Dyscalculia and STEM Students

1. Dyscalculia and STEM Students Vicky Mann (v.e.mann@sheffield.ac.uk) and Joel Rowlands (JRowlands1@sheffield.ac.uk)

2. Choosing a course • Possible limiting of module choice • Anxiety about maths element • Maths A level

3. Issues students may face • Concepts versus equations • Enmeshing of English and mathematics, teasing out what is required • Adapting models and making predictions • Working beyond the recipe • Data selection

4. More issues students may face! • Handling data • Making connections • Finding different ways of representing the data numerically

5. Example assignment • Species richness effects on Biomass in transition zones • Tested the effect of greater differences of species richness in transition areas on biomass • Hypothesis: • transition zones with a greater difference in species richness from their adjacent communities will have higher biomass compared to transition zones with a lower difference

6. Method 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 100cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm 20cm • Ponderosa park • 7 sites • Terminology (Com1, Com2, TZC) • 1 minute spent on each quadrat • Persons non-parametric coloration 200cm 200cm Com1 TZC Com2

7. Results: Richness • Species richness • Majority of transition zones have greater richness • Large variance • Richness ranking score calculated Figure 2: Average species richness for three difference communities across 7 different sites.

8. Results: Richness Rank • Richness rank=TZC-Com1+TZC-Com2 • Three different measures of biomass Table 1: Richness ranking and biomass index (% cover multiplied by average vegetation height) for total transition area biomass, biomass of TZC and the mean biomass of the two adjacent communities.

9. Discussion Non-significant, negative correlations General trend towards increasing biomass decreasing richness Negative correlation observed before Increasing competition Greater effect of species interaction Depletion of resources Outweigh potential increase due to unique conditions Gough et al. (2009), Whittaker 1967

10. Steps students can take • Don’t be afraid to use A level or GCSE text books to review basic concepts • Utilise maths support offered by the university • Consider other ways of doing things

11. How the lecturers can help • Focus on concepts • Provide Maths workshops, similar to dissertation workshops • Provide scenario based examples, as opposed to abstract concepts • Provide worked examples • Consider use of language (simple model!)