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Welcome to Season 2 of What in the World is Dyscalculia.
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This podcast is presented by EduCalc Learning and hosted by me, Dr. Honora Wall, a
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Dyscalculia Specialist, researcher, and teacher trainer in this fascinating math related
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learning disability.
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I'm very excited to begin Season 2 of the podcast and bring you so much more detailed
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information this season about Dyscalculia, about the current research in Dyscalculia,
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and to talk to you about some of the exciting training we have going on at EduCalc
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Learning.
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You can visit www.educalclearning.com for more information.
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The first session of this season, I wanted to start off with something exciting, and I
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found a really interesting research article that I'm very excited to share with you.
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This research study was conducted in Germany by Dr. Professor Rainier Heidrich, who was
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researching plants and was discovering and researching the Venus fly trap.
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Many of us have seen the Venus fly trap, it's super cute little tiny plant that has
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the two sides of the leaves that look like a little mouth with little teeth that snap
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shut.
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And if you have any trouble with fruit flies or mosquitoes or other insects in your house,
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you should definitely get yourself a Venus fly trap or something else in that same
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family like a pitcher plant.
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They really do help.
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They're fascinating plants and they're native to a very small part of the world.
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They're actually only native to swampy areas in North and South Carolina in the United
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States.
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That's it.
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That's the only place is where they naturally grow.
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So they can be a little hard to understand and to research because it's a pretty small
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population.
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They rely on getting their nutrients and extra nutrition in their diet from eating insects.
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So the question for the research team in Germany wa,s how do Venus fly traps know when they
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actually have prey and that they should snap shut to catch the prey and begin eating it?
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Maybe it's a bit of dandelion blowing by, maybe it's a little dust.
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Maybe it's a larger animal or a child touching the pad and watching the leaf snap shut.
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So they began doing research and they found there is a strain or mutation in this case
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of a Venus fly trap that has dyscalculia.
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Now this was fascinating how in the world could a plant have a math related learning
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disability and also-- how do I make the Venus fly trap the official plant of EduCalc
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Learning as fast as possible and get some of these so that I can have a plant
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that represents the passion of my work.
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So I started reading the research.
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So here's the quick wrap up but you can find more information in a copy of the Current
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Biology journal or doing any internet search, the article comes up pretty quickly.
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Put in Venus fly trap plus dyscalculia and the options will pop right up.
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So the way the Venus fly trap works is it's two mouth pans, so to say, are open and then
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when they sense a touch-- a contact-- they count that first touch.
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Now at that point it could just be a bit of dust or something blowing in the air and
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it takes a lot of energy for those jaws to clap.
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Shut and to reopen so the plant needs to conserve that energy.
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It waits until there's a second touch to determine if this is something permanent and interesting
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enough to close over and then it snaps shut very quickly.
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Now at this stage it may or may not be something the Venus fly trap actually wants to
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eat and it needs to find out if this is food before it starts releasing its digestive
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juices.
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Now an insect trapped in the Venus fly trap will try to escape.
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So there will be three, four, five touches of those little insect feeder wings and those
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are the signals to the Venus fly trap that it's time for lunch.
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Well some Venus fly traps lose their count.
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They can't track how many touches have happened and when and because they lose count they
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don't close properly and they don't eat in the same way.
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Now the plant can still survive because it does get nutrients from other sources but
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the insects add a lot more nutrients to their diet and are a part of overall health.
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And in general I don't think any Venus fly traps were harmed using this research study.
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I'm sure they took very good care of the plants that found a way to make sure they got
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all of their nutrition.
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But it did lead the researchers to have an outside source to kind of track that numeracy
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and that counting and holding on to counting from one experience or one touch or in the case
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of students one digit at a time.
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Now in the Venus fly trap the counting mechanism is related to calcium connection.
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And that's a little more science than I think any of us are here for in this podcast.
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But it is very fascinating and if you look up the article they do explain very well their
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findings.
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But the synopsis the electrical impulses are tied to calcium connections within the plant.
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I am quite sure that this does not directly apply to people.
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If you or your children have dyscalculia please do not try to overload on calcium.
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There's no connection and no need to do that and would probably lead to its own long-term
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problems if you had too much calcium in your diet.
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It certainly would not help your dyscalculia.
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However it's very fascinating to think of numeracy and to think of math and counting
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existing outside of our classrooms and outside of just humans can be a part of the life
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experience in all different parts of the universe and the global experience because math
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truly is a part of everything.
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So absolutely the Venus fly trap is now the official mascot from the plant kingdom for
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educalc learning.
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I will be getting a Venus fly trap for my office.
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I think this is fantastic and if it turns out that my Venus fly trap has dyscalculia I
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will make sure to find a way to feed it some of the mosquitoes and flies that can plague
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my yard and Iowa.
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They're very handy plants for that.
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And it's a great example of how research can add to what we know and add to our discussion
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from any field.
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Certainly math and science have tons of overlap and here's yet another interesting
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place where they come together.
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So in our second season we are going to keep talking about dyscalculia.
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We focus on dyscalculia because this math learning disability is my passion to spread awareness
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and understanding and help teachers and parents help students who have dyscalculia and
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also to help people who have dyscalculia understand themselves better and identify their
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strengths and to realize that a lot of their weaknesses come from systemic failures within
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the way we present and teach an assess math.
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Much more than the internal shame and blame that tends to happen.
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So if you have dyscalculia, if you suspect you have dyscalculia, you've always been
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bad at math, you think that you can't do math, I want you to know those things are
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not related.
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You can have dyscalculia and do very very well at math.
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I'm not kidding.
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It happens all the time.
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I've seen it with my students.
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What you need is to have the right intervention and most especially the right accommodations.
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They're not difficult.
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We'll be doing sessions where we deep dive into different accommodations and how we can help
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students of all ages feel more comfortable with math.
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That's going to be the real focus of our season two.
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If you have questions or comments or if you'd like to have a special topic addressed in
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a future podcast, please reach out to me.
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You can email me at honora, h-o-n-o-r-a at educalclearning.com.
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Or you can go to our website, educalclearning.com and reach me through there.
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You can also find us on LinkedIn and on Facebook and interact with us through social media.
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We're hoping to get an Instagram page going.
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We had one and there's some technical difficulties and that can be it's a whole long
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thing.
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But those are some of the goals we're setting for this next year in our podcast and at the
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company.
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Our other goal is to increase awareness of our online training courses for teachers, some
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of which come with CEUs, some of which come with graduate level course credit.
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Some are some introductory courses so you'll help you become more familiar.
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Whatever you're looking for, we have a lot of options for training online.
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And of course I'm doing a lot of in-person training.
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You can look at the website and see where we'll be and see if we can connect in person.
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Also our newest book, Teaching Students with Dyscalculia is live.
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It is available.
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You can find it on our website.
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You can find it on amazon.com.
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You can find it on amazon UK.
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You can find it on Barnes and Noble.com.
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And you can ask your local bookstores if they are carrying it.
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We are starting to get picked up in different bookstores around the country.
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So there's lots of ways we can get some information to you.
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Our third big goal for the upcoming season and the upcoming year in the company is really
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exciting to me.
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We are putting the final touches on some math courses both for K-12 students and for adults
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who want to become more comfortable and have math skills that relate to their work or college
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experiences.
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And we should roll those out in fall of 2023.
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At this stage we are looking at having an online component with text with videos with
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worked examples plus a workbook printed version that will allow home school families to maintain
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a portfolio of work throughout the year.
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Paper and pencil tactile experience as well as the interactive online experience.
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Right now we are planning on rolling out with fourth grade geometry and possibly seventh grade.
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I really want to get something out for the adult learners as soon as possible because I'm
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hearing what you are saying.
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I'm reading your emails, I'm hearing your comments, I know this is an underserved market
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and you don't want things that are designed for young children because you're not. Adults
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need materials that are designed for their needs and we are working furiously on those
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as well.
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So we have a lot of things happening at EduCalc Learning.
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We're going to do them all under the banner of our brand new mascot, the Venus fly
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trap and we really look forward to continuing this journey with you.
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So welcome to season two of What in the World is Dyscalculia.
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I'm Dr. Honora Wall.
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I thank you for listening and I hope to hear from you soon.