MIND Research Institute Blog

Introducing the New ST Math

Liz Neiman — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:06:51 GMT

It's an exciting day for MIND Research Institute. This morning, we announced the launch of an all-new version of our flagship solution, ST Math®! And we couldn't have done it without the generous support, feedback, and enthusiasm of partners like you. Thank you for being part of this journey!

Those already familiar with the program know that ST Math uses spatial-temporal games to present math concepts visually for students in grades PreK–8. This patented approach leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning abilities to solve math problems and is based on 20 years of neuroscientific research.

ST Math also meets What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) quasi-experiment and ESSA Tier 2 requirements and has won numerous awards, most recently including two CODiE Awards in 2019 for Best Mathematics Instructional Solution for Grades PreK-8 and Best Overall Education Technology Solution.

So, how do you take an already amazing program and make it even more amazing? Let me tell you!The newest version of ST Math is responsive, works on the latest browser technologies (no more Flash!), and runs seamlessly across devices. Designed to deepen and extend engagement to maximize learning time, the update gives ST Math’s beloved mascot, JiJi, and all the puzzles and environments a fresh new look too.

Students will be able to track their logins, minutes played, and puzzles solved each week to improve accountability and intrinsic motivation. They'll have a more powerful learning experience leading to an even deeper understanding of math.

Administrators will have a more streamlined implementation focused on single sign-on and account provisioning, as well as new reporting tools that offer comprehensive student data to uncover insights and track student learning results.

And teachers will see improvements that help them implement the program with greater fidelity, integrate it with core curriculum more easily, and better support student learning. Key features for teachers in the new version include:

A simplified user experience to get to improved student learning faster;
A new assignments feature, allowing teachers to assign any ST Math objective to individual students, groups, or the whole class outside of their journey, providing increased flexibility to target student needs or align to classroom instruction;
Redesigned progress reports and student detail information to more clearly present actionable data for informed instruction;
The ability to see the progress of minutes played and puzzles completed during the current week, or as a median of all weeks to track engagement; and
The ability to view comprehensive student detail, including a student’s entire history of usage and progress toward standards and objectives, as well as clear alerts for struggling students.

At MIND, we believe that every student has the potential to deeply understand and truly love math. We are so excited for you to experience this new version of our flagship program and see that a game really can change how students feel about math.

To learn more about the new version of ST Math, which is available for the 2020-2021 academic year, go to stmath.com/whats-new.

On the Road with MathMINDs Games

Brandon Smith — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 20:03:02 GMT

MIND’s Lead Mathematician and Product Director Brandon Smith has been out on the road over the past several months, holding MathMINDs Family Nights around the country. These events featured both the existing MathMINDs Games, as well as some activities that are currently in development. Brandon shared with us how his recent experiences are informing the next wave of MathMINDs Games, as well as MIND’s ongoing work on engaging families.

Community night event @MDCPS w/ @STMath #mathminds — challenging games, doable work, so much community! @bds_math @taylormasnjak pic.twitter.com/cosBQR333r
— Brian Coffey (@PrincipalCoffey) October 16, 2019

Florida

We kicked off an intensive week of MathMINDs outreach in Miami, FL. MathMINDs focuses on games that are generally accessible and desirable for multiple age ranges, which is why adults and kids love playing together. To really put this to the test, we started at a middle school of all places⁠—in grades where it's been historically challenging to engage students in mathematics.

We played various MathMINDs games, including South of the Sahara, with two different classes—each timed for over an hour. We had to kick the kids off of the games. In addition to South of the Sahara, we tested some of our newest works in progress: new storybook games. One of the games is designed for learners as young as four years old to play with their parents.

How’d it work on middle schoolers? Like gangbusters. The students dove right in and played each game for at least 20 minutes. Some of them were still playing when the school bell rang after 35 minutes!

One teacher asked for some help with adding and subtracting integers—those pesky negations and subtractions. So, before we left, we pulled up ST Math and I led a 45-minute interactive lesson on the difficult 7th grade topic. The teacher said it was a lesson she’ll never forget.

Leaving immediately from the school, we went to a family STEM night at a local school district. They struggled to find any good “M” in STEM, so we offered to fill the void with MathMINDs. We ran the same games as in middle school, but now with families.

We quickly saw the same early learning prototypes engage families like it did the middle schoolers. Our section got so busy that several local high schoolers volunteered to help. We were outside and daylight was fading. The automatic lights were fairly dim, but kids and parents stayed engaged until the very end. Even despite the donuts and popcorn being next to us.

Over the next two days, we engaged with teachers across the state at the Florida Council for Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM) 2019 annual conference. Math anxiety isn’t just for kids and parents. Teachers often find mathematics challenging and experience frustration with the subject. We need to give them chances for positive interactions with math too!

Had a great time at OPS with families as we kick off our support of #MassSTEMWeek. We ran some oldies and some brand new goodies. Always amazing to work with families. #MathMINDs @MIND_Research @LPS_Education pic.twitter.com/Nc2IiisCZ1
— Brandon D Smith (@bds_math) October 22, 2019

New England

It was immediately on to Massachusetts for Mass STEM Week. The week started with MathMINDs and the New England Aquarium joining forces for a morning session on creative problem-solving and mathematics. We then went to back-to-back-to-back MathMINDs Family Nights around Massachusetts.

At our MathMINDs Family Nights, we focused on South of the Sahara and our two brand new storybook games designed for families of students down to four years old. It was a hit!

This was incredibly heart-warming to see. It’s late at night. The sun has already set. Families just finished pizza and salad. There are 100 or more people in a gym or cafeteria. It’s noisy and chaotic. Would the kids even focus for a minute? Maybe 5 or 10 minutes if we are lucky?

Four-year-olds routinely interacted for 45 minutes, staying engaged and challenged nonstop. The parents didn’t have a free ride, they had to stay focused as well. Just because young ones can play, doesn’t mean it’s trivial. They challenge and delight middle schools and adults. When we design for what makes us the same, we find that barriers start to fade away—including age.

It’s not enough to close the equity and access gaps by giving students access to experiences. We must fundamentally engage in the right experiences. Otherwise, we end up perpetuating the fears and frustrations we currently see in math.

We wrapped up our whirlwind week with a family night in Connecticut. Before the event, a grandfather anxiously walked up to me. “These games aren’t hard are they? I was never good at math, but I want my grandkids to have a good time. I can’t do the hard stuff.” I reassured him and gave him a game box.

At the end of the night, I asked him how it went. He said “It was really fun. Much better than I expected. They were hard, but I actually had fun. Thank you.” Curiously, it was this grandfather, not his grandchildren, carrying the box under his arm as they walked out.

These experiences not only positively impact our societal relationship with mathematics, they are ongoing opportunities for continuous improvement. We use any and every opportunity with families to learn. Not only are we making major improvements to our new R&D games based on what we saw, we gain insight for making existing games better. These enhancements are automatically built in every time we restock our supply.

Our families deserve more than just a product that markets well. They deserve ever-increasingly great experiences. All families are worth our best. The societal change we seek doesn’t happen with just any old game, nor any one best-game-ever. There’s a critical mass in the number of experiences we need to have in order to turn our negative identities around math into lasting positive ones. I suspect this critical mass will be a career-long (or longer) endeavor. MathMINDs is just at the beginning. Just wait ‘til you see what’s next.

One of those projects is putting kids in the driver’s seat as they have a rare chance to combine creative expression and mathematics in a meaningful way.

Math Maker

We have been testing out a variety of math maker projects designed to be fun and easy to implement for a teacher new to the projects, but also with plenty of depth for those who’ve ran a project or two before.

Our desire is for all students to have memorable experiences in which they put forth effort creating something mathematical they are proud of and that others actively use in front of them. This is not only deeply rewarding, it models how some of the worlds most challenging problems are solved and what entrepreneurs do day in and day out.

Just before the break, we wrapped up testing with 36 fourth graders at a southern California elementary school. This is the most recent round of testing in what has been, to-date, a two-year MathMINDs R&D project.

The highlight of the experience was a young math maker. He was asked, “How does it feel to see something you made being used by other people right in front of you?” I heard an enthusiastic, "Good! It’s amazing. This makes me feel like I’m a real person.”

Mathematics, for that young student, is now a part of what it feels like to know math as a natural and important part of life. I can’t wait until more students have this same opportunity! This, to me, is what closing the experience gap looks like. When mathematics is truly for all students, the experience gap will be closed and all the other gaps won’t stand a chance.

This is why MathMINDs works so hard to do what it does, and there is much more to do!

The current math maker projects, based on MathMINDs Games, will be out in the fall.

Additional Resources:

Inspired goals for 2020 with ST Math

jhaley@mindresearch.org (Jolene Haley) — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 17:00:00 GMT

Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful holiday and you’re returning from break feeling renewed and ready for the roaring twenties.

While you’re celebrating fresh beginnings and making New Year’s resolutions, now is the perfect time to refocus on your goals, set new ones, and check in on your ST Math® progress to finish out the school year.

Set New Goals

Studies show that goal setting increases intrinsic motivation, so set those goals! Take a moment of quiet, and think about what’s important to you, your students, and their learning. Both long-term and short-term goals are welcome!

Guiding questions to ask:

What would I like to achieve this year?
How can I achieve these new goals?
What are the specific activities I can focus on to make progress toward my goals?
What support do I need around this?
What tools will I need?
What support will my students need?

Jot these ideas down on a piece of paper and let’s make a plan to make it happen.

Refocus on Current Goals

Administrators and teachers know that planning is key! Most ST Math leaders set goals at the beginning of the school year. Now that we're halfway through the school year, it's not too late to refocus and analyze what is working well and what isn't.

Guiding questions to ask:

What is going well (and why)?
What can be improved (and why)?
What road blocks are in the way (if any)?
What support do I need around these goals? Who can help?

Planning Resources

Once you have your goals written down or you've selected current goals to revisit, now what? The good news is that MIND has a library of resources to help you create, meet, and exceed your ST Math goals!

Some of my favorite resources are:

A guide to reading your ST Math Progress Report.
Fillable action plans, which include strategies for addressing common alerts.
Check out our Administrator Guide to ST Math implementation, organized by grade. We have implementation guides for early learning, K-6, middle school, and high school.

Download the ST Math Planning Sheet (Fillable Word Doc)

Whether you're someone just starting out with ST Math, an experienced user with a question, or someone interested in getting even more out of the program, we have a large amount of resources for free on ST Math Central, that cover help, professional learning, ST Math community, and free resources.

Actively Track Your Progress

A critical part of tracking progress and meeting goals, is deciding how you’ll track your achievements. Once you’ve figured that out, decide how you’ll be able to check in on progress regularly.

For example, if you want to track student progress in grade-level curriculum and your goal is to have this number be as high as possible by the end of the year, check the section on your progress report called Syllabus Progress.

Or, if you’re having students track daily goals, direct them to the Today’s Accomplishment’s screen. Students see this right before they log off and they are able to see how many puzzles they have solved and minutes they have spent in the program.

Maybe your goal is to raise your schoolwide math proficiency gains. Each ST Math learning objective completed aligns with state math standards, and each additional standards covered gives ST Math students a proven advantage on standardized assessments.

Or perhaps your goals are more on the creative end, like creating a visual representation for students to see (and own) their progress by creating an ST Math tracking board. Teachers around the country are incredible and have proved that there are so many ways to track and share success in the program.

Challenge Your Students to Set Goals

Goal-setting isn't just for teachers and administrators. Ask your students what their goals are too! By having students set goals and track progress, students are given agency and ownership of their own learning.

Custom goals give an opportunity to celebrate instances of perseverance or learning from mistakes, rather than just completion of tasks.

Guiding questions for students:

What do you enjoy learning?
What has been challenging to learn?
What would you like to accomplish this year?
What help do you need to reach these goals?

Reach Your Goals

We're so thankful for the work that teachers and administrators do, and we know it's incredibly hard work. We couldn't do this without you.

Now go forth and reach your goals! Or as Walt Disney once said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Set your goals, map out how to reach them, and follow that plan. We'll be here to cheer you on and help support you along the way.

We’d love for you to share some of your goals (and your progress) with us as the New Year gets underway. You can always post on Twitter and Instagram and tag @STMath, or join the ST Math Community group on Facebook and share your goals with fellow ST Math educators across the country.

All of us at MIND wish you a great start to 2020!

Additional Resources

MIND Blog Rewind: December 2019

jhaley@mindresearch.org (Jolene Haley) — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 17:00:00 GMT

Each month on the MIND blog, we share stories of how our organization, our partners, and educators across the country are advancing the mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. We also share resources for educators and students, and cover some of the exciting events we take part in across the country.

Welcome to the MIND Blog Rewind! December is coming to a close and along with it, 2019. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the roaring 20's. Let's kick off the new year with gratitude and celebration for what we achieved together. Here is a recap of important news, content, and resources that came out of MIND and our community in December 2019.

Winter break is here but learning never stops! With your help, ST Math is reaching more students than ever. We are so thankful to our partners, donors, and ST Math champions for being a critical part of MIND's mission. We shared our annual digital holiday card and rounded up our favorite ways to celebrate the holidays with the Winter Break Challenge, holiday coloring sheets, and winter STEAM activities.

We may be at the end of the year, but how did we get here? We kicked off the holiday season with a gratitude tree in our Irvine office. Colleagues throughout the organization were encouraged to take a moment and reflect on what they were thankful for. I was excited to hear what my MIND family held in their hearts, but with how busy everyone was, I wasn't sure what would happen. Our gratitude tree bloomed in the most incredible way with the love and care of everyone.

What's wrong with memorizing? Jo Garrett, CFO at MIND, answered this question and shared her own experiences on the way children are being taught math today. Parents are a core part of student learning ecosystems and embracing the way that your child is learning math is a great way to support them.

What is spatial-temporal reasoning? How exactly does it work? Research shows that a visual approach to conveying math concepts can be highly effective. Ki Karou, Director of Product, ST Math, shared the science of spatial-temporal reasoning and how we can use spatial-temporal methods to teach mathematics.

Our website is chock full of great resources for parents like blog posts, posters, and an ST Math Parent Kit. Liz Neiman, VP of Engagement at MIND, is also an ST Math parent. In the past, she shared her first experience with ST Math and how it provided a challenge for her gifted son. This December, she answered many of the questions parents have when they begin using our program for the first time. Check out our new blog post called, "So Your Child is New to ST Math...Now What?"

In our latest podcast episode, EVP and Executive Director of Social Impact, Karin Wu, back to the show. Karin discussed her recent feature in STEMConnector’s Million Women Mentors: Leaders to Learn From series and recapped her recent tour across country with our donors and strategic partners, like John Deere, Phillips 66, Rockwell Automation, the One8 Foundation, and more.

Kelsey Skaggs, our Public Relations and Communications Specialist, has lived in Texas for over two years now. Inspired by her state and the educational leaders she admires within, she compiled a helpful list of 20 Texas education leaders to follow on Twitter. From breaking news to helpful resources, these leading voices in education will inform and inspire you.

Thank you for a great 2019! Here’s to 2020.

And with that, we're signing off for the final time this year. In 2019, we made a lot of amazing things happen together with the help and support of our incredible partners, teachers, administrators, students, and ST Math parents. Thank you for everything!

Happy new year from all of us at MIND. We'll see you in 2020!

Additional Highlights:

Social Impact Road Trip: Fall 2019

bletendre@mindresearch.org (Brian LeTendre) — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:00:00 GMT

In each episode of the Inside Our MIND podcast, we take a look at issues and challenges facing education that we are working to address through research, technology, and strategic initiatives.

In our latest episode, Brian welcomes EVP and Executive Director of Social Impact, Karin Wu, back to the show. We start off discussing Karin's recent feature in STEMConnector’s Million Women Mentors: Leaders to Learn From series. Karin has also conducted visits and participated in events across the country with our donors and strategic partners, like John Deere, Phillips 66, Rockwell Automation, the One8 Foundation, and more.

Talking #STEMeducation with @ROKAutomation GC Becky House and @earharteagles Dr. DeMar-Williams at #ROKLive! @MIND_Research @STMath pic.twitter.com/o7Lcw1lrfJ
— Karin Wu (@KarinCWu) November 21, 2019

Karin shared her insights, experiences, and takeaways from these visits, including what our partners have in common that makes them such a great match for MIND.

You can listen to the episode in the player below:

Topics:

0:45 Intro
3:30 MWM Leaders to Learn From
6:30 Facing Challenges with Optimism
8:45 Social Impact Road Trip
10:00 Seeing Impact with One8 in MA
13:00 Matthew Peterson's MA Presentation
17:00 Getting Inspired with John Deere in IL
19:30 Rockwell Automation Fair in Chicago

Thanks for listening to the podcast! Please leave us a review on iTunes, Google Play, Spreaker, or wherever you are listening to the show. Subscribe to get future episodes as soon as they are released!