Our Projects
Reimagining Math 3: Centering Student Voice in Designing a Quantitative Reasoning Course
This youth–adult partnership supports Coherent Math Consulting’s design of "Math 3: Quantitative Reasoning," a customized 11th-grade math curriculum. Planned for a district-wide rollout in the 2026–27 school year, the course option helps students understand the world and their communities through data, modeling, and real-life contexts—such as personal finance, business operations, and environmental crisis—aligning mathematics with the decisions and challenges teens navigate every day.
The Mindset Math team's role is to contribute authentic youth perspectives, offering detailed feedback, design ideas, and sample responses that help ensure the course feels relevant and student-centered. All contributions respect Coherent Math’s intellectual property and support the long-term refinement of the curriculum.
Why this matters
According to analyses by experts like Pamela Burdman, traditional math pathways—often culminating in calculus—act as gatekeepers to opportunities, particularly for underserved students. Despite the costs, research shows that many professionals rarely use advanced math and instead rely more on data literacy and computational thinking (Burdman, 2025). Aside from adopting a context-dependent rather than one-size-fits-all approach to curriculum design, this project aligns with the broader movement to move rigorous math education beyond just formulas, symbols, and procedures and toward contents that reflect the real world.
MathVoyagers: Collaborative Problem-Solving with Peers and Captain Sigma (an AI Tutor)
Upcoming
MathVoyagers rethinks how students engage in challenging mathematical problem-solving. In partnership with Dr. Jie Chao, a learning scientist at the Concord Consortium and founder of MV-Squared, Mindset Math members co-develop and test an AI-powered platform that supports learners through competition-style math problems with personalized feedback and guiding questions. The platform is embedded within gamified and collaborative online/in-person study groups that aim to hone students' mathematical reasoning while strengthening their self-regulation, teamwork skills, and learning motivation.
Grounded in UNESCO’s call for “a human-centred and pedagogically appropriate interaction” between learners and AI," MathVoyagers positions GenAI not as a replacement for thinking, but as a learning companion that supports problem-solving in independent as well as collaborative settings.
Try out the platform as a guest here.
Game Changers: (Re)designing Board Games for Student-Centered STEM Learning
Have you ever thought about how a simple board game could help students learn math and science concepts and develop design and problem-solving skills?
What if Jenga modeled a ecosystem where losing several keystone species leads to its collapse, or a simple card game became a way for students to learn math collaboratively and challenge each other with difficult concepts? In Game Changers, students don’t just play—they design their own games or transform familiar games into hands-on platforms for STEM learning and creativity.
This project is grounded in Seymour Papert (1980)’s constructionism, which emphasizes that learning is most powerful when it involves creating meaningful, shareable artifacts—“objects to think with”—that help learners construct new knowledge. Aligned with this philosophy, Game Changers encourages student-driven exploration, experimentation, and reflection in STEM learning.
Mindful Mathletes: Integrating Positive Psychology with Creative, Visual Math
Inspired by Stanford Graduate School of Education professor Jo Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets, Mindful Mathletes is uniquely designed to foster 4-8th graders' mathematical thinking, problem solving skills, and positive attitudes in math learning. The program aims to nurture growth mindsets and mathematical mindsets in students--positively shaping students' beliefs about their math abilities and their relationship with math. In each meeting, students will collaborate on a fun and challenging math task and explore multiple creative solutions; they will also delve into a fascinating psychology concept behind math learning, such as understanding growth v.s. fixed mindset, depth v.s. speed, etc. The program consists of 14+ detailed lesson plans and presentations.
Learn about our approach to Mindful Mathletes here.
In 2024, Mindset Math partnered with the National Math Foundation to create a kinesthetic version of the Mindful Mathletes curriculum, incorporating playful movements into traditional lessons and further enhancing students' engagement!
STEM & Stitches: Where Yarn Meets Math and Science
STEM & Stitches is a unique science communications and after-school enrichment program weaving together math, crochet, marine biology, and environmental science. Designed for students in 4th grade and up, the program teach various topics, such as the magic of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, the art of crochet, and the beauty and ecological importance of coral reefs. As a final project, students create posters on their topics of interest and exhibit their crochet work in schools or online galleries, raising awareness about climate change and showcasing the intersection of math, community art, and science. The interdisciplinary program aims to spark students’ interest in STEM and expose them to the interconnections among seemingly unrelated ideas; meanwhile, the program incorporates sustainable development goals into the instruction. The program's design is inspired by the groundbreaking work of mathematician and artist Daina Taimina and the worldwide Crochet Coral Reef Project by science journalist Margaret Wertheim.
Around the World in 80 Math Problems: Kinesthetic & Interdisciplinary Journeys in Problem-Solving
Around the World in 80 Math Problems (AWI80MP) is a collaborative project between Mindset Math and the National Math Foundation (NMF). This program reimagines math instruction by integrating kinesthetic (movement-based) learning strategies with diverse real-world applications spanning fields like engineering, biology, chemistry, finance, and CS.
Mentored by NMF’s director and other educational experts, high school interns design engaging multisensory math activity guides tied to careers of their interests. This project culminates in one or a series of after-school events where high school interns use their designed activity guides and NMF-funded teaching tools to teach elementary and middle schoolers in their communities.
The project provides a platform for high schoolers to strengthen their teaching and leadership skills and build their expertise in research, reading, writing, and creative communication, ultimate the question of “how do we make math learning more enjoyable and relevant for kids”?
Meetings with Dr. Kirby Schoephoerster, director of the National Math Foundation, to discuss program design and implementation
The list does not end here! We constantly develop new projects or partner with existing ones.
If you are a high school student interested in proposing a project, please fill out the team application form as well as this survey. If you are an educational professional interested in collaboration. please fill out the Contact Us form at the bottom of our homepage. Thank you!