The best way for students to use math and science symbols in digital assignments

Need a simple way for students to enter math symbols and science symbols in digital assignments without struggling with keyboard limitations? BookWidgets makes it easy.

In this post, you'll discover how students can type mathematical and scientific symbols directly into their answers in BookWidgets, making online quizzes, worksheets, and tests much more accessible for STEM classes.

If you're new to BookWidgets, here's a quick overview: BookWidgets is a platform that helps teachers create interactive digital exercises and automatically graded assignments. Teachers can start from an activity template and customize it with their own lesson content.

Among the most-used activities are the Quiz and Worksheet widgets, which let teachers build engaging digital assignments with a wide variety of question formats. In fact, BookWidgets offers more than 30 interactive question types, giving teachers plenty of ways to assess student understanding in a visual and meaningful way.

For math and science teachers, one especially valuable option is the Equations question type. This feature allows students to insert math and science symbols directly into their responses, so they can accurately answer questions using formulas, units, chemical notation, and other specialized symbols; even when those symbols are not available on a standard keyboard.

This makes the Equations question type an ideal tool for teachers who want students to write mathematical expressions online clearly and correctly in digital assignments.

Note: This article focuses on how students can enter math symbols in their answers. If you want to learn how teachers can add math and science symbols to the instructions of digital assignments, read this related post: How to use LaTeX to spice up your math lessons — 3 clever lesson ideas.

The Equations question type in BookWidgets

So, how can you and your students use equations and formulas to digital assignments? Teachers use LaTeX to add various symbols and formulas, whereas students will get an "equations editor" (a pop-up with symbols).

LaTeX

In the Equations question type, as in every other question type or widget (Pair matching, Flashcards, ...), teachers can show mathematical and scientific formulas to students using LaTeX. This gives teachers the possibility to add more symbols than the ones they can see on their own keyboard. LaTeX uses simple commands that will display as a math or science symbol for your students. If you're working in BookWidgets, you'll see there's a cheat sheet for these commands. There are many other websites that can help though, as LaTeX is a language that is used in many applications.

That being said, we're still left with the problem that it is still difficult for students to write down symbols in their answers, as they typically don't know LaTeX. This is where the Bookwidgets Equations question type comes in.

Pop-up with math and science symbols

When your students get an Equations question, they will get a pop-up with math and science symbols in it. This makes it easy for them to add formulas and symbols.

The students will get a text input field in which they can add both their calculations and the answer to the teacher's question. The available symbol options will appear as a window pop-up as soon as the cursor is placed within the text input field.

The upper white-on-black arrows on the left side of the box allow students to select parts of the formula input in case selecting its elements with the mouse is difficult or impossible. The lower arrows move the cursor around within the formula they have typed.

Note: Only the symbols that you use in the correct answer answer will show up in this pop-up, unless you explicitly configured more symbols to show. You can define more symbols in the Formula Editor.

The Formula Editor

By default, only the symbols used in the correct answer are shown in the student's pop-up. However, as a teacher, you have full control over which symbols you want your students to see in the pop-up.

If you want to show more symbols than the default, go to the "General" tab in your quiz or (split) worksheet, and click on "Formula Editor". Here, you'll see all kinds of math and science symbols.

The colors of these buttons determine which options your students will see when they want to fill in a formula in the blank field. You can click any of these buttons to change its color.

• A green button means that the formula or symbol will be visible and useable by your students.
• A red button means that the formula or symbol will not be visible and useable by your students.
• A blue button means that the formula or symbol will be visible and useable by your students if it is either required for the answer, or if other symbols in the group are required for the answer.

Depending on the exact exercise, the availability and especially absence of certain symbols can act as too much of a giveaway as to which symbols your students ought to use. So on one hand, you might not want to restrict the options too much. On the other hand, you do not want to overload them either, whether it be with symbols they don't know (yet), or symbols they definitely won't need for your exercise. Striking a balance between the two will produce the most suitable outcome for both the exercise and your students' skill level.

Note: Students will only see symbols that are not on a standard keyboard. This means that they can still use the keyboard symbols when needed.

How to create an Equations question - video tutorial

To make it a bit easier for you, I created a comprehensive video tutorial in which I show you how to configure an Equations question type in BookWidgets. It will make sense without the video as well, but in this case, I can show you a few of its possibilities.

It's a wrap!

I'm sure this new mathematical and scientific question type in BookWidgets will be of great help to both teachers and students. Don't forget to share this post with fellow teachers, so they can instantly start using the Equations question type. Good luck with it, and above all, have fun!