized them, tried to figure out the best order. The class is currently in its third iteration. And I hope every iteration is an improvement. But I’m thinking about the students that I taught before the pandemic. It was Intro Bio. Up to just maybe the couple years before the pandemic, and during the pandemic, we had a new virus and we had a new vaccine and we had new treatments. There was hydroxychloroquine and there was ivermectin and then there’s masks. Are masks effective? Well, you know, in what circumstances? What kind of mask? There are all of these questions. And that whole thing was we saw science playing out in real time.

Eric Cross (11:50):

Absolutely.

Melanie Trecek-King (11:51):

And so were my students able to follow that? And then what happened in that process is that science became politicized. And in a time where things are uncertain and we need answers, ’cause it’s scary, people want certainty and science doesn’t tend to provide that. Especially when it’s just starting out. And then when it becomes politicized, people decide that they’re going to — it’s not necessarily a conscious decision — but they retreat into what people in their camps are saying or their groups are saying. Which actually leads me to one of the more important parts of information literacy skills in there, which is most of our knowledge is shared. We tend to have overinflated senses of what we individually know. And studies actually show that with Google, if you have access to Google, you think you’re smarter than if you don’t have access to Google. But we all have access to knowledge in our communities, and that’s one of the reasons humans are so successful, is that we can each specialize in different things and share our expertise and become greater than the sum of our parts. The problem with that, of course, is that we forget what we don’t know, and we assume that we know what the community knows. And so recognizing the limits of your own knowledge and how different communities produce knowledge, like the different epistemic processes that communities use to come to knowledge. When it comes down to it, an important part of knowing is knowing who to trust, right? Knowing where the source of knowledge lives. And in order to do that, you have to understand the processes that they’re using to come to that knowledge and the limits of your own knowledge. And then how to find who has that knowledge so that you can use that to make better decisions.

Eric Cross (13:38):

So, when I hear what you’re doing with your college students, and I think about what I’m doing in the classroom, in the middle school, we are really focusing on literacy as skills. Reading, writing, speaking, listening. And then when I think of the next step of the journey, your information literacy and the literacy you’re teaching is really the application of those things in the real world. And the examples that you gave are very critical examples. Evaluating claims about Covid. Making informed decisions about a medical procedure that you might need. And we all get that applied to us. We’re scrolling through social media and somehow social media is listening. It’s figuring out exactly what I’m doing, because all of a sudden the ads are telling me … how did you know I was alking about KitchenAid mixers now? I just said KitchenAid mixers and it’s gonna show up in my feed! But <laugh> I take that in the same way from the same place that I take in maybe an oncologist. So it’s it’s coming through the same channels. So now I kind of wanna pivot. So we’ve talked about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, the connection between “am I really teaching the skills that my students need in the science class? Is it really critical thinking explicitly or is it just kind of implied?” Now I wanna ask you how you do it. What’s the annotated, abbreviated kind of syllabus of your course?

Melanie Trecek-King (15:03):

So the course is called Science for Life. And the premise behind it is the kinds of skills and understanding of the process of science that they would need to make good decisions to be empowered in a world based on science. And so the very first lecture, I say, “OK, I’m gonna tell you a story and I just want you to listen to the story. And at the end I’m gonna ask you why I told the story.” And the story that I tell them is some of the history of the witchcraft trials in Europe. And I start with the Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of Witches, from the Pope, and about how people would accuse witches of causing birth defects or storms or crops dying. And, the best evidence that they had to absolutely know somebody was a witch was if somebody accused them, and then if they were accused, if they confessed. OK? But the problem is, to get them to confess, they would torture them. Roasting over coals, or splitting until somebody broke. And so I tell my students, “OK, this was absolute proof that someone was guilty of witchcraft. I don’t know about you; I would confess to anything, right? Make it stop!” So this is where I get to ask students, “Why would I ask you this? Why would I tell you this story? And traumatize you on the very first day of lecture?” And they see the reasoning, right? They thought they had evidence. The question was, is that good evidence? And so, you know, I’m getting students to have a basic understanding of epistemology, right? Without calling it that, or without going into all of the philosophical background of epistemology. Apply this to your own reasoning. What are you wrong about? Well, you probably wouldn’t know. OK, how would you know if you were wrong? Like what kinds of things do you feel that you’re so right about? How good is your evidence for that? So what I want them to do is internalize the thinking about thinking, and analyzing how they come to conclusions, and proportioning how strongly they believe. Their confidence in how right they are. So I think starting with that kind of misinformation, and getting students to internalize that process is important. But I think the example is really useful, because most of my students don’t believe in witchcraft. Right? So it’s not an issue that would immediately threaten them in some way. So when, when a belief is tied to identity or how we see ourselves or is really important to us, then it’s very difficult to be objective about that belief. And so by starting with witchcraft, it’s not triggering. I get them to think about thinking and practice that muscle so that when we get to those more important issues, they have the skills they need to evaluate them.

Eric Cross (17:55):

So would it be fair to say that your Science for Life class is really applied scientific thinking for the real world?

Melanie Trecek-King (18:01):

Absolutely. That’s the idea. I mean, science is too good to keep to ourselves, right? And it’s everywhere. So how can you understand the world through a scientific lens?

Eric Cross (18:10):

What are the nuts and bolts of how you teach your students these strategies? What do you do? What are some strategies and techniques that we can maybe share with listeners? And then where I want to go after that is I wanna ask you, how early do you think this can be started? So lemme start off first with, what do you do?

Melanie Trecek-King (18:28):

So I use three different strategies. One is, I provide students with a toolkit. And the toolkit is one that I created and it is like my one toolkit to rule them all. It is trying to apply critical thinking and science reasoning all together in one place. So that if students are met with a claim, they’ve got the toolkit with an acronym. They can now start and have somewhere to go. In that if I gave you a claim and said, “Just critically think through this claim,” I mean, that’s a mighty task. But if you have a structured toolkit, then it’s hopefully a systemic way that’s helpful. The toolkit is summarized by FLOATER. I have published it on Skeptical Inquirer. It’s free. So it’s Falsifiability, Logical, Objectivity, Alternative Explanations, Tentative Conclusions, Evidence, and Reproducibility. So I provide students with a toolkit. The next thing I do is I use a lot of misinformation in class. Back to what Carl Sagan says: What I heard was we should use pseudoscience to teach students the difference between a pseudo-scientific process and a scientific process. So, I use science denial, conspiracy theories, and give my students a lot of opportunities to practice evaluating claims with the toolkit. And the other thing I do is, I use inoculation activities. So inoculation theory is based on William McGuire’s original research in the ’60s, which is basically like a vaccine analogy. Where you can inject a small amount of a virus or bacterium into the body, so that it creates an immune response, so that it can learn the real thing. And so in the real world, it can fight it off. Inoculation theory does the same thing, but with misinformation. So, what we can do is, in controlled environments, expose students to little bits of misinformation so that they can recognize it in the real world. There’s different kinds of inoculation, but I’m a big fan of what’s called active and technique-based inoculation. So technique-based means that students are learning not the facts of misinformation, not factually why this thing is wrong, but about the technique used to deceive. So maybe the use of fake experts. Or maybe the use of anecdotes. Or the use of logical fallacies. The other part of that is active, which is where students create the misinformation. So for example, my students, just now, we finished covering pseudoscience. And I teach students the characteristics of pseudoscience. And basically we have fun with it. Where they pretend to be grifters and they sell a pseudoscience product. And so they have to make an ad like they’d see on social media, using the different techniques. And the point there is that it’s supposed to be funny, right? And lighthearted. But in a real way, by using the techniques used to sell something like pseudoscience, it’s opening their eyes. You can’t unsee how every alternative product has, “it’s an all-natural and used for centuries and millions use it and look at this person who says, ‘Wow, it worked for me!’ And it’s certified by some society that doesn’t exist, but this doctor behind it says that it’s really great!” I mean, it’s all the same stuff. So they create the misinformation using their own techniques.

Eric Cross (22:02):

That’s one of my favorite things that you’ve talked about, and I want to dive in that a little bit more. But when you’re teaching the toolkit, FLOATER, what does that look like in the classroom, when you’re actually breaking all of those things down? What does it look like as you’re walking your students through this, and you’re kind of coaching them on all of those different things? ‘Cause I feel like some things might be like, “Oh yeah, I got that.” And then some of them might be, “Oh, what is that?”

Melanie Trecek-King (22:24):

Yeah, it takes me probably a good solid lecture to get through the basis of the toolkit. But then over the rest of the semester, I’ll spend more time going into different parts, different rules, a bit more in-depth. So, for example, logical fallacies and objectivity. So the rule of objectivity basically states that you need to be honest with yourself. I’m gonna quote Feynman here, so: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” We don’t tend to think that we can be fooled. But of course we can. So actually, if you wanna talk about it, I start class by fooling my students.

Eric Cross (23:03):

Wait, what do you do? What do you do for that?

Melanie Trecek-King (23:05):

Oh, so this is really fun. Day 1 of class, after the syllabus, I tell my … so you’re in my class now, Eric. “So I have a friend, and she’s a psychic. She’s an astrologer and she’s pretty good at what she does. I mean, she’s got books and she’s been on TV and stuff. She knows I teach this course about skepticism. And so she’s agreed to test how effective she is by providing personality assessments to students in class. So if you wanna participate, what I need from you is your birthday, your full name, answer a few questions. Like, if your house was on fire and you could take one thing, what would it be? Or if you could get paid for anything to do anything for a living, what would it be? Um, there’s a third one. Oh! If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” So the next class, it’s usually over a weekend. The next class I say, “OK, I’ve got your personality assessments back, but remember, we wanna test how effective she is. So in order to do that, I need you to read your profile as quietly as possible. And then I’m gonna have you rate her accuracy on a scale of 1 to 5. OK? So close your eyes; rate her.” Over the years doing this, it’s about a 4.3 to 4.5 out of 5. They think she’s pretty accurate. OK? “So now, if you feel comfortable, get with a person next to you. And I want you to talk about what parts of the personality assessment really spoke to you and, and why, and why you thought she was accurate or not.” And it takes them 5, 10 minutes before they realize they all got the same one. So, this is not my original experiment. It was first done by Bertram Forer in … I think it was the ’50s. And it’s done in psychology classrooms. James Randi made it famous. But the personality assessment itself is full of what are called Barnum statements. So, named after P.T. Barnum. These are statements that are very generic. So, “You have a need to be liked and admired by people. You are often quiet and reserved, but there are times where you can be the life of the party.”

Eric Cross (25:13):

How do you know this about me, by the way? This is a — I feel like you know me right now.

Melanie Trecek-King (25:17):

“There are times where you’ve wondered whether you’ve done the right thing.”

Eric Cross (25:19):

This is getting weird.

Melanie Trecek-King (25:21):

I’m just on fire, right? So these are Barnum statements. They’re the basis of personality assessment.

Eric Cross (25:29):

Mel, can I pause you right there? You said Barnum. Is that the same Barnum, like Barnum & Bailey Circus?

Melanie Trecek-King (25:34):

Yeah. P.T. Barnum, who didn’t actually say “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but we attribute him with that kind of ethos. These statements though, if you read a horoscope or even like personality indicators, like the MBTI, it is basically pseudo-scientific. And it ends up with lots of these Barnum statements. They produce what’s called the Barnum Effect, which is, “Wow, that’s so me! How did you know me?” I could even do more. Like, you have a box of photos in your house that need to be sorted. Or unused prescriptions. And these can apply to nearly everyone, but they produce this effect where we go, “Wow, that is so me!” Right? So by fooling them this way, I get to … well, so the next thing is, “Yes, I lied to you. And I’d like to tell you I won’t do that again. But I’m not going to, ’cause I might. So be on your guard.” But I did it for free. And why did I do it? “I did it because I could tell you ‘I could fool you,’ but you wouldn’t necessarily believe me. So I fooled you, so that you would learn what it feels like to be fooled.” It’s not fun. But we’re gonna make a joke outta this. And students are almost never upset about this ’cause it’s a fun process and they’re all fooled. And again, the point is, I didn’t disprove psychic powers. I didn’t just disprove psychics with this exercise. But I did show you how easy it was to fake. So if somebody is gonna tell you that they can know these things about you through some way, hopefully the evidence they provide should be stronger than something that’s easily faked. Right? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you claim to be able to read my personality based on my birthdate, then I need more than something that you can be taught to do in 15 minutes. So, I fool them to convince them that they could be fooled.

Eric Cross (27:27):

You’re giving them a practice scenario for thinking. And I was thinking about basketball. I grew up playing basketball. And my coach would have our own team be the defenders of the next team we were gonna play, so that we can be prepared for the defense. We were gonna see. Now, when I’m thinking about education, and what you just said reminded me of this, it’s like we’re often just teaching offense. We’re always teaching the plays. We’re always teaching what to do. But we rarely teach defense. What happens when someone comes towards you and, and they challenge you or they come at you with claims? How do we evaluate this? And I think in pockets we do it. We do claim-evidence-reasoning. We present claims and evidence and reasoning. But we don’t always have practice defending them. And I think there’s great resources. There’s Argumentation Toolkit and there’s all these awesome resources that do this. But does that fit? You’re kind of having them practice defense?

Melanie Trecek-King (28:26):

Yeah. You know, that’s brilliant. I never considered that analogy. But, yeah, in the real world, you don’t just get to always try to score all the time. Someone’s gonna challenge you and give you a claim that maybe you haven’t heard before. So how do you think through it?

Eric Cross (28:41):

Yeah. And you become better. So now I’m thinking about how early could we start doing this? For one, I love the idea of lying to your students, because I do that. And it’s just such a fun scenario. How early could we start implementing these strategies or these ideas or these toolkits? In your mind, what do you imagine? How early could we start this with young people?

Melanie Trecek-King (29:07):

Yeah. I’m so glad you asked that question, ’cause honestly, by the time they get to me, it’s almost too late. And I don’t wanna say it’s too late, ’cause it’s never too late. But, oh, we need to start so much earlier! That example that I gave about the selling pseudoscience argument? I have a wonderful colleague, Bertha Vasquez, who’s a middle school teacher in Miami and the director of TIES at CFI. She did this with her middle school students. And quite frankly, their examples were just as good, or in some cases better, than my college students. And they had so much fun with it, too. And she just said that, you know, <laugh>, they actually are more savvy with the kinds of things that they see online than we — I don’t wanna say give them credit for. But almost that we want to believe. My students give me examples of things that are from corners of the internet that I didn’t know existed. And quite frankly, that’s probably a good thing for my own mental health. But students are on there too, like middle school students, and we need to prepare them for the kinds of things that they see in the wild.

Eric Cross (30:13):

So in middle school, definitely. Now, you’ve also done some work in high school as well, right? In Oklahoma? Did you do some. …?

Melanie Trecek-King (30:17):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (30:18):

…some work with high schoolers? What was that like? Did you see any impact there?

Melanie Trecek-King (30:21):

So I didn’t actually do it in Oklahoma. I have taught the course … actually, you were talking about younger kids. I’ve taught the course to high schoolers in my area that are parts of dual enrollment. And they absolutely ate up the curriculum. And they were wonderful, wonderful students. And it was completely appropriate for … they were juniors, actually. But the course has also been taught in Oklahoma, through a dual enrollment program as well. And it was a small sample size. But we have pre-post testing that showed that it improved their critical thinking, their acceptance of science. But anecdotally the head of the program there said that in his years doing this, he’d never seen a course that helped them improve in their other courses so well. So, I felt very rewarded by hearing this. But apparently their critical thinking skills and information literacy skills helped them succeed in their other courses that they were taking. And I love that the students were transferring those skills to other classes. That’s the whole point.

Eric Cross (31:23):

And that’s a big … I think that what you just said is really the core, especially of what we’ve been talking about this season: What you’re talking about and what you’re teaching can transfer and supports literacy. And this is an example of science doing that across all other content areas. So I think that that’s huge, that that was said. What do people say about this course? I know I went on your website, and I looked at some of the comments that some folks were saying, and I know it’s just a snippet, but what do you hear from the education world about this? Because I don’t see it in many places. I see it kind of embedded, sprinkled into different content areas. But you’re actually teaching it explicitly. Do you tend to find positive feedback, overwhelmingly? Or do you get pushback on on some of this? What’s it been like for you?

Melanie Trecek-King (32:16):

I think the biggest pushback — and it’s good pushback, and I would agree entirely — is with inoculation activities, you do need to be careful to, when you debrief students, you wanna tell them why you did what you did and to use their powers for good and not for fooling other people. And I think importantly, for not putting misinformation out into the wild without having context around it. So if you do these kinds of inoculation activities, like if you have your students create pseudoscience ads, don’t just let them put them on social media. Obviously, you can’t control everything that they’re doing. But explain to them why you wouldn’t wanna do that. As far as everything else, I’ve heard really great feedback. You’re referencing my website. So, when I put together the course, I was trying to find resources for students to read. Textbooks are ridiculously expensive and I couldn’t find anything that I really wanted students to buy. So I just started writing, and I put it on my site. I have a site that’s basically the core of the curriculum. More in progress. And then I’ve got some of the topics that we explore and those are all assigned readings. My students are captive, in that I know they want a grade, and for four months they have to sit with me for the entire semester, in that I’ve specifically ordered the content in a way that would be most conducive to them learning these things. On the internet, though, and on social media, ’cause I post on there as well, people come in from all kinds of entry points, and so the goal would be to have them start at the beginning and go to the end. But people … I’m pleasantly surprised that there is an audience for critical thinking and science literacy content out there. And so that really warms my heart. But I am doing more and more for educators. And so I have a section for educators. I put content on there. I put assignments, the assignments that we’ve talked about and more, are on there. And the educators that I’ve had use it have just been really wonderful. Like, I hear great things. If I might, the biggest issue that I’m having is actually reaching educators. I’ve gone to — I met you at NSCA, actually, that was only last summer.

Eric Cross (34:30):

Oh, wow. Wow.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:32):

Right?

Eric Cross (34:32):

Yeah, you’re right. It wasn’t even a year.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:35):

Yeah, I think it was like July last year. So, um, you’ve been to the conferences. And I just went to the last one as well. But I have yet to figure out a way to really get in front of enough educators to share the content. So if anybody’s listening and is interested in learning more, please let me know! <Laugh>

Eric Cross (34:52):

Yes. And we talked about your website, but I didn’t say what the website was. So it’s ThinkingIsPower.com.

Melanie Trecek-King (34:57):

Yes.

Eric Cross (34:58):

And on there, there’s tons of resources. There is the toolkit. And it’s all free.

Melanie Trecek-King (35:06):

Yes.

Eric Cross (35:07):

And there’s a dope t-shirt on there that I just bought today, that Melanie’s actually wearing right now. It says, “Be curious, be skeptical, and be humble.” And I love that. Because I think one of the things that we can’t forget about teaching people how to think and critically evaluating information, sometimes those conversations can become very dehumanizing. And what I mean by that is it sometimes can become, like, intellectual sport, where we forget that there’s a human being on the other other side. And we lose that empathy and compassion. We can kind of see that. It just becomes this intellectual jousting and arguing. And one of the things I know about you, and when you talk about this or you talk about the work that you do, and even the shirt that you’re wearing, there’s this, “be humble.” There’s this human that is never lost in this. And you said it, too: When you’re teaching your students and you’re equipping them with all of these intellectual skills and all of these tools, to use it for good. So to maintain your humanity, to maintain your character, and then to use it to edify and lift people up, not to go out and do harm. That balance, I think, is so, so important. So it’s something that I really appreciate about you and how you teach.

Melanie Trecek-King (36:19):

I appreciate those kind words. Actually—

Eric Cross (36:21):

Oh, of course!

Melanie Trecek-King (36:22):

—and if I might, I sometimes see people using critical thinking like a weapon. It’s like, “I have learned fallacies and I’m just gonna use the tools of critical thinking to tell you why you’re stupid, or why you’re wrong, and why my position is right!” But real critical thinking involves applying those same standards to your own thought processes. And even something like argumentation: the goal of our argumentation is not to BE right; it’s to GET it right. And so we’re on the same team. If we’re arguing about something, if the idea is in scientific argumentation we’re trying to find the truth, which one of us is making a better argument based on the evidence? Can your perspective help me see my own blind spots and vice versa? And the more different perspectives that we have, the more able we are to find whatever reality is. But we are in this together. And so, yeah, I think … I’m glad to hear that that’s coming through. But if you don’t have the kind of humility that says, “You know, I could be wrong,” then you’re never gonna change your mind anyway. So having the humility to say, I’m wrong. <Laugh>

Eric Cross (37:33):

Yeah. You end up just seeing people just defend turf, as opposed to support “look for truth.” And I know for me, my own education journey, I end up with more questions than answers anyways. So I go in trying to find an answer for something and I end up with 10 more questions. And I go, “OK, this is kind of how it is.” You go down this rabbit hole and you just end up with all these different questions. And it forces the humility, because you’re like, “I don’t know! I think this is what it could be, but it could also be these other answers or explanations. So this is just where I’m at, based on what we know right now, at this present time, which might shift.”

Melanie Trecek-King (38:07):

And that sounds reasonable. Yes. Which might shift. Yes.

Eric Cross (38:11):

And especially for us as life-science biology teachers, our content is something that definitely shifts. I know some of the things I teach now are not things that I learned when I was even in middle school. Just because things evolve. They change. We learn, we get new data. That’s just the way it is.

Melanie Trecek-King (38:24):

<Sighs> And Pluto is no longer a planet.

Eric Cross (38:26):

I know. Rest in — well, no, Pluto’s still there. Yeah. It’s no longer a planet. But that was one part of my kindergarten memorizations <laugh> is Pluto being in there.

Melanie Trecek-King (38:36):

Gotta change your mind.

Eric Cross (38:38):

I know. Any words of advice for science educators out there who want to focus more on honing these critical thinking skills and strategies with their own students, but they don’t know where to start? Where would you point them? Or what advice would you give them?

Melanie Trecek-King (38:52):

I think start with what you want the students to know. And not necessarily the FACTS that you want students to know, but start with the skills that you want them to know. And then really be honest with your process. When I designed Science for Life, I started with, “these are the skills that I want students to know.” And everything was in service of that. So this sort of backwards design, I think, helped me follow a path that was more likely to be useful, if that makes any sense. But it really required doing it all over again. So don’t be afraid to question the things that you’re currently doing, even if that’s all you’ve been taught or all you know.

Eric Cross (39:41):

What I’m hearing is, don’t be afraid to question your own assumptions about what you’re doing. And don’t be afraid to adapt or change or modify. Kinda, pivot. Be flexible.

Melanie Trecek-King (39:51):

Yes, be flexible and pivot. And this is where I’m in a different position than middle school and high school educators. Because I have complete freedom over what I teach in my class.

Eric Cross (40:01):

Sure.

Melanie Trecek-King (40:01):

At the end of the semester, I always joke with non-majors that there’s nothing they have to know, which actually gives me a lot of flexibility, because I could teach ’em a lot of different things. So if there are things that you have to teach students, obviously that’s one thing. But I personally think that the way that we’ve been teaching science needs a refresher. A rethinking. And so I would say, “If you want your students to learn science literacy, honestly ask, what does that mean to you? And what would that look like to get to that point?” For me, though, it was also keeping in mind that maybe I didn’t already know the best way to do that.

Eric Cross (40:43):

One of the things you mentioned earlier is trying to reach out to educators. And I know that when we work together, it’s a force multiplier. And what you’re doing is developing skills. And there’s these skills that are happening right now in academia that you’re doing. And then how do we transfer that into middle and high school. Or, I’m sorry, middle and elementary school, high school. We need to get more people into this conversation to kind of brainstorm and figure that out. We have a Facebook group, Science Connections: The Community, where we have educators that gather. That can be one place we start the conversation. And again, I know on your website you’ve been super active on social media; you’ve grown your presence on Twitter and all these different places, engaging with folks. Which is awesome. ‘Cause I know I see your posts and I’m saving the things that you’re posting and I’m thinking of ways that I can do it in my classroom. I’m gonna take that product. By the way, is that on your website, the lesson that you do with the product?

Melanie Trecek-King (41:43):

No, actually. So the article, “How to Sell Pseudoscience” is … I know Bertha Vasquez wrote up a version of it.

Eric Cross (41:50):

Maybe we can grab that. ‘Cause we might be able to put that into the show notes for folks, because she’s a middle school educator. If there’s already something that’s been done for teachers like us, we’re like, “Yeah, let me get that and let me remix it and make it my own!” if there’s already a exemplar out there.

Melanie Trecek-King (42:04):

Yeah, she’s done it. And so I will absolutely share that with you.

Eric Cross (42:08):

So, all season long, we’ve been talking about science as the underdog. We kind of framed it, you know, science oftentimes takes a back seat to math and English. It’s kinda the first thing to go. Or the first area where time can get cut. Because of what gets tested gets focused on, oftentimes. And then in addition to that, when you’re a multi-subject teacher, elementary science isn’t just one thing — it’s every field. You know, you’re a biologist, which is different than a geologist. And when you’re teaching every subject, that’s a lot. And you might not have had a science class for years. And the realities that we’re seeing over and over with different researchers and practitioners is that science could actually enhance literacy, and building those skills. And I think you really talked about it with the critical thinking skills. Those can transfer. Or the administrator that said, “This is one of the only courses I’ve seen where it transfers to other areas.” Could you share maybe with our listeners, just any advice for advocating for science in their own world?

Melanie Trecek-King (43:13):

Wow, I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that question! One of the things that comes to mind though — because I was listening to your last episode and educators … I honestly didn’t realize how little time they had for science. And how often science was then the first to go, to allow room for other subjects. But science overlaps with a lot of other issues. And so I feel like there could be a way to bring in science when teaching these other subjects. So, for example, argumentation and logical fallacies are easy to apply to reading and writing. Information literacy, and being able to find good information online, teaching students how to laterally read, to be able to check a source, or how to use Google effectively, to put in neutral search terms to find sources, or teaching students how to recognize the characteristics of conspiratorial thinking: All of these things can overlap with so many other subjects. So the scientist in me is a little biased towards science being important enough to do this. But try to bring it into the other subjects. It doesn’t have to be completely separate.

Eric Cross (44:43):

So integrating science into other things. And I … big believer. And a hundred percent agree with you. Now I’m gonna ask a question that kinda like takes us backwards. You shared an app with me when we first met that I thought was really cool. And I know it’s a friend or colleague of yours. But as a middle school teacher, I thought it was great, because it was something that my students could download and practice some of the skills that you’re talking about. Would you talk a little bit about the cranky uncle? Is it the Cranky Uncle app?

Melanie Trecek-King (45:17):

Cranky Uncle.

Eric Cross (45:18):

Could you share a little bit about that?

Melanie Trecek-King (45:20):

Yeah. Cranky Uncle is awesome. So, Cranky Uncle is the brainchild of John Cook, who is the founder of Skeptical Science and the author of the 97% Consensus study on climate change. Cranky Uncle … so he’s also a cartoonist. And Cranky Uncle is a cartoon game where … I don’t even have to explain who Cranky Uncle is to my students. Everybody inherently gets the, the character, right? So he’s like the guy at Thanksgiving that you don’t wanna talk to because he denies climate change and he’s just really cranky. But Cranky Uncle uses the techniques of science denial, which are summarized by the acronym FLICC: So it’s Fake experts, Logical fallacies, Impossible expectations, Cherry-picking, and Conspiratorial thinking. So he uses those techniques. Again, this is technique-based inoculation. So they recognize the techniques in the game, and you earn cranky points. And as you make Cranky crankier and crankier because you’re recognizing his techniques, you learn the techniques of science denial, and level up and open up other techniques. This is another one of those examples where climate change has a lot of science behind it, right? And if you wanted to get to the science behind climate change for any particular issue … so let’s say it’s cold today, so I’m gonna say there’s no climate change. OK? If I’m gonna unpack that at a factual level, and with science, we could be here for a while. But if I told you, “That’s like saying, ‘I just ate a sandwich so there’s no global hunger.’” OK? So that’s a parallel argument. Humorous. Love to use this kind of argumentation, ’cause it makes for some … I mean, it’s funny, but you get the point. It’s an anecdote. And anecdotes aren’t good evidence. So just like that, you could teach the technique of using an anecdotal fallacy for climate-change denial. So, I have my students play this game. You could do it when you’re studying argumentation. You could do it for science denial. I use an inoculation extension with that, where I have my students pretend that … um, actually, back up for a second. So I teach a class on critical thinking. And at the end of semesters I would get emails from students on, well, they’re failing the class, but they really shouldn’t, for all of these reasons. And reading these emails, I’m like, “If you think that’s a good argument, you clearly didn’t learn what I was hoping you would learn.” So I now have my students, early in the semester, after they play Cranky, pretend that it is the end of the semester and you’re failing the class and you’re failing because you didn’t do the work. Use at least four of the fallacies from class to argue for why you should pass. So they have to put it on a discussion forum, and they’ll say things like, “Well, if you fail me, then I won’t get into graduate school and then people will die and it will all be your fault.” Or, “My dog died, and so I was really sad.” Or, um, “You’re just a terrible teacher. And you’re short. So I don’t like you.” Or that kind of thing. So, oh, they love to attack my character. It’s really funny. But it’s supposed to be funny. And the point is, the students are using those arguments, they’re using the fallacies, to argue for something. And so by creating that misinformation themselves, they learn how those fallacies work. But taken together, I mean, everything that we just talked about there, Cranky Uncle, and the fallacy assignment, or whatever iteration you want that to be in, that doesn’t have to be in a purely science unit. Right? That could be sociology. It could be argumentation. It could be English.

Eric Cross (49:01):

Absolutely. That could be totally a prompt in an English class. And practiced in there. And then this could be an interdisciplinary thing, going back and forth between English and and science. Just having these discussions and looking at it from different angles. And you’re practicing the skills in two different contexts. So you get into argumentation. And then that app, I know I had fun with it. And the questions on there definitely resonate with people in my own family. I’m like, “I feel like I’m talking to exactly somebody that I’m related to right now.” <Laugh> Melanie, anything else that you wanna share, or discuss or highlight, before we wrap up?

Melanie Trecek-King (49:39):

So we could talk about lateral reading, if you like. ‘Cause I know a lot of educators use the crap test.

Eric Cross (49:45):

Please, please, please talk about that.

Melanie Trecek-King (49:47):

So, when evaluating sources, a lot of educators teach what’s called the CRAP test. And I wish I remembered what it stood for. But basically what you do, a lot of us have been taught when you go to a website, to figure out if it’s reliable, you wanna go to the about page. Read the mission; see who they are; maybe read some of the content; evaluate the language. So is it inflammatory? Are they making logical arguments? Are the links to reputable sources as well? And the problem is that if a site wants to mislead you, they’re not going to tell you that it’s a bunk site, right? They’re just gonna do a good job of misleading you. And so, what you wanna do instead … the CRAP test basically is an evaluation of a site. And that’s what’s called vertical reading. So you’re looking through a site to determine if it’s reliable. Uh, I think his name’s Sam Wineberg at Stanford, proposed something called lateral reading. Where, instead of on the site, what you wanna do is literally open a new tab and into the search engine type the source. You could do the claim, too. And then something like Reliability or FactCheck or whatever it’s that you’re checking, and then see what other reputable sites have to say about it. So, in their study, actually, they did a really interesting study where they compared professional fact checkers to PhD historians to Stanford undergrads. And they evaluated — I wish you could … um, there’s two pediatrician organizations. One’s like the American Association of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatricians, something like that. They’re very similar sounding. So you give them to students. I do this with my students as well, the same study. So I give my students those two websites. And I say, “Which one of these is more reliable?” And they do exactly what most of us do, which is spend time on the site looking around. And most of the time, if not nearly all the time, they come to the wrong conclusion. And so then I tell them what lateral reading is: “OK, instead of looking through the site, open a new tab, search the organization and reliability.” Something like that. And it takes probably 30 seconds before they realize one of them has been dubbed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. As opposed to the other one, which is like a hundred year old huge pediatrician organization that produces their own journals and so on. But nearly all my students are fooled. And in the study, none of the fact checkers were fooled. I’m gonna get the number right. It’s something like 50% of the historians and 20% of the Stanford undergraduates got the correct answer. And they spent a lot more time on it. So it’s a great way to teach students how to use the power of the internet to evaluate sources much more quickly and, effectively. And yes, use Wikipedia, right? Wikipedia is not a final answer, but Wikipedia is actually pretty accurate. So if Wikipedia is the first place you stop, then yes, go there, see what Wikipedia says, and then follow some of their sources.

Eric Cross (52:47):

What popped in my head was like, Yelp reviews for websites. That almost sounds like what it was. It’s like when I search for a product, I don’t go and read the product description marketing. ‘Cause that’s all designed to sell me on something. But I’ll go and look in Reliability, if it’s like a car, or just other sites to cross-reference. And that sounds like what you were talking about is like cross-referencing. Seeing what FactChecker [sic] said about this site, versus seeing what a site says about itself.

Melanie Trecek-King (53:14):

Well, that’s a great analogy. Because if I wanted to know if a product was effective, what the manufacturer says about the product, clearly there’s a strong chance of bias. Right? They’re going to be on their best, um, put their best foot forward. Versus, what do independent reviewers say about this product?

Eric Cross (53:35):

Yep. And I am known to research something to death. And I get something called “paralysis by analysis.”

Melanie Trecek-King (53:42):

Ohhhh, yeah.

Eric Cross (53:44):

And it’s so bad that even if I’m trying to buy, like, towels, I need to find the best-bang-for-the-buck towel. I have to defer some of these decisions out, because I’m on the internet for three hours now. I’ll be a pseudo-expert in towels, and thread count, and all of that stuff. But yeah, that maybe that’s just the science person.

Melanie Trecek-King (54:03):

I mean, I feel your pain. I do the same thing. <Laugh> It’s annoying. Like, it’s just towels. What does it really matter? But yeah.

Eric Cross (54:10):

Coffee! It doesn’t matter what it is. I just need to go, “OK, I have to use these powers for good. Otherwise I’m gonna be researching forever.”

Melanie Trecek-King (54:16):

I wanna say one other thing. So, again, this is a college class and I have a lot of freedom. But one of the driving philosophies behind the class is a wonderful quote in a book, Schick and Vaughn, How to Think about Weird Things. And they said, “The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your decisions, and the quality of your decisions is determined by the quality of your thinking.” And I know my students want a grade. But I’m really trying to teach them how to be empowered through better thinking. That’s where the name “Thinking is Power” came from. I mean, we say “Knowledge is Power,” but it’s not enough to know things. And there’s too much to know. So being able to think and be empowered to have your own agency and not fall for someone’s bunk is my goal for my students.

Eric Cross (55:07):

And doing that is gonna help them through the rest of their lives. Not be swindled, not be taken advantage of, be able to make better decisions. There’s so many benefits to building that skill. And I know your students have definitely grown and benefited. I’m sure you’ve heard, long after you’ve taught them, heard back from them and how they’ve applied that course to their lives. Melanie, thank you so much for being here. For a few things. One, for providing and filling this space where there’s such a need. Again, the critical thinking resources, the tools that you used, are so, so important. If we ever lived in a time where they were critical, it was really what we experienced during the pandemic in the last few years. We watched people’s information literacy and science literacy play out in real time. And we literally saw life-and-death decisions being made based off those skills. That highlighted, I think how important this is. And then, taking the time to generate resources for educators like myself, that we can take and adapt and put into our classroom and start teaching our students. ‘Cause like you said, by the time they get to you, they’re, they’re so far downstream or so far in a system that, depending on the teachers that they’ve had and the education system they’ve been in, may or may not have even touched on these things. They might have learned a lot of facts, but they may not have built their muscle to be able to critically analyze and interpret the world around them. And you’ve just — even the last year, it hasn’t even been a year since we talked the first time — I’ve watched your resources continue to grow, and you share them. And so I, on behalf of those of us in K–12, thank you. And thank you for being here.

Melanie Trecek-King (56:49):

Oh, well, thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you for everything that you do, reaching out to other educators and for giving me a platform to hopefully reach other educators.

Eric Cross (57:00):

Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Melanie Trecek-King, Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College and creator of Thinking Is Power. Make sure you don’t miss any new episodes of Science Connections by subscribing to the show, wherever you get podcasts. And while you’re there, we’d really appreciate it if you can leave us a review. It’ll help more listeners to find the show. You can find more information on all of Amplify shows at our podcast hub, Amplify.com/Hub. Thanks again for listening.

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What Melanie Trecek-King says about science

“Students carry in their pocket access to basically all of humanity’s knowledge at this moment in time. The question is: do they know what they’re looking for?”

– Melanie Trecek-King

Associate Professor of Biology at Massasoit Community College and creator of Thinking is Power

Meet the guest

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking is Power, an online resource that provides critical thinking education to the general public. She is currently an associate professor of biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches a general-education science course designed to equip students with empowering critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. An active speaker and consultant, Trecek-King loves to share her “teach skills, not facts” approach with other science educators, and help schools and organizations meet their goals through better thinking. Trecek-King is also the education director for the Mental Immunity Project and CIRCE (Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative), which aim to advance and apply the science of mental immunity to inoculate minds against misinformation.

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

S2-06: Making time for science in the K–5 classroom

Promotional graphic for "Science Connections" podcast, Season 2 Episode 6, featuring Lauran Woolley discussing making time for science in K–5 classrooms.

In this episode,  Eric Cross sits down with TikTok star and podcast host Lauran Woolley about her experience teaching science content within her K–5 classroom. Lauran shares how she’s learned how to make time for science, and what most K–5 teachers experience when creating their own science curriculum. Lauran also talks about her rise in popularity on TikTok, her podcast, Teachers Off Duty, and establishing strong relationships with her 5th grade students. Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Lauran Woolley (00:00):

I wanna make sure that they’re ready for the real world, and I wanna make sure that they’re able to apply these things that I’m teaching them in their life, not on a multiple choice test.

Eric Cross (00:11):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host Eric Cross. My guest today is Lauren Woolley. Lauren is a full-time fifth grade teacher in Leetonia, Ohio, who has amassed a following of 5.5 million subscribers on TikTok and over 1 million followers on YouTube. She’s also co-host of the podcast, Teachers Off Duty. Lauren has combined her teaching vocation and her talent for entertaining to connect with her students and encourage teachers across the world using her own unique style of edutainment. My most vivid memory from our discussion was her sincerity and openness about her experiences. It quickly became obvious to me that her personal transparency was a characteristic that she has remained grounded in despite her social media success. And now, please enjoy my discussion with Lauren Woolley.

Eric Cross (00:53):

You’re currently teaching fifth grade?

Lauran Woolley (00:55):

Yes.

Eric Cross (00:55):

What is it like to teach all content areas? ‘Cause I’m a middle school science teacher.

Lauran Woolley (00:59):

I didn’t always teach all content areas. First I started in second grade, so I used to teach like primary. I taught that for about three years. And I only really got my 4-5 endorsement because it was told to me that it would make me more marketable as a teacher. So I got it <laugh>. I was like, I’m never gonna use that. And then, my second year teaching, my class had low numbers and they collapsed my second grade classroom, split up my students, and then moved me to fifth grade in January. I had to take over a fifth grade class with all content areas in the middle of a school year. And it was really hard. It was like probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do teaching. When I got my job at my current school, it was only language arts, social studies.

Lauran Woolley (01:46):

So we only have two fifth grade classes. My other teacher would teach math, science. I taught language arts, social studies, and then the timeframes weren’t matching up. Like, I didn’t have enough time in my schedule for all the things we had to do in our curriculum. And she had like a little bit too much time. We realized as a district that it would be better for our fifth grade classes to just be self-contained. And last year was the first year I taught all five subjects. And I liked the variety of teaching everything because when I taught just language arts, social studies, I just felt like I was repeating myself twice a day. <laugh>. It was kind of boring for me. So like, I like doing all of it. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (02:24):

Yeah. With all of your talents and like your background and what I’ve seen, I could totally see why having all the different content areas would like make sense. Are you using a set curriculum? How do you come up with what to teach? Do you do it with teams? Like who comes up with that?

Lauran Woolley (02:36):

Uh, me, myself and I.

Eric Cross (02:38):

Well done.

Lauran Woolley (02:39):

My school, for literacy we’re using literacy collaborative. Then for math, we just adopted bridges, which I love and it’s very hands-on, very like student-led. For science, we had nothing. And I am not a science, or was not a science teacher at the time when I took over. So I panicked a bit and I was like, “Hey, can we have some kind of science curriculum? ‘Cause I got nothing.” And it’s not hard to look at the state standards and figure out what you need to teach them, but having no resources to go off of is extremely difficult. And luckily I have an older brother, he’s like three years older than me and he’s also a teacher. He actually is a science teacher. ‘Cause that first year that I was teaching all subjects, I was like, “Hey Ryan, can you just like send me all of your Google Drive files for science <laugh>?

Lauran Woolley (03:33):

And he’s like, “Yeah, sure.” So he kind of was like a mentor for like the first year that I taught science. And this year being my second full year teaching science, I feel much more confident. I’m still using his resources. We don’t have a dedicated curriculum at my school. So that’s like one thing I’ve been fighting my school on. And not that they don’t wanna get us one, but like they were focused on getting the math curriculum last year. And then I was told, okay, this year will be science because in my state, fifth grade is a tested area for science and we have no curriculum.

Eric Cross (04:04):

Ryan, keep doing what you’re doing big bro. Second, thank you to every teacher who’s had a Google Drive folder full of curriculum that you graciously shared to a new teacher or someone else that they could have.

Lauran Woolley (04:18):

Can we just say like, can schools, like schools, please get your teacher’s science curriculums.

Eric Cross (04:24):

No, absolutely right. And there is this way of thinking that, especially as a science teacher, it’s something that is dear to my heart, but we do want to develop these math and English skills that’s important and we need that for science. But we’ve always taught so siloed for so long, but that’s not the way that we learn and that’s not the way life works. Something that intrigued me about what you said, and I think a lot of people can relate to it, and I know I can because that was me, is you created your own content or your science content. Like you’re kind of piecing that together from what Ryan had shared with you. How do you make time for that with all of the other things that you’re doing and pressures of state testing and things like that. Like how do you weave that into your teaching?

Lauran Woolley (05:02):

So we have like things that are non-negotiable in our schedules. Like we have to have so many minutes of this, so many minutes of that, so many minutes of whatever else. Well, the first year, I was self-contained. I was like, okay, my main goal, because science is a tested area, I wanna make sure that I get in science every single day, 90% of the time I’m able to get anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes of science every day. But this year it was my goal to make sure that I was getting science done and like we were doing meaningful lessons. And last year I didn’t do this, but this year I’m doing a Christmas center for STEM. So I got it off of Teachers Pay Teachers. I’m sorry, I can’t remember who it was made by, but it’s called Jingle All the Way and it’s like building Santa’s new sleigh. And so like the kids have an activity where they have popsicle sticks, straws, a plastic cup and then like tape. And they have to build a new sleigh for Santa and see how many pennies their sleigh can hold. Like talk about a sleigh being lightweight but also strong and like what would make it strong and different things like that. So I’ve been trying to incorporate a lot more STEM activities. And then something I really like to use for experiment days, I call them lab days, is Gizmo. Have you heard of Gizmo?

Eric Cross (06:15):

Yeah. The simulations.

Lauran Woolley (06:16):

Yeah. My brother showed me that too and he was using it in his class. I mean there’s so many different ones that they have that align with the standards and they have like student lab sheets that go with them and teacher guides and stuff. I’ve just been trying to like up my game a little bit more this year, because last year I was like struggling to get all of the standards in before state testing came around because, can we agree, state testing should not be as early as it is? Our state test happens in like March and we have two months of school left. So like, we better be done with standards by February so we could review, because otherwise we’re kind of outta luck because we run outta time.

Eric Cross (06:59):

Yes. That and there’s all kinds of other things that state testing brings with it that we could spend a lot of time probably critiquing and talking about like as far as what’s ideal for kids and what’s the best way to measure and assess learning. That is one question I wanna ask you though, because I know with your work on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, you must be connected to a pretty vast teacher network and maybe you have like, kinda like more of an inner circle of people, but you must come across so many different perspectives and get into great discussions. Is there <laugh>, is there anything that kind of stands out to you as far as if you were in charge of what we’re doing? Because that’s kind of the system that we all live in and we kind of are trying to internally change it, but it’s been that way for a long time and we just kind of have to work within it until we can make changes. But if you were to, I dunno from an elementary school perspective, change or modify the way kids are learning, what would you do if you had Monarch ability?

Lauran Woolley (07:54):

Okay, I got three main things I’m thinking in my head. Okay, first things first, we got Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Okay. If kids are coming to school hungry, if they’re coming to school and don’t have, you know, fresh clothing to put on, if they’re coming to school and they have issues at home that they are dealing with, that they are not okay with, the learning is not happening. That’s secondary. They don’t, it doesn’t matter to them. It doesn’t matter to me because what’s most important is that child as a human being and whether or not they’re okay. If I had unlimited resources, I would love to be able to build like a little mini village inside a school and have like a clothing store that kids could grab stuff from. Or like a, you know how I know how school have like closets and food pantries, but like a real place they could get some new clothes, not like hand-me-down clothes, like a store they could go and grab some food if they needed food for their homes or whatever. We have like an onsite counselor but not like a school counselor, like a therapist-type counselor for like mental health. Having some kind of like health clinic, not just like a school nurse because, let’s be real, our school nurses see everything <laugh> and they do not get enough credit, but like to have like a little like urgent care clinic, like basically a small town <laugh> inside a school that like kids would have all of the resources that they need met. Like that would be my number one thing that I would love to do. I have taught in, you know, I’ve only taught in two different schools, but like I’ve seen a lot of things and the number one thing that keeps coming back is just like home lives and mental health and having someone to talk to.

Lauran Woolley (09:41):

And I think our kids don’t have enough of that. Second of all, would be obviously state testing. Because I mean, it’s good to see like where our kids are at. I don’t think it should be used punitively and I don’t think that it should be putting as much pressure on teachers and students the way that it is. It’s not effective that way at all. Let teachers do their jobs without us having to, like, ’cause honestly, who’s not gonna say that they’re not trying to set their students up to do the best on that test. Our evaluation depends on it. I’m gonna make sure my students are prepared for it. I’m gonna teach all the standards, but like, I shouldn’t have to be teaching so that they could do well on a test. I wanna make sure that they’re ready for the real world and I wanna make sure that they’re able to apply these things that I’m teaching them in their life, not on a multiple choice test. Third of all, <laugh>.

Eric Cross (10:33):

This, this is great. And I think a lot of teachers will listen and be like, “That’s what I’m talking about right there.” Keep going. You’re on three.

Lauran Woolley (10:40):

That would be two teachers in every classroom. Either two teachers in each room or like a teacher and a paraprofessional in each room, because there’s not even an argument that teachers are more effective when they have help.

Eric Cross (10:54):

I would even carry the math on further and say that it’s a force multiplier, like exponentially, that it’s not just, it’s not just like a one plus one equals two teachers. It’s almost like you can almost have like three or four just because of the energy and the synergy that can be created between the two. And you can push off of each other, encourage one another and both support different types of students. So I agree a hundred percent. I think that if you had two teachers that were in sync and planning together and talking about kids all of the time, you would be able to go deeper with students. You’d be able to find out those things that you talked about in Maslow’s because sometimes we don’t find out about it until a parent-teacher conference or kids left our classroom. I wish I would’ve known that. The student was without these things in the very beginning.

Lauran Woolley (11:41):

Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Eric Cross (11:42):

So when do you start in the school and do we go on LinkedIn to sign up and apply or is it like a lottery system? Like, ’cause you know, I was gonna get a lot of attention.

Lauran Woolley (11:52):

I would love to Oprah Winfrey this and like build my own school <laugh>.

Eric Cross (11:56):

We gotta get those followers up. We gotta build up the sponsorships. We gotta get you up to a hundred million.

Lauran Woolley (12:01):

Listen, if all of my followers across all my platforms donated like $2, we could have $12 million to build a school. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (12:10):

Think about like, DonorsChoose, right? People do that. And I know there’s mixed feelings about it because we need stuff in our classroom. I’m just gonna say that. All right. So, whether I have to ask for it on a website or whatever, but people want to give directly to kids, or people who need it. And I think when there’s opportunities like that, that are visible, people are more likely to want to.

Lauran Woolley (12:29):

In reality, should other people have to fund education in classrooms? No. That’s literally what your taxes are for. A government-funded classroom versus a teacher-funded classroom are two different things. And we know that. But if teachers are asking for things or asking for donations on Amazon or on DonorsChoose, just know in your heart that that teacher has probably already shelled out a lot of their own cash to do that. It’s not that they’re, you know, asking for handouts or anything like that. They’re trying to give their students the best that they can and that’s the thought process behind it. And until we get changes in our education system or changes in legislature that will allow us to do that or will allow classroom budgets, I mean, our hands are tied. Like there’s only so much teachers can do. I’m very fortunate to teach in a district that sees the value in spending money on their teachers and students. And, like my school, like I said, they just shelled out thousands of dollars on a new math curriculum. They bought school supplies. Literally every teacher made their school supply list this year. And then the district went in and paid for every single student’s school supplies in the entire district.

Eric Cross (13:49):

Can we get a shout out to your district real quick?

Lauran Woolley (13:51):

Uh, yeah. I mean, shout out Leetonia schools like, I mean, you guys are awesome and I’ll shout that from the rooftops. I love where I teach. Like I really do think that they value our students and they care about our students and our admin is great. We got a new superintendent a couple years ago. He’s been doing a phenomenal job and I really love it and I’m glad I teach there.

Eric Cross (14:12):

When you move out of the classroom, you know, in any position of leadership, you do have the microscope or magnifying glass on you and a lot of times it’s critical. And not unjustifiably so, I mean, there’s a lot of things that can be critiqued. However, what we don’t always hear is the success stories or where it’s working for teachers and why. And we need leaders to be able to talk to each other and find, “Hey, it’s working in your district? Oh, I just heard, I just heard this district get shot out. I’m gonna go reach out to those people. Hey, what are you doing?” Because we connect with each other, but I think when you go like a level up, that kind of getting up the top of the mountain, the, the connection sometimes can become more difficult for people. There’s not a lot of, I don’t know, maybe there are, but admin influencers.

Lauran Woolley (14:54):

Oh yeah, there definitely are. And I’ve met some really incredible ones. I’m on a committee at my school, it’s called NNPS, it’s the National Network of Partnership Schools. It was started out of Ohio State University. Essentially it is a committee in the school that’s dedicated to bringing together the community and businesses and partnering with people to make our school as strong as it can be. We started last year and we did a bear breakfast, ’cause our mascot is a bear. And we had Christmas things and we had the choir caroling, and we had pancake breakfast for everybody and it was completely free. It was just really nice to see everybody come together. And it feels like the culture changes when people work together and come together for the betterment of the school and for the students. And I think what’s challenging is that so many people have such a negative experience from their schooling that they’re hesitant to get involved in their kids’ schooling. I urge any parents out there, any guardians out there that are, you know, in that mindset where you’re like, I didn’t like my teachers in school, or I had this, this, this and happened to me at school. Give it a chance to know that things have changed and things are changing.

Eric Cross (16:11):

I definitely agree with you about parent engagement and getting involved and sometimes parents, they just don’t know that they should. But wow, your voice is so powerful, especially at board meetings and things like that. Getting stakeholders involved, creating community, which it sounds like your school did a great job or your district did a great job of. The last question I wanna ask you, and it’s kind of going back to who your influencer was, is you now are in a position where your impact exceeds more than, you know. You’re planting so many seeds you’re sharing, and you’ll hear maybe a few, or I’m sure you’ll hear the things that kind of come back to you, but that’s only a fraction. But I wanted to ask you, like, as you think back on your career as an educator or when you were in school K through five or K through 12, is there anyone who stands out to you or who was maybe your influencer or teacher who made a big difference that was memorable? And if so, who was it and what was it about them or what did they do?

Lauran Woolley (17:01):

So I had a lot of teachers that I really had good relationships with and I loved school growing up. But one always stood out in particular, and that was my ninth grade English teacher and her name is Andrea Reid. She was the first person who really told me that I was talented at something and that I could succeed in something because she was the English teacher. She was also a coach of the speech and debate team at my high school. Just one day after school. She was like, “Hey, like you should come to speech tryouts.” So I went to tryouts, like I did it not thinking like I cared if I made it or didn’t, and then I made the team. And honestly, I feel like speech was the starting point of all of it. I competed in speech and debate for four years of high school and she was my coach.

Lauran Woolley (17:49):

I always have horrible nervousness with public speaking, even though I do it a lot. And she would always give me like the best hype speeches and the best confidence boosters. And I feel like speech started my love of acting and started my love of like, you know, comedy and stuff like that. And so therefore TikTok happened and I don’t think any of this would’ve happened had it not been for her and her opening that door for me and telling me, “Hey, you would be good at this. You should try it.” We’re still friends to this day, 15 years later, and she is like an older sister to me and I love it.

Eric Cross (18:26):

That’s amazing. Andrea Reed, that’s her name.

Lauran Woolley (18:28):

Andrea, yep.

Eric Cross (18:29):

Andrea. Andrea Reid. Ms. Reid, thank you, for inspiring Lauran and <laugh> because of your impact, now it’s impacting so many others and as teachers, like, we don’t even, we don’t know, but it’s so humbling to know that like the words that we say to people have that impact and power. It’s so, it’s, it’s so inspiring to me. One of the things that resonate with you so much is your transparency. Like in your depth. Like even as just listening to you talk, you normalize and humanize so many things that we experience and I’m sure that’s what a lot of the people that watch you connect with. You show your life, your family, your house, all these things that are happening. And I was just looking through the comments and there’s just so many people that are warmed. Not just your students, but like so many teachers. So thank you for doing what you’re doing and I wish you tremendous success. Thank you for your time.

Lauran Woolley (19:17):

No, thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. I just wish everybody a great school year and I hope that we all make it through winter break. <laugh>.

Eric Cross (19:27):

Thanks so much for listening to this season of Science Connections. I love learning about science educators just like you. You can nominate educators that inspire you to become a future guest on Science Connections by emailing STEM@amplify.com. That’s S T E M at amplifycom.wpengine.com. Make sure to click subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and tune in for a brand new season of Science Connections coming soon.

Stay connected!

Join our community and get new episodes every other Wednesday!

We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month!

What Lauran Woolley says about science

“I want to make sure they’re ready for the real world and I want to make sure they’re ready to apply these things I’m teaching them in their life, not just on a multiple choice test.”

– Lauran Woolley

5th Grade Teacher, Northeast Ohio

Meet the guest

Lauran Woolley is a fifth grade teacher in Northeast Ohio. She has loved being able to combine her love of education and entertainment into one career. Her goal is not only to humanize educators to both families and students, but to create a safe space for her students on the internet. She has had the privilege of collaborating with educators around the world to shed a light on this amazing career. You can listen and watch the Teachers Off Duty podcast here!

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About Science Connections

Welcome to Science Connections! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher. 

S1-01: The journey from student to SpaceX engineer: Juan Vivas

Illustration of Earth with text about a podcast episode featuring Juan Vivas, discussing the journey from student to SpaceX engineer. Includes a photo of a smiling person in a suit.

In this episode, we join Eric Cross as he talks to supply chain engineer Juan Vivas of SpaceX about his experiences growing up as a Latino in STEM. Juan shares his story of moving to the United States to study engineering and becoming successful in his career as a scientist. Juan openly discusses the experiences that made a difference in his life and the teachers that inspired him along the way. He also shares his experience as an engineer in different fields, as well as what it’s like to work in the supply chain during COVID.

Explore more from Science Connections by visiting our main page.

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Juan Vivas (00:00):

But to me, based on my experience so far, I think the best way to put it: An engineer is a technical problem-solver.

Eric Cross (00:28):

Welcome to Science Connections. I’m your host, Eric Cross. My guest today is Juan Vivas. Juan is a supply chain engineer for SpaceX. His career in STEM has pivoted from chemical engineering to working on foods like Cinnamon Toast Crunch to his current role at SpaceX, where he’s responsible for his work on Starlink, a technology that uses low-orbit satellites to provide internet access across the world. In this episode, Juan shares his story of how he became an engineer and how a thoughtful teacher used robotics to inspire him. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Juan Vivas. Juan, thanks for being here.

Juan Vivas (01:14):

Yeah, yeah, of course! Super-excited to be here.

Eric Cross (01:19):

Hey, and starting off, I kind of like to ask your origin story. We were talking earlier about Marvel, and your journey of one working for…what I consider the closest thing that we have to SHIELD in the Marvel stories is SpaceX. Like with my own students, we talk about SpaceX like it’s a fictional thing, and we watch the rocket launches together and we watch the recovery and it’s so cool.

Juan Vivas (01:45):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (01:46):

And so when I knew that we were gonna be able to talk to you, I was excited. Like, I felt like I was a kid.

Juan Vivas (01:51):

<Laugh>

Eric Cross (01:51):

So I’d love to hear your origin story of you ultimately landing at SpaceX. And begin wherever kind of seems most natural to you.

Juan Vivas (01:59):

Yeah, yeah, of course. You know, I wasn’t one of those kids at from a young age I said “Oh, I’m gonna be an engineer.” Right? “I want to go and build all these things.” Where I grew up, and the social circle that I had, a lot of people were like doctors or lawyers. Just figured, you know, I’ll go to med school and go down the same path that 90% of like everyone else was gonna take. But in high school, I actually got into robotics. And, kind of like I mentioned, I wanted to do med school, that is what I figured I would end up doing. And then I got into robotics in high school. And I think that was what really kind of like changed my perspective of what I wanted to do, because basically these competitions were just—it was full-on driven by students. So we designed, programmed, and manufactured, like, the entire robot itself. And so through that I ended up doing a summer engineering program at the University of Maryland, the summer before going into my senior year in high school. And there we worked on a competition with underwater robots. And so we spent the entire summer, kind of similar scenario, designing a robot, manufacturing it, programming it. And then in the end it was like a competition in the buoyancy tank with different teams. And, you know, I think one thing that was really neat about that experience is that I got to hear Dr. John C. Mathers, who is a Nobel Prize physicist, speak to us in a room with, like, only 10 high school students. And just hearing his experience of where he started and the accomplishment that he’s been able to do, down in the STEM path, was really neat. And that summer was my final decision that I’m “OK, I know I want to be an engineer.” What’s interesting is I ended up choosing chemical engineering, instead of mechanical, which a lot of people, you know, based on all the experience that led me up to be an engineer, they asked me why I didn’t choose mechanical engineering. And I think one of the reasons why I chose chemical engineering is it’s very process-based. So one thing needs to happen, and there’s different inputs to that one step, and that step has an end-to-end reaction to it, right? So certain things need to happen in step one in order for step two to occur. And however the inputs happen in step one, it’s gonna affect the rest of the process. Honestly, very different than what I thought it was really gonna be. But what’s neat about chemical engineering is that it’s one of the most versatile engineering majors that you can have. Chemical engineering, because you work with a lot of process bases. Everything has a process, right? Everything needs to start with step one, and with, you know, step 10, whatever. And it’s all about optimization and improvement along those processes. So you can really take chemical engineering principles and apply ’em to different areas of a career, which is essentially the experience that I had in college. I had three internships with Dow Chemical where I did environmental health and safety, production, and supply-chain improvement. I then did research and development with Clorox. And then I did manufacturing engineering with General Mills. So really different job roles, different aspects, but same methodology applied.

Eric Cross (05:36):

I feel like there’s so much that you just said, <laugh> and I was trying to always, “I wanna ask him about that!” And in there, what I heard was there was a real pivotable, pivot moment in your life. Was the club…or was it a club, the robotics program? Or was that a class?

Juan Vivas (05:53):

You know, it was actually…it was VEX Robotics, specifically.

Eric Cross (05:56):

It was VEX! OK. Yeah, yeah. Really popular. And they still have it; I think we actually have some downstairs. So it was a club, and not necessarily a formal environment, where you were able to build. And it’s both collaborative and competitive, right? Like, there’s both aspects.

Juan Vivas (06:11):

Yep. Yep.

Eric Cross (06:11):

And, and then you had access to one of the only two facilities in the country that have these…were they buoyancy tanks?

Juan Vivas (06:20):

Buoyancy tanks, yep.

Eric Cross (06:21):

And there’s this book, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and then another similar book called Balance. It talks about how some of these innovators, like Steve Jobs and, and Bill Gates, they had access to things that other people didn’t. So, like, Bill Gates, I think at the University of Washington, had a computer that, you know, no one else did. And Jobs had one at, like, Hewlett-Packard. So it gave you this awesome headstart, where you’re able to test things in a real-life environment that kind of transfers into real-world skills. And then a few internships, so like, internships and mentors. So you had these people in the industry or people who were front-runners that were able to pour into you and give you these opportunities. And so it’s really neat to see how a program that starts as a club, kind of a competitive thing that introduced you to it and hooked you, then led to unfolding all of these opportunities that ultimately led you up to being here. And there’s one part—in looking at your LinkedIn profile, there’s a couple of really cool things that stand out. There’s a lot of cool things, but there’s two that really stood out. So one, working at SpaceX, and we’ll talk more about that, but I wanna go to General Mills and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Because Cinnamon Toast Crunch is amazing.

Juan Vivas (07:39):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (07:39):

And you were part of the supply chain for that. In my head, I’m thinking, OK, like, what is he like responsible for? Like, getting the cinnamon and sugar?

Juan Vivas (07:51):

<Laugh>

Eric Cross (07:51):

What was, what did your job entail, when you were running that?

Juan Vivas (07:55):

There, I didn’t even know what I was gonna be doing until my first day. It was just, whatever the business need is, that’s where you’re gonna be put. So this was actually a high-priority plan for General Mills. And the production line that made Cinnamon Toast Crunch was split up into processes. So you have, they call it the process-process side, which is like literally raw materials, like making the cereal from scratch, baking it, adding the sugar, and then sending it to be packaged. And then you have the packaging-process side. so I was then placed as a packaging process lead, for the packaging side of that production line. So I was accountable for two packaging lines that packed out Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And that is where—that was actually my first real, you know, call it “real job,” like graduated college, going straight into the industry. I was a process lead for the packaging side of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Eric Cross (08:54):

So you went from cereal to rockets, <laugh>, which which is an amazing trajectory to have.

Juan Vivas (09:03):

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Cross (09:04):

And when you kind of mentioned, back in your story about medical school, and, you know, it’s kinda like, what you see people doing, and you’re “OK, this is what I think I wanna do.” And then we have a perception in our mind about what a certain job’s gonna be like. And then reality hits. I think a lot of—when I ask my students, “What do you wanna do?” They think, like, “lawyer!” and when they think “lawyer!” they’re like, “I’m good at arguing!” Right? And until they find—until they talk to some lawyers and they find out like what that career can look like.

Juan Vivas (09:28):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (09:28):

You’re not just in the courtroom showing off your arguing skills. But, like, an engineer, when I talk to my students about what does it mean to be an engineer, often it’s very linear. It’s “I build bridges,” or, you know, maybe cars, but you’re a supply chain engineer. And, and that’s something that I think, now more than ever, it’s probably an incredibly critical role, especially considering that all of these supply constraints. Can you—what is a supply chain engineer? And what does it look like in your day-to-day? How is engineering rolled into that?

Juan Vivas (10:03):

Yeah, yeah. I think that’s an excellent question. I, too, once thought that engineering was just “I’m gonna be actually making something physical,” and like being super engineer-y about it. But, to me, based on my experience so far, I think the best way to put it: An engineer is a technical problem solver. As a supply chain engineer, specifically right now in my role at SpaceX…you know, as you can guess, the supply chain in the entire world is crazy. There’s no raw materials anywhere, and nothing can ever get on time. And so what I work on is I help our suppliers develop processes to meet the design criteria that we set up for like a specific part. As my job as a supply chain engineer, it’s “Can I take this design and make it manufacturable?” Right? “Can I go to any supplier and can they actually make this to the tolerance that the design engineer set them to be?” Nine out of 10 cases, the answer is no, essentially, is the best high-level way to put it.

Eric Cross (11:10):

When you’re solving these problems, is it this iterative process of going back and forth? Or is it just this aha-moment when you finally figure things out? ‘Cause I imagine they’re coming up with a design; you’re going back and saying, “Can this be manufactured?” or “Can it be done?” They’re saying no 90% of the time. And then are you the one responsible for kind of iterating on this, or changing it and then going back to them and telling them, asking them, until you get a yes? Is that—

Juan Vivas (11:33):

Yep. Yep, yep. Exactly. So we go through a process called Design for Manufacturing, DFMing. And where I essentially take, you know, the design engineer’s proposal, and then I have conversations with the suppliers, and then, that’s where the iteration begins. Where we go back and forth, back and forth, until we kind of meet in the middle to have something that can be manufacturable. Most of the times, in my experience, suppliers will always tell you no, just because they always want something that is manufactured really easily. And so you just gotta learn through experience. Like, when are they actually telling you something that’s a fact, versus when they’re just trying to you know, get out of a tolerance, or that “all right, all right, they mentioned that would just like make their jobs a little bit more difficult.”

Eric Cross (12:17):

So I’m hearing like there’s soft skills that are woven into the technical skills that you also need to be able to have.

Juan Vivas (12:23):

Oh, yes, absolutely. Yeah. I think, you know, as an engineer—and this is something, again, that I feel like you can only learn through experience—you’re gonna see that it’s not just you working to solve this one problem. Especially for a supply chain engineer. You’re talking with marketing; you’re talking with an industrial design team; you’re talking with logistics; you’re talking with procurement, materials management—just a whole set of people that don’t necessarily have technical background. Right? So sometimes, depending on the audience that I’m targeting, I’m always very, very peculiar on what is my target audience, right? How can I—how deep in my technical knowledge do I need to go? Because if I just, you know, talk straight Engineer, they either don’t care or they’re gonna be really confused about what I’m saying. So there is a stronghold of soft skills that definitely go into engineering, which I think are really important to communicate, you know, to, let’s say, students that are really interested in engineering. So you can be extremely smart and intelligent and really good at problem-solving, but if you don’t have those soft skills that you apply in the real world—’cause in the real world, you’re never only gonna be working with engineers, no matter like where you’re at—so having those soft skills to be able to manage with different backgrounds and different sort of people and different ways of thinking, it’s, I feel, really critical, for, for an engineer in the real world.

Eric Cross (13:50):

No, I think that’s a great point. It reminds me of teaching! And so many other professions where your ultimate goal is to really pour into this person in front of you and help develop them and create a sense of inquiry and wonder and personal growth and inspiration. But you’re also working within constraints and people and relationships. You know, you have your other teachers, you have parents, you have administrators, you have a district, you have communities, stakeholders. You have all of these different dynamics that you have to kind of navigate in order to ultimately help this child thrive. Versus just, like, being in the classroom: “OK, I just got <laugh>, the hundred or 200 students, just you and me. That’s it.” But that’s not the real world. And there’s this report that came out, I think Google ran it, Project Oxygen and Project Aristotle, and they asked the question, “What are the most effective traits of a good team and a manager?” And the top seven skills were all soft skills. So it is like exactly what you’re saying, where, yeah, it’s great that you have this technical aptitude, but if you’re not able to work with other people, problem-solve together, work with people of different backgrounds and perspectives, then you’re gonna run into some roadblocks. And that kind of dovetails, like, looking at things like if you looked at education from the perspective of an engineer. So you’re all about optimizing, right? Optimizing, working with what you got. When you look at education, are there any things that you would optimize to help improve the experience of students? Like, looking back, that you would fine-tune, that you think could provide better outcomes in the classroom?

Juan Vivas (15:28):

You know, I feel…I don’t know. Obviously I’m not a teacher. And I’m sure teachers just have so much stuff going on. But I think just like, finding…giving a chance to those students that you see a lot of potential in and really taking the time to mold them. You know, I did have a teacher who was able to mold me and give me that kind of one-on-one personal experience, right? I think honestly to me it just comes down to mentorship, and motivating students on what, you know, they’re passionate for. Like, putting them in front of engineers, right? Like finding engineers to come volunteer and explain to them. I genuinely believe it just takes one spark to really get a student on a trajectory where they can make an impact in the future. So to me, it comes down to, really, exposure. How much are you really exposing your students to…you know what, something I’ve learned, when I joined SpaceX, is that Elon doesn’t believe—well, you know, there there’s a lot of things that Elon believes and not believes in; there’s a whole different type of conversation!—but he doesn’t think that you can just take a curriculum, let’s say, and just apply it massively to everyone and expect like everyone to be it. That’s just naturally not how it works, right? Students learn at different paces; they have different sort of interests. This is actually why he created his own school for his kids in LA, called Ad Astra. You know, if you take that mentality, what that school is doing is that they’re working at the students’ pace and at the student’s interests, right? And I actually have a coworker who has his kids in that school. And I mean, these are one of the most brilliant kids I’ve ever known. Like, they are taking differential equations in the eighth grade. And I didn’t know what differential equations was until I was in college already and they told me, “This is a class you have to take.” <Laugh>. But it’s finding that crossway where, where is the curiosity of the student? What are they really interested in? and exposing them to that.

Eric Cross (17:51):

Yeah. And what I’m hearing of that is, in teacher-speak, a lot of personalized learning. Like you were talking about…is it Ad Astra?

Juan Vivas (17:59):

Ad Astra? Yep.

Eric Cross (18:01):

Ad Astra. You know, every student learns in their own way and they develop knowledge in their own way. And being able to personalize learning according to the students’ abilities and needs, and then accelerate or slow down, really produces some amazing effects. I know this is something that we as teachers try to do with the classroom. Scaling it is the challenge. But it’s great because even with people who are in charge of policy or people who have decision-making ability, hearing people from the top down saying, “Hey, look, this is what worked for me. This is how I was able to become successful. I had a teacher that was able to be a mentor to me because they knew me, they had a relationship with me, they were able to tap into my passions and use those passions to drive me to do or put me in programs that I might not have known about because they, they knew who I was.” And it’s not one-size-fits-all for everyone. So having—maybe it’s curriculum or learning experiences that are kind of modular, where students are able to maybe try on different things and get that exposure, I’m a big, big believer, like you are, in mentorship. That was a huge, huge thing in my life. Having mentors. It’s the reason why I became a science teacher. In seventh grade, I had a mentor who had us doing college-level science, you know, at UC San Diego. And it completely changed the trajectory of my life, in a direction that I wouldn’t have had without him. So I think that’s great. And it’s something that we as teachers would appreciate hearing. Going back to what you said…earlier you said your wife is a supply chain engineer as well. And so that means that there’s two people who are process-minded in the household. And this is kind of a lighter question, but I gotta wonder, do you have the most optimized flow for grocery shopping? <Laugh> Because…

Juan Vivas (19:49):

Yeah, I think we don’t spend more than like 20 minutes at a grocery store. Mind you, we only shop at Trader Joe’s and we have a very specific list before going in. And if you ever shop at Trader Joe’s, you just know where everything is ’cause it’s always there and it’s small, right? But yeah, like we’re, we’re in and out in like 15, 20 minutes. It’s great.

Eric Cross (20:11):

I love it. I love it. I feel like I’m that way by design. I go in with a purpose and this is exactly what I want. I know where the cookie butter is, <laugh>, I know where my coffee is, and then, OK, I’m in and out. Apple Pay or whatever I’m using. And then we’re good to go. Do you think…so as someone listening to this or some people even just becoming aware of supply chain engineering, what advice would you give someone that’s interested in pursuing this career path? If you maybe reverse-engineered your process, knowing what you know now, you were gonna give advice, you were that mentor, what are just some kind of tips or ideas or thoughts or trajectories that you’d think that they should aim for? I’m assuming like robotics….

Juan Vivas (20:56):

Yeah. You know, I think I would say definitely finding some sort of program that exposes you to a lot of things that you won’t be exposed to, like on a day-to-day basis, or something that you just can’t be exposed to naturally at school. And mentorship, honestly. I was born in Colombia and my parents were both—they’re still both professionals, but they were both professionals in Colombia. And when we moved to this country, this was like December of 1999. My parents started from scratch, and so they didn’t really grow up in the States, right? So when it was my time to go to college and do all of this stuff, it was just like me on my own figuring this stuff out. And, you know, they definitely made some mistakes when it came to college applications and whatnot. But once I was in college, I knew that the best way for my success was gonna be through mentorship. And that’s when I joined the, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, which is a nationwide organization. And each college, well, most college campuses, have their own chapter. In joining that, I was exposed to resume workshops, mock interviews—basically how do you even talk to a recruiter? Which is so critical, right? And personally that that organization was really what molded my actual professional career.

Eric Cross (22:19):

There’s this theme that I’m hearing, kind of weaving through this. And in addition to—as we’re talking about STEM and technical skills, in addition to that, there’s this thread that I’m receiving of…being able to form relationships with other people, for our students, is an important skill to teach and should be taught explicitly. Which isn’t…it’s not really a curriculum, right? Like, you don’t get tested on your ability to….conflict resolution or how to write an email or how to develop a relationship. And then the other part in I think what you just said is the aspect of community. Through this organization, you learned kind of some of these hidden rules, maybe I would call it.

Juan Vivas (23:04):

Yep.

Eric Cross (23:04):

It’s not that you didn’t have the…you had the aptitude. You had the drive. But there were these kind of hidden rules, and from moving to the US, you needed a community to be able to show you, so that you can kind of go through the proper steps.

Juan Vivas (23:16):

Exactly.

Eric Cross (23:17):

And so that created a lot of value for you.

Juan Vivas (23:19):

Yep.

Eric Cross (23:20):

Well, the last question that I have is, is just kind of a wondering. You have this awesome story, and the story continues to unfold. I gotta say, <laugh> I’m gonna be following your LinkedIn profile, because I think you just have kind of the coolest trajectory of going from, you know, General Mills, working in chemical engineering, and then ultimately it’s SpaceX. And every time I see the rocket taking off and landing, I’m gonna be thinking, thinking about you. So cool!

Juan Vivas (23:47):

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Cross (23:49):

And personally, I have a hope that one day, one of my students will be at a company, you know, like SpaceX or Tesla or wherever, and one day I get to interview them and talk to them and see what they say. But the last question I want to ask is, is there, is there a teacher who inspired you, or a memorable experience that you have that made an impact on you?

Juan Vivas (24:16):

Yeah, yeah, of course. It was kind of you know, middle school going into high school. The way my school worked, everything was divided from pre-kindergarten, whatever, first to sixth grade, and then seventh grade to 12th grade. So I had a high school science teacher, Ms. Brown, Ms. Velda Brown, who, came from a small little island town on the east coast of Canada. Somehow landed, in the high school that I went to, to teach science. Going back to the beginning of the story where I mentioned that I figured whatever, I’ll go to med school. I played soccer, basketball, and, you know, I said, “I’ll figure it out once I graduate.” It might have been like life science in the eighth grade or something like that. But then she went on to teach me chemistry and physics as well. And when I was in the 10th grade, she approached me and she asked me if I wanted to join the robotics club. And I remember saying robotics? I don’t know. You know, naturally, in school, it’s different sorts of crowds: people that play sports and people that are like in like STEM clubs or whatever. And I was, “Ah, I don’t know; I don’t know how I feel about robotics; not really my thing….” But somehow she convinced me to join robotics. It’s me, coming into this group of kids that already knew each other, and they were all working on robotics. And I’m, “Yeah, I mean, I guess I’m just here to try this thing out.” It was a thing where we met every single Saturday at like seven in the morning. And there were times where I literally had to choose, “Do I go to like a soccer game or do I go to you help my team with robotics?” And I completely loved it. Like, I fell in love with the aspect of building something from scratch, and just making it operative. And she ended up just being a huge mentor for me in high school, actually. With her, with the help of her, I ended up opening the robotics club at my school. And before I left, we opened it up to middle schoolers. And then, you know, later, years later down the road when I was in college, I found out that it was now a whole-school thing. So there was an elementary robotics club at the school, the middle school one, and then the high school one were still a thing like years after I left. And that was like just so amazing to hear. But yeah, it was Ms. Velda Brown, my high school science teacher, that really took her time to mold me and get me into robotics, and really mentor me. And honestly, I’m sure you as teachers, you guys probably hear about it a lot, but you can have a lot of power in shaping a kid by just telling—believing in them, right? She believed in me so much that I would go on to be a successful engineer. And I’m. “OK, yeah, yeah, you’re just saying it.” But she spoke life into her students up to this day. I still speak about it with my wife, and when I’m in conversations about this, that if it wasn’t for my high school science teacher, I would not—well, no, I would probably not be an engineer right now.

Eric Cross (27:38):

Wow. Shout out to Ms. Velda Brown <laugh>. Would you say she spoke…I think one thing that just resonated with me is when you said she “spoke life” into you.

Juan Vivas (27:46):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (27:46):

That was really powerful. And I think we as teachers have that power and we don’t realize it. Because, you know, we get so we’re so familiar and living day-to-day, but we do have the power of life, speaking life, into our young people. And, yeah, that was—

Juan Vivas (28:03):

Absolutely, yeah. You know, I think obviously people grew up with different backgrounds, different communities, life situations, right? So imagine having like a student that is similar in that environment and then they just hear someone at their school, like, “Hey, you’re really good at this. why don’t you consider doing this?” And that’s when I feel teachers have that power. Where like they don’t necessarily know the background, but they can make that opportunity, or make that decision in the moment, to really shape a student’s life.

Eric Cross (28:37):

And we need to hear that. And I think, I hope that other teachers listening to this will be reminded that many times we don’t get to reap the harvest. We don’t get to see the <laugh> Juan Vivases at SpaceX. They just kind of go, and they disappear, and we hope for the best, and we get a new group. But every once in a while they come back, and we get to see what our watering or seed-planting was able to produce. And so, just know that you sharing your story for educators, and for definitely Ms. Brown, makes a huge difference and is a huge encouragement. So.

Juan Vivas (29:11):

You know, I think we touched on earlier, you know, how do I end up going from cereal to rockets, right? And I think it ties along with what I mentioned earlier of just taking—as an engineer, you’re really a critical problem solver, right? And you think that methodology. And if you find a way, you can apply it to different sectors. When I was doing a lot of like the packaging process stuff at General Mills, being a lead on a high-volume manufacturing line, what I do for SpaceX specifically, right now, I’m actually on the Starlink project. So if you’re up to date with Starlink, it’s, it’s essentially high reliable, fast internet that we’re providing to areas where usually people don’t have access to internet, right? Or maybe they do, but it’s extremely expensive. Because to an internet provider company, the benefit is not there, if they extend an entire internet fiber line out to their place because it’s only directed to them, right? So that’s, that’s essentially what Starlink is trying to solve. And this is the first time that SpaceX is facing a consumer packaging scenario. Before it was just rockets. And now they’re selling a product to consumers. They had never done that before, especially in a high-volume manufacturing setting. And so I am the supplier development engineer for all the consumer-facing packaging for the Starlink product itself. And that’s essentially how all those thoughts connected, where I had this experience coming from General Mills and packaging high-volume manufacturing. And then when Starlink started, they’re all, “Right, well, who knows anything about packaging?” Right? “We know so much about rockets, we need someone with this technical background.” And that’s essentially how I bridge over to SpaceX.

Eric Cross (31:11):

And so while you’re working at SpaceX, you’re working on Starlink, which I know you mentioned that—you said that it’s providing internet globally, which in and of itself, we—especially those of us that live in major cities—we kind of take for granted. Internet is like a utility. But we don’t maybe realize that in many parts of the world, internet is not reliable or even accessible.

Juan Vivas (31:33):

Right. Right.

Eric Cross (31:34):

I see every once in a while, I think, the StarlinK satellites sometimes are visible?

Juan Vivas (31:38):

Yep.

Eric Cross (31:39):

Low orbit?

Juan Vivas (31:39):

Yeah. Yeah. You can go—they’ll kind of be like a little train of bright stars that move along together. Yep.

Eric Cross (31:46):

And that must—that must feel…I mean, we all have jobs and we’re all doing different things, but you’re working on a project and you’re engineering something that actually can provide a lot of opportunities or close a gap in some parts of the world where they don’t have access to internet. They’re gonna be able to have access and be connected all over. I dunno, the word would be “existential.” Existential value. Like, what you’re doing is actually providing a service for people. Humanity. Like, addressing a critical need in many, many places around the world.

Juan Vivas (32:26):

Yeah. We’ve had stories where we have sent Starlink kids to a small school in a village in rural Chile, right in South America. And for the first time ever, they’ve had internet. We have supported disaster relief in Europe. I think this past summer, Europe had really bad floods. We sent Starlink kits out there. You know, the vision of working at an Elon Musk company and SpaceX and Starlink—this is all stuff that is being done for the first time in history. We have never, ever done anything like this before until now. And to be able to provide those that don’t have the access to—to your point, it’s kind of wild, right? Like we, we just take it for granted. “Oh yeah, I just have internet. Let me log on.” There are people on Earth right now that have never been on the internet. Or don’t even know what the internet is. And that’s essentially the, the gap that Startlink is starting to close.

Eric Cross (33:26):

Yeah. We think about that while my students are doing TikTok dances. <Laugh> And there are people who, you know, never, never been connected. And, it kind of makes me more like, just inside, if I can ask: What’s it like working at SpaceX? I showed my students what it’s like working at some of the Silicon Valley companies. ‘Cause just to show them there’s slides and food and, you know, they kind developed this ecosystem inside so that it’s really kind of homey to kind of keep you there, you know. When you’re working and there’s bikes and things like that. And that’s a very Silicon Valley type of thing. But, you know, in listening to you talk about SpaceX and Elon, you know, you’re with a really visionary kind of company, and when I hear you talk about it, there’s I can hear this passion, this, “we’re doing something.” Is that culture, like, pervasive everywhere? Are you around folks that kind of are on that same wavelength? Because I definitely get it from you as you talk about what you do.

Juan Vivas (34:28):

Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I think, as an engineer, you know, going to SpaceX and working at SpaceX, it’s essentially—personally, I believe right now in the US it’s like the mecca of engineering, right? Like, it is where engineering in this most, you know, shape and manner, it’s being applied. I think what’s really interesting is that the way that Elon looks at it is just iterate, and iterate fast, right? Like, fail and fail fast. I think as an engineer, you always want to have things perfect, right? And so you spend a lot of time in making a decision or investigating something or whatever. And working at SpaceX is the complete opposite. It’s just you know, “Assume, state your assumptions—like, what are you assuming right now? What are the risk at it? And just make a decision and then see what the result is.” You know, so it’s an environment where you learn, really quick.

Eric Cross (35:28):

You said something that I think was powerful and I hope, I think <laugh>, this is definitely, I’m gonna get a clip of this <laugh> of you saying it. Because it speaks directly to, I think, what a lot of students struggle with in the classroom, is there’s this competition or feeling that you always need to be right. And you need to be right the first try, on the first time. And a lot of times it’s because students will compare themselves to each other, or there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to be successful. But you said, “Fail and fail fast, iterate, state your assumptions.” And it sounds like this critical part of being an engineer or in what you do, like there’s no room for ego or attaching your identity or your sense of value or worth or ability to whether you’re able to solve a problem in the first try.

Juan Vivas (36:13):

Yep.

Eric Cross (36:14):

Like, you have to be OK with the cycle, is kind of what I’m hearing from you. Is that, is that right?

Juan Vivas (36:19):

Yep. Exactly. It only took six months to develop the product from scratch and launch it to the public, which is insane. Nowhere in the world will any company ever iterate that fast and come up with a brand-new project. But it’s because of that mentality—like you’re saying, it’s not about like just trying to make it perfect and have all this information. And I think Elon has learned this personally, you know, through Tesla and the beginning of SpaceX. It’s, “I can wait to have all this information, and most likely I’m still gonna be wrong after I make the decision.” So it’s, “Might as well take the risk, do the decision, and then just see where you learn from it, right?” And then you keep applying that, applying that. So it’s like you iterate, iterate, iterate, iterate until you get what you want.

Eric Cross (37:00):

I think this is even, like, great advice. I’m taking this personally because I get paralysis by analysis <laugh>.

Juan Vivas (37:06):

Yep.

Eric Cross (37:07):

You know, I’ll research something to death but then not actually execute. Like, I need to make a decision and do it and then course-correct along the way. Somebody once told me it’s a lot easier to turn a moving car than it is a car that’s sitting still. And so as you’re kind of flowing, you’re just making these adjustments along the way until you end up on the path that you want to be. So I think that there’s so many gems in the things that you’re saying right now. What I’m thinking through the lens of my seventh graders that want to work in any STEM field—I mean, really, any field in general, but especially engineering, especially the STEM fields—knowing that, pick it, make a decision, move forward, and then course-correct along the way. That’s what science looks like in the real world.

Juan Vivas (37:49):

Yep. Exactly. Yep. And definitely most important—and I feel like this is sometimes where, not necessarily education in general, but it’s just, we want students to, “OK, you need to get it right the perfect time, right?” But it’s like, every student is gonna think differently. A student is gonna take a different assumption based on their background and experiences. And I mean, you know, we can go a lot deeper in that, but the way a student is shaped, they’re gonna take certain assumptions. So that’s where it gets interesting. OK, why are you assuming that? Where’s your thought process in this?

Eric Cross (38:25):

And we all come from different backgrounds and mindsets and filters and biases that cause us to look at something a certain way. And it’s not just like calling it out, just going, “Hey look, this is what it is.” Like autopsy without blame, this is what I’m working with. Let’s discuss it openly. Right? And if we started that process earlier, you know, younger, in classrooms, we can de-stigmatize the right answer being the best answer more, as opposed to focusing on process as opposed to outcome. And then you kinda get used to wanting to go through the process. I look at it like video games and I talk to my students. I say, “You know, you don’t pick up a video game that’s brand-new and then play it and then you die once and you’re ‘Ah, I’m never gonna play this game again.’ You know, it just doesn’t work that way. You’re going through this iterative process, and no matter what you play, you’re trying things differently. You’re data collecting. And then you’re making new decisions based on the data that you collected.” And for some of my kids, they’ll just raise their hands, say, “No, I just get mad and throw the controller across the room.” <Laugh> But I go, “Yeah, and then you’ll try it again.”

Juan Vivas (39:33):

The best way to know how not to do something is to fail. And so you already…I mean, what is that famous quote? I think that’s why Thomas Edison’s, “Oh, I, did not fail 99 times. Right? I only found 99 times…” I mean, that is that is true. And I feel like at work in a SpaceX, that is something that probably the core of it comes from there. It’s you know, any failure, quote unquote, that you may take it as a failure, it’s really not. You’re just “OK, we, we tried that. It didn’t work. Like what are we gonna do next?” So it’s just like taking that learning and like moving off with it quickly.

Eric Cross (40:09):

I heard a couple of teachers say, “Things fail: First Attempt In Learning: F A I L.” And then another teacher, one of my mentor teachers, she said, “There’s no such thing as failure, just data, in science.”

Juan Vivas (40:20):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Exactly. Yep.

Eric Cross (40:23):

And so I’ve always taken that to heart. And I share that with my own students, just, “A ‘no,’ a lot of times, will tell you more information than a ‘yes.’” ‘Cause if something works in the first try, you may not exactly know why it worked. It just did.

Juan Vivas (40:34):

Yeah. Yep.

Eric Cross (40:37):

So yeah. Well, I went on your time, brother. Dude. <laugh>. The time flew. It was…

Juan Vivas (40:46):

Yeah.

Eric Cross (40:47):

There were so many things I was trying to write out as you were talking, that I just felt like, “This guy is sharing so many gems!” But yeah, I want to thank you for taking time outta your day and for sharing that information for your passion for what you do. And, I don’t know, I think that students and teachers that listen to this will get an insight from a perspective that really matters. ‘Cause ultimately we’re, we’re trying to really prepare our students for real life. Maybe I’ll email you privately if I order a Tesla, if you can move me higher up the Cybertruck line. <laugh>

Juan Vivas (41:22):

Yeah. No promises.

Eric Cross (41:24):

<laugh>

Juan Vivas (41:25):

Yeah. No, I appreciate you guys having me, having me here, and be able to speak on my experience. And hopefully it sparks a couple, one, even if it’s just one teacher that will spark another student, that is already success there. So.

Eric Cross (41:42):

Well I know, I know what you said resonates with me and it fills my cup. And I’m excited. So I’m already thinking of some ideas of things that I can do, just because of this conversation, and I know other people will as well. And, again, this is Juan Vivas, who’s a supply development engineer at SpaceX. He’s worked at some amazing places. And someone who believes deeply in not only the power of the technical skills, but the heart skills, and how community makes a huge impact in his life. It made a huge impact in him ultimately becoming a scientist, and now working on a project at SpaceX, Starlink, that is going to provide access to the world, to the web. And that’ll ultimately help us solve more problems and innovate and create some solutions that will benefit everybody. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you.

Juan Vivas (42:30):

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much, Eric. Appreciate it.

Stay connected!

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We’ll also share new and exciting free resources for your classroom every month.

What Juan Vivas says about engineering

“Based on my experience so far, I think the best way to put it… an engineer is a technical problem solver.”

– Juan Vivas

Supplier development engineer, SpaceX

Meet the guest

Juan Vivas is a chemical engineer currently working as a Supplier Development Engineer at SpaceX. Juan got his start at the University of Florida, where he led the Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE) as vice president. He’s worked for companies like Clorox, Dow Chemical, and General Mills. Juan lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two dogs.

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About Science Connections: The podcast

Welcome to Science Connections: The Podcast! Science is changing before our eyes, now more than ever. So…how do we help kids figure that out? We will bring on educators, scientists, and more to discuss the importance of high-quality science instruction. In this episode, hear from our host Eric Cross about his work engaging students as a K-8 science teacher.

Amplify Desmos Math New York

Amplify Desmos Math New York supports teachers in building students’ lifelong math proficiency. The program:

  • Supports social classrooms, invites mathematical creativity, and evokes wonder, creating a welcoming learning space where students are empowered to see themselves and their classmates as having brilliant mathematical ideas.
  • Provides teachers with clear step-by-step moves to build systematically from students’ prior knowledge to grade-level learning. 
  • Connects students to each other’s thinking and to an understanding that they can use math to make sense of the world.
  • Enables access to grade-level understanding for every student, every day.
Two students sit at a round table with open books and counting blocks, collaborating on a math activity inspired by Amplify Desmos Math New York in their classroom.

Math that motivates

Picture a classroom where are so engaged in a math lesson that they protest when the teacher pauses their work on a problem. A classroom is buzzing with the sounds of natural curiosity. This is what we regularly see with Amplify Desmos Math.  This is math that motivates.

Experience Amplify Desmos Math New York

Explore our digital program to review content from all grades, K–5. Watch our quick walkthrough video for helpful navigation tips. To log in, click the orange “Review now” button below, select “Log in with Amplify” and use the following login credentials:

Username: t.nycadmsample-01@tryamplify.net

Password: AmplifyNumber1

To log in as a student, use the following credentials (you must first log out if you have already logged in as a teacher):

Username: s.nycadmsample-01@tryamplify.net

Password: AmplifyNumber1

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Two open educational workbooks with activities focused on New York math problems related to picnics, displayed on a neutral background.

About the program

To learn more about Amplify Desmos Math New York, including pedagogical philosophy, origins, implementation examples, and independent, nationally-recognized reviews, download the following documents:

Standards

Once you’ve logged in to your reviewer account, download our program scope and sequence and a document correlating Amplify Desmos Math New York to the New York State Next Generation Math Learning Standards.

Grades K–5 scope and sequence

Grades K–5 standards correlation

The program is well aligned with the expectations outlined in the New York City Department of Education Definition of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework. Download the CR-SE alignment.

The program is also well aligned with the research-informed math practices outlined in the New York City Public Schools Shifts in Mathematics. Download the program’s alignment to the Shifts in Mathematics.

Educational software interface featuring a New York math problem about measuring platform heights using a 9-inch tube, illustrated with a playful, colorful design.
Three educational book covers for "Amplify Desmos Math New York Grade 3," including Teacher Edition, Student Supplement, and Assessment Resources, all featuring illustrated children and a large letter A—perfect for amplify desmos math new york classrooms.

Personalized Learning

Amplify Desmos Math includes digital, adaptive practice that provides the personalized support a student needs to access grade-level math every day. Personalized Learning activities target a skill or concept aligned to the day’s core lesson, with each student receiving personalized scaffolds based on what they already know. This technology complements daily learning and provides another layer of support to the in-lesson differentiation and instructional guidance provided to teachers. Try out a sample Boost Personalized Learning activity.

The Fluency Practice of Amplify Desmos Math uses an evidence-based approach to memory retention—spaced repetition—for the basic operations. Students around the world have answered more than 120 million multiplication questions within our application. Try it now! 

Help

Support is always within reach. Our team is dedicated to supporting you throughout your review and can be reached at any time by emailing or calling us directly.

  • Live chat: Click the orange icon while logged in to get immediate help.
  • Phone: Call our toll-free number: (888)-960-0380.
  • Email: Send an email to help@amplify.com. In the message body, please include your name and question. Provide as much detail as possible, so we can more quickly help you find a solution.
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Steps for Interviewing

Amplify Professional Learning Specialist Applicants

Congratulations on being invited to interview for the Professional Learning Specialist role!

Please take these three steps in order to schedule and prepare for your interview.

Step 1: Review the PLS Flipbook
Step 2: Schedule your Interview
Step 3: Prepare for your Interview

Interviews for Cohort 2 will take place from April 27th – May 8th.

A group of four people sitting at a table in a meeting room, using laptops. One person laughs while others work. An analog clock on the wall shows the time.

Step 1: Review the PLS Flipbook

Amplify Professional Learning Specialists (PLS) will be responsible for facilitating high-quality professional development (PD) to teachers and school leaders, ensuring educators feel confident taking steps to implement our programs and ultimately drive student success. 

Please read the PLS flipbook to ensure you have a clear understanding of the role and ensure this is the right fit for you. These details are captured in pages 16 – 33 of the flipbook.

Several key PLS responsibilities are highlighted below:

  • Delivering remote and onsite professional development for approximately 30-40 educators per session during the summer season (May – September 2026), possibly longer.
  • Must be available to be scheduled during normal school hours (Monday–Friday) in all U.S. time zones.
  • Must be available an average of three days per week on Monday through Friday from July 13–August 21. Three consecutive days is strongly recommended as it will potentially lead to more onsite delivery opportunities.
  • PLSs who are current educators and returning to full-time roles at school/districts must have a return to work date after August 21st.
  • Traveling via car, plane, and/or public transportation, sometimes with minimal advance notice and including overnight stay at hotels.   
  • Paying all travel-related expenses in advance, with reimbursements being processed 2-3 weeks following submission of the expense reimbursement requests.

Please reach out to pls_hiring@amplify.com if you have additional questions.

Step 2: Schedule Your Interview

Our second round of interviews will take place between April 27th – May 8th. We do not have any earlier interviews available, all available slots are shown on the calendars linked below.  

Please schedule an interview for the specific role for which you have applied: 

  • Literacy or STEM Candidates: schedule a 30 minute interview by clicking here: “PLS Interviews: May 2026” 
  • Bilingual Candidates: schedule a 45 minute interview by clicking here: “Bilingual PLS Interviews: May 2026” only. You do not need to sign up for a separate 30 minute interview.
  • Once you have scheduled your interview, you should receive a confirmation email from Calendly.  If you do not receive this email, please reach out to PLS_hiring@amplify.com for support.

If you need to reschedule your interview, you may do so directly by clicking the reschedule link in the confirmation email from Calendly to select a new interview option during the current interview window.  Once you have rescheduled, you will receive a new confirmation email and updated calendar invitation. Please do not sign up for more than one interview.

We ask that you only reschedule if absolutely necessary and request at least 24 hours notice prior to your interview day/time.

Step 3: Prepare for Interview

Prior to your scheduled interview, prepare your interview activity! Please view the video to the right for help preparing. 

  • Guidance for the task can be found here: PLS Performance Task Guidance Document
  • You should come ready to share your screen via Google Meet and present the provided activity in under 5 minutes.
  • Talking points are included for each screen to guide your presentation.
  • During your interview we will be looking for proficiency with the following tech skills: independently sharing screen, speech matching animation, and moving from screen to screen with ease.
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Offer, Onboarding, and Training

  • Qualified candidates will receive an offer via email.  The offer will include your product placement and regional assignment.
  • If you accept the offer, our partner contracting agency will reach out to you to provide the necessary documentation to begin the onboarding process. This will include a background check. You will also need to provide college transcripts, please begin gathering these items.
  • Once you have completed the onboarding process with our partner contracting agency, you will begin your official Amplify PLS onboarding process on May 11th for Cohort 1 or June 15th for Cohort 2. A majority of onboarding will be remote, with one in person training on June 6th – 7th for Cohort 1 and July 8th – 9th for Cohort 2. More details to come!
  • Once you are certified, our PD Operations team will begin to schedule you for PD engagements within your region and across the country!

Info Session

Get more details from PD staff members about the PLS role, regional placement, the onboarding process, and ongoing support.

We will address the most common questions we receive:

  1. What is the role of a PLS?
  2. Where will I deliver sessions?  What content will I deliver?
  3. How will onboarding work?
  4. How will I be supported?

The information session recording can be watched here.

Passcode: @N+4hmfi

FAQ

PLS FAQ

Hear from our Professional Learning Specialists

“I have been able to connect with teachers and support them in their implementation of Amplify products. I especially love coaching opportunities where I have time to see teachers in action, model lessons for them, and debrief and problem solve what is going on in their classrooms. I would have loved that opportunity when I was in the classroom.”

Amy Wiktor

Professional Learning Specialist

Hear from our Professional Learning Specialists

“I feel like I have learned so much about the Science of Reading, facilitation, and am inspired by the positive contribution I can make to both teachers and students. I am putting something positive back into the world and spreading kindness every day! Very fulfilling.”

Jennifer Piehl

Professional Learning Specialist

Hear from our Professional Learning Specialists

“I’ve had a lot of new experiences and love the networking involved throughout the Amplify community. Seeing new places in different parts of the country has been incredible, as well! Plus, the work environment has been the most positive, uplifting, and motivational workplace I’ve ever been a part of! ”

Justin Suder-Grose

Professional Learning Specialist

Thank you for your interest!

Contact us with questions at pls_hiring@amplify.com

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Our research

Amplify ELA

Drawing on extensive research into learning, cognition, and literacy, Amplify ELA is designed specifically for middle school. In particular, the program has a strong research base behind its approach to differentiation and how it challenges all students to work critically and successfully with complex text. Amplify ELA meets criteria for Tier II-Moderate Evidence as an education intervention under ESSA.

Research base

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Amplify ELA: The research behind the program

Read more

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Amplify ELA: The research behind the approach to differentiation

Read more

Efficacy

Cover page of a PDF document titled "Amplify ELA Embedded Measures predicts student performance on state end-of-year assessments," displayed with brief content description and a "PDF" label on the right. The Amplify ELA research also explores early literacy trends.

Amplify ELA Embedded Measures predicts student performance on state end-of-year assessments

Read more

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Impact of Amplify English Language Arts 6-8: ESSA Evidence Tier II

Read more

Cover of a PDF document titled "Impact of Amplify English Language Arts 6-8," featuring a study on early literacy and highlighting improved reading outcomes for Grade 6 students in Seminole County, Florida, with an illustration of diverse elements.

Impact of Amplify English Language Arts 6-8: ESSA Evidence Tier III

Read more

Cover of the PDF titled "Impact of Amplify English Language Arts 6-8" showcasing improved early literacy outcomes in Seminole County, Florida. The cover includes an illustration of a person and various academic icons, reflecting insights from Amplify ELA research.

Impact of Amplify English Language Arts 6-8: ESSA Technical Write Up

Read more

District success stories

Cover of a PDF titled "Building coherent K–8 literacy instruction," featuring a simple line illustration and an orange "District Success Story" label at the top left, highlights early literacy strategies informed by Amplify ELA research.

Three Rivers Local School District, Ohio: Three Rivers achieves 70.7% sixth-grade ELA proficiency—16.2 points above state average—with Amplify ELA, Amplify CKLA, and mCLASS.

Read more

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Lake County School District, Florida: Florida’s Lake County School District achieves 54–62% growth on middle-school state assessments, with Amplify ELA.

Read more

Cover of a PDF titled "Revitalizing middle-school literacy instruction" with an outline of Missouri and a highlighted district, produced by Amplify.

Mehlville School District, Missouri: Mehlville boosts middle school reading achievement with Amplify ELA.

Read more

Portada de un documento en formato PDF titulado "Construir conocimientos para el éxito en la escuela secundaria" del distrito escolar de West Jefferson Hills, que incluye un texto sobre el crecimiento de la lectura con Amplify ELA. Esquema del distrito en la portada.

West Jefferson Hills School District, Pennsylvania: Students achieve a perfect reading growth score of 100

Read more

PDF cover titled "Achieving literacy growth and student engagement in middle school" with a map outline of Oklahoma highlighting Mustang Public Schools; features Amplify ELA research and the Amplify logo at the bottom.

Mustang Public Schools, Oklahoma: Students had double-digit gains in ELA performance

Read more

Ready to learn more?

Fill out this form, and we’ll be in touch shortly.

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Explore more of our research.

Learn more about the research behind our programs.

Welcome, Arkansas educators!

Amplify Science is a K–8 science curriculum that blends hands-on investigations, literacy-rich activities, and interactive digital tools to empower students to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists.

Amplify Science for grades K–8 has been rated all-green by EdReports. Read the review on EdReports.

Science of Reading Toolkit

Amplify Science is organized around units where students are introduced to compelling phenomena and real-world problems, develop and strengthen claims by collecting evidence and testing assumptions, and apply their learning in new contexts.

Program overview

Two ideas drove the development of Amplify CKLA: In order for students to actually understand what they’re learning, they need deep background knowledge and vocabulary to pull from, and decoding and encoding must be automatic and fluent.

Diagram illustrating the Science of Reading, depicting components of skilled reading in a flowchart. This connects language, vocabulary, sentences, reasoning, and mental model with increasingly automated word, sound, and letter processing

Foundational skills instruction that makes a difference

The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization built around the Science of Reading and is designed “to advance excellence and equity in education for all children.”

  • Explicit.
    Learning isn’t left to chance. All 44 sounds and their 150 spellings in the English language are taught, practiced, and mastered, with ample opportunity to encounter each sound-spelling in diverse settings.
  • Sequential.
    By moving in a sequence from easier to more complex in phonics and foundational reading skills, students master concepts before moving forward and gradually become more independent
  • Rewarding.
    Learning to read should be fun. Decodabe chapter-books that feature dynamic plots and characters make kids want to read more. Engaging stories include children who discover fossils and a grandmother who flies hang gliders.

I would recommend Amplify Science to any district looking for a curriculum that is going to engage their students and their teachers in a compelling phenomena-based curriculum.

-Brooke Teller
STEM Director, Portland Public Schools

Try it with fidelity first to see what works best for your teaching style and student needs. Once you have a grasp of the curriculum, then you can better supplement or modify it for you and your students’ needs.

—Ashley Carter, Science Teacher, Indian River School District, Delaware

Make it fun! Your interest gets the students more involved than any fun activity you plan.

—Jadyn Kramp, 4th-Grade Teacher, Wayne County School District, Kentucky

If you have a chance to participate in curriculum development, it’s a wonderful way to dig deeper and get to know different features of each unit better.

—Kim Eich, Grade 6 Teacher, Anoka Hennepin ISD #11, Minnesota

Materials

Having a strong foundation of both foundational skills and background knowledge sets students up for a lifetime of reading and academic success. This philosophy drives the mission and the work of the Core Knowledge Foundation (CKF).

Teacher Materials

The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization built around the Science of Reading and is designed “to advance excellence and equity in education for all children.”

  • Teacher Guides
  • Projectable lesson components
  • Quests for the Core for Grades 3–5 (immersive, problem-based learning)
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Student materials

Having a strong foundation of both foundational skills and background knowledge sets students up for a lifetime of reading and academic success. 

  • Student Readers
  • Activity Books
  • Formative Assessments
  • Poet’s Journal and Writer’s Journal (write-in Readers for Grades 4–5)

Background knowledge drives results for Arkansas students

Having a strong foundation of both foundational skills and background knowledge sets students up for a lifetime of reading and academic success. 

  • Content-specific.
    Clearly-outlined content objectives are specific and support the development of knowledge in history, science, literature, culture, and the arts.
  • Cumulative.
    Topics and vocabulary connect within and across grades, allowing students to extend knowledge and revisit topics in increasing depth in later grades.
  • Coherent.
    When curriculum is fragmentary and disconnected, students face repetitions as well as gaps that can hinder learning. An intentional design ensures the curriculum fits together as a whole.
Colorful, ribbon-like shapes display words related to language, such as "words," "sounds," "letters," "knowledge," "vocabulary," "sentences," "connections," and "gist.
The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization built around the Science of Reading and is designed “to advance excellence and equity in education for all children.”

The Core Knowledge Foundation & Amplify CKLA

Two ideas drove the development of Amplify CKLA: In order for students to actually understand what they’re learning, they need deep background knowledge and vocabulary to pull from, and decoding and encoding must be automatic and fluent. 

What is the Core Knowledge Foundation?

Amplify CKLA is now in its second edition and maintains a foundation in the Science of Reading, while featuring new content and significant enhancements. Key updates from the 1st Edition to the 2nd Edition include:

  • The development of the digital experience, a brand-new K–5 digital learning experience.
  • Integrated grades 3–5 that better reflect students’ learning trajectories.

What are the distinguishing features of Amplify CKLA?

Additionally, Amplify provides professionally printed guides, readers, consumables, letter cards, flip books, posters, and hands-on phonics materials like Chaining Folders, making it easier for teachers to use the Amplify CKLA curriculum with their students.

  • The foundational skills instruction in Amplify CKLA is explicit.
  • The connection between oral and written language is supported.

Amplify CKLA, 2nd Edition

The Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization built around the Science of Reading and is designed “to advance excellence and equity in education for all children.”

Grounded in research and proven effective

To do this, the CKF developed the Core Knowledge Sequence, which outlines the knowledge and skills that all children in the U.S. should learn, and is content-specific, cumulative, and coherent. Based on this mission and philosophy, Amplify partnered with the CKF to develop our CKLA curriculum. Amplify CKLA, now in its second edition, has continued to grow and improve to better meet the needs of the elementary classroom.

A powerful partnership

Two ideas drove the development of Amplify CKLA: In order for students to actually understand what they’re learning, they need deep background knowledge and vocabulary to pull from, and decoding and encoding must be automatic and fluent. To help students achieve this:

  • The foundational skills instruction in Amplify CKLA is explicit.
  • The connection between oral and written language is supported.
  • Vocabulary is learned in context and through multiple exposures.

Evidence-based personalized instruction

Boost Reading is a student-led supplemental reading curriculum that gives you additional time to support other students and reinforces instruction across all instructional tiers with true skill development differentiation. It’s your digital assistant in literacy instruction—extending core instruction, addressing remediation needs, and constantly adapting activities to help every reader flourish.

Introduction

Amplify Education, Inc. (“Amplify” or “we”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This App Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we may collect through your use of the Cell Simulator iOS application (the “App”).

This App Privacy Policy describes Amplify’s practices for handling non-personal information (e.g., site activity) in connection with the App.

Children. The App does not collect personal information from any users, including children under 13 years of age.

By using the App, you agree to the terms and conditions of this App Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this App Privacy Policy, please discontinue your use of the App.

Collection of information

Amplify may collect information from you at various points, including the following:

App activity information. When you access and interact with the App, we and our Third Party Agents (as defined below) may collect certain information about those visits. For example, we or our Third Party Agents may receive and record information about your computing device, including potentially your IP address, a unique application identifier assigned to that copy of the App (the “App ID”), or other characteristics of the device hardware, operating system and configurations for that device. The App ID and any other persistent identifiers we collect will be used solely for the purpose of recording information about your usage of the App, and will not be used to collect information through any other product or service.

Notice and choice

Updates to App Privacy Policy; Choice. Amplify may modify this App Privacy Policy. Please look at the Last Revised Date at the top of this App Privacy Policy to see when this App Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this App Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised App Privacy Policy to this URL: http://amplify.com/curriculum/cell-module/privacy. If you do not wish to be bound by the terms of the revised App Privacy Policy, you must discontinue your use of the App.

Location of Data. The App is hosted in and managed and controlled by us from the United States and is not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any jurisdiction other than that of the United States. If you are a user located outside the United States, you understand and consent to having any personal information processed in the United States. United States data protection and other relevant laws may not be the same as those in your jurisdiction.

Linked Services.The App may be linked to sites operated by unaffiliated companies. Amplify is not responsible for the privacy practices of unaffiliated companies, and once you leave the App via a link, you are subject to the applicable privacy policy of the unaffiliated service.

Use and disclosure

We may use and/or disclose any information we collect from you for the following purposes and as described elsewhere in this App Privacy Policy:

To provide and manage the App. We use the usage information we collect from you to provide the App and features to you, including to measure and improve its services and features, and to personalize your experience by delivering relevant content. We may also use and disclose aggregate or anonymous data about your use of and activity in the App to assist us in this regard and for any other purpose.

To improve our products and services. We may use your usage information for our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, developing new products and services, enhancing the App, and improving our services. To share with our affiliated education companies. Amplify may share your usage information with Amplify’s affiliated education companies for the purposes described in this App Privacy Policy.

To allow Third Party Agents to assist us. We may engage third party service providers, agents and partners (“Third Party Agents”) to perform functions on our behalf, such as analytics. We may disclose your usage information to such Third Party Agents to enable them to assist us in these efforts, for the purposes described in this App Privacy Policy.

To protect the rights of Amplify and our users. There may be instances when Amplify may disclose your usage information, in situations where Amplify has a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary or appropriate in order to: (i) protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, operations, or property of Amplify, our parents, subsidiaries or affiliates or our or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements, including our terms of use); (ii) protect the rights, safety, privacy, security or property of users of the Site or others; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; (iv) comply with the law or legal process, including laws outside your country of residence; (v) respond to requests from public and government authorities, including those outside your country of residence; or (vi) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

To complete a merger or sale of assets. If Amplify sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of its assets or is otherwise involved in a merger, transfer or other disposition of all or part of its business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), Amplify may transfer your information to the party or parties involved in the transaction.

Security

Amplify uses commercially reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard information in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification.

Sensitive information

We ask that you not send or disclose to us any personal and/or sensitive information (e.g., name, address, social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, health, or criminal background) on or through the App or otherwise.

Contact us

If you have questions about this App Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@amplify.com

Mail: Amplify, 55 Washington St., Ste 900, Brooklyn, NY, 11201 Attn: General Counsel

Season 1, Example Episode

NAEP: What you’ve always wanted to know, with Chester Finn, Jr.

In this episode, we dive deep into the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the national report card. Chester Finn, Jr., author of the new book Assessing the Nation’s Report Card: Challenges and Choices for NAEP, joins Susan to discuss the NAEP assessment. Together, they unpack how it works, what it is and isn’t, and what benefits and opportunities it provides as the achievement gap continues to grow.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Meet our guest: Chester Finn, Jr.

Scholar, educator and public servant Chester Finn, Jr. has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. A native of Ohio, he holds an undergraduate degree in U.S. history, a master’s degree in social studies teaching, and a doctorate in education policy, all from Harvard University. He is now distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at Fordham University, and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Finn was Fordham’s president from 1997 to 2014, after many earlier roles in education, academia, and government. From 1999 until 2002, he was the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and at Hudson Institute.

Meet our host: Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Quotes

“It must be acknowledged that there is more scientific research, or there has been more scientific research, conducted with monolingual English-speaking children, and that additional research related to teaching literacy development for English learners and emergent bilinguals is needed to advance our understanding of their literacy development.”

—Kajal Patel Below

“We have an underserved area that’s experiencing a massive growth in student population. And so it’s really important to then focus on it. Schools are adjusting, they’re quick, they’re doing the best they can, but we need to be having these conversations around research [and] best practices so that we can set schools up for success and students up for success.”

—Kajal Patel Below

“I just think we have an exciting future in this country. I was in a classroom last week, I saw some of their writing. I saw them speaking, heard them speaking in two languages fluently, easily, excitedly. I just got very excited. These kids are going to be our doctors and our teachers and our engineers and they’re bilingual or multilingual.”

—Kajal Patel Below

“Their language is an asset, whatever language it is and however much it is.”

—Kajal Patel Below

Season 1, Episode 10

Your starter pack to mentorship, starring Serena Klosa

Today on Beyond My Years, host Ana Torres gets wisdom from Serena Klosa, an educator with 37 years of experience as a teacher, principal, and now deputy chief of schools. Serena discusses what it takes to be a good mentor and to be mentored by others—stressing the humility it requires and the strength it creates. She also shares stories of the “Queens of the Third Floor” and their no-nonsense approach to mentoring, and opens up about the lessons she won’t let herself forget. Taking all those lessons back to the classroom, Ana and Classroom Insider Eric Cross discuss maintaining positive routines with students, staying humble, and valuing every role in the school.

A person with long hair smiling against a backdrop of books, stars, and apple icons reflects the spirit of teacher mentoring.

Meet Our Guest(s):

Woman with straight, light brown hair smiling at the camera, wearing a patterned blouse, against a neutral blue-gray background—perfect for profiles related to teacher mentoring.

Serena Klosa

Serena Klosa has been a dedicated educator since 1988, starting in the Chicago suburbs and joining Chicago Public Schools in 1991. She spent 13 years at Pulaski Academy as an eighth grade math, science, and reading teacher. In 2004, Serena became an assistant principal at McAuliffe Elementary, where she improved Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores and advocated for diverse learners. As the principal of Ebinger Elementary from 2011 to 2022, she transformed the school into a K–8 IB school and expanded its facilities. A recipient of the prestigious Cahn Distinguished Principals Fellowship, Serena also holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Loyola University.

Meet our host, Ana Torres.

Ana has been an educator for 30 years, working in both the K–8 and higher education sectors. She served as an administrator and instructor at various public and private colleges and universities and as a bilingual and dual language teacher, dual language math and reading interventionist, dual language instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal in K–8 schools. Ana is currently the bilingual and multilingual specialist on Amplify’s product specialist team, and delivers literacy and biliteracy presentations across the nation. Ana’s passion and advocacy for biliteracy and multiculturalism has led her to educate leaders, teachers, and parents about the positive impact of bilingualism and biliteracy in our world.

A woman with long dark hair and hoop earrings smiles at the camera while wearing a black blazer, standing outdoors—ready to discuss classroom challenges or share insights on her teacher podcast.
A man with short, closely-cropped hair and a trimmed beard smiles at the camera against a light gray background, ready to inspire diverse learners in the math classroom.

Meet our Classroom Insider, Eric Cross.

Eric Cross is a middle school science teacher who hopes to someday be a lifelong educator, like the guests on Beyond My Years! In each episode, Eric connects with host Ana Torres to discuss her guests’ best insights gleaned from their long and rewarding careers in the classroom. Then, Eric talks about bringing some of their wisdom into his current classroom and busy life.

Quotes

“Be open to learning … that also means standing back and being a reflective learner.”

—Serena Klosa

“Every kick in the butt is a boost up.”

—Serena Klosa

“My teaching is not something I do. It’s who I am.”

Serena Klosa

“Asking for mentoring is not a sign of weakness. It’s saying, ‘I want to be better and I want to grow.’ And sometimes, if you don’t ask, they’re not going to do it.”

—Serena Klosa

“I coach some people who are thinking about becoming principals. I’m like, ‘Hey, slow it down…wait for that perfect school for you. You’ll know it.’ You don’t just want the role to have the title.”

—Serena Klosa

“Don’t forget where you came from. There were times I had to shovel snow. There were times I had to help sweep the lunchroom. There are times that I covered a classroom so my teacher can have a prep. That gives you so much credibility and it shows how much you care about others.”

—Serena Klosa

New efficacy study finds Desmos Math 6-8 significantly improves student learning outcomes in middle grades

Brooklyn, NY (March 24, 2023) – A new study from WestEd, an education research nonprofit organization, found that schools using the Desmos Math curriculum for 6th, 7th, and/or 8th grade math instruction had significantly higher math achievement compared to similar schools that did not use Desmos Math. The Desmos Math 6–8 curriculum became part of the Amplify suite of high-quality instructional programs last spring, along with the Desmos Classroom teaching and learning platform. With a focus on helping teachers celebrate student brilliance, build flexible mathematical understanding and create the conditions for every student to be successful, the Desmos Math 6-8 lessons are standards-aligned, easy-to-use, and fully customizable by educators.

The WestEd retrospective study looked at data from the 2021-2022 school year and used a matched comparison design of almost 900 schools (~150 experimental sites and ~750 control sites) in nine focal states–California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina and Texas. The study found that use of the Desmos Math 6-8 curriculum correlated with increased average math achievement. These results show that there is a positive effect with even a basic usage of Desmos Math 6-8 in increasing middle-grade-wide math achievement.

“We are thrilled with the results of this study, which validate the power of teachers putting student ideas at the center of instruction in order to build strong math proficiency,” said Dan Meyer, dean of research, Desmos Classroom, at Amplify. “We believe that all students – and teachers – deserve to experience engagement, challenge, and success in their math classrooms every day, and we are excited to build out a comprehensive K-12 curriculum to make that vision a reality in more and more classrooms.”

The schools in this study were from nine states with a concentration of Desmos Math 6-8 usage, and the schools used it with varying levels of fidelity. As such, the WestEd researchers believe the full impact of Desmos Math 6-8 may be higher than the effect reported in this study.

“The results are encouraging for educators in search of curricular materials designed to help students meet more rigorous math content standards,” says Kirk Walters, senior managing director, WestEd. “Most state standards and assessments emphasize conceptual understanding and application, which are key features of the Desmos Math Curriculum. Further research could determine the causal effects of the program, which may be even larger if the program is implemented under ideal conditions.”

About Amplify and Desmos Classroom
A pioneer in K–12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. In June 2022, Desmos split into two entities: “Desmos Studio,” a Public Benefit Corporation that builds and supports the Desmos Calculators, and “Desmos Classroom,” the team and technology behind Desmos Math 6-A1. Together Amplify and Desmos Classroom are building a comprehensive core math curriculum called Amplify Desmos Math that will build off of Desmos Math 6–A1 and be available for pilot and review in Fall 2024. Today, Amplify and Desmos Classroom serve more than 18 million students in all 50 states. For more information about Desmos Math 6-A1, visit amplify.com/desmosmath. For more information about the in-development Amplify Desmos Math, visit amplify.com/math.

About WestEd
WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit agency that conducts and applies research, develops evidence-based solutions, and provides services and resources in the realms of education, human development, and related fields, with the end goal of improving outcomes and ensuring equity for individuals from infancy through adulthood. For more information, visit WestEd.org.

Contact: Kristine Frech; media@amplify.com