No Use for Algebra? Try Creating “League of Legends” Without It.

By Mathnasium | June 18, 2018

If you want to build the “most played PC video game” in all of North America and Europe, you need math. Lots of it.

Sure, computers do the heavy lifting, but if you don’t understand how linear algebra works, it’s game over.

So says software engineer Eric Friedman, who works on League of Legends (LoL), the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that’s topped the charts since its debut in 2009.

9 Fun Activities to Prevent Summer Learning Loss (and Boost Math Skills)

By Mathnasium | June 11, 2018

Long summer days invite the family to spend extra time relaxing, playing, and connecting. Many parents also look for ways bolster their children’s math skills, but family time should be fun, not stressful! We compiled nine fun family activities that help combat “the summer learning loss phenomenon” (a.k.a. “the summer slide”) in math and create lasting memories.

Proportional Thinking (Number Sense Series, Part 3)

By Mathnasium | May 14, 2018

“If the world was the size of a basketball, my house would be as big as a flea’s flea!”

This is an example of how a seven year old once expressed proportional thinking to Mathnasium’s Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer, Larry Martinek. Of course, this seven year old didn’t know he was expressing proportional thinking at the time, he just knew it was fun to think about familiar objects changing size in relation to other familiar objects!

How To Prevent “Summer Learning Loss” in Math

By Mathnasium | April 17, 2018

When is your child better at math—at the end of a grade level or at the beginning of the next grade?

If you answered, “end of a grade level,” you’re usually right. The typical child has more math skills when they leave second grade than when they enter third grade. That’s because, during the summer, the majority of students lose the equivalent of two months of math skills.

Choose the Right Summer Math Program for Your Child

By Mathnasium | April 9, 2018

When summer hits, academic skills start to slip. In fact, studies show that children lose as much as three months of their math skills over the summer, which can result in lower self-confidence, and a lower chance of success when school starts back up in the fall. One of the best ways to prevent summer learning loss is through summer camps that combine academics and fun!

Plenty of summer math learning programs are available to assist kids who need or want stronger math skills. Comparing them, though, is like comparing apples to bananas: They’re in the same category but aren’t at all the same. They may all sound great in their advertisements, but how do you choose which summer math program is truly the best fit for your child?

Yippee! April is Math and Stats Awareness Month!

By Mathnasium | April 2, 2018

Calling math enthusiasts everywhere! April is Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month. Now’s the time to increase the understanding and appreciation of both sciences! You’ll find fun and fascinating math- and stat-related events around the country—workshops, competitions, exhibits, festivals, lectures, symposia, department open houses, math art exhibits, math poetry readings, math comedy, even some official proclamations by local politicians.

But let’s start with some simple definitions. Mathematics is the study of wholes and parts, and the relationship between them. Statistics, a branch of applied mathematics, collects and analyzes numerical data in large quantities, especially for inferring proportions in a whole from a representative sample.

Statistics is enjoying an especially high profile today, thanks to the advent of “Big Data,” which involves analyzing huge data sets for insights to help make better business decisions.

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM), which added “Statistics” to its Mathematics Awareness Month in 2017, says it best:

‘Both subjects play a significant role in addressing many real-world problems–internet security, sustainability, disease, climate change, the data deluge, and much more. Research in these and other areas is ongoing, revealing new results and applications every day in fields such as medicine, manufacturing, energy, biotechnology, and business. Mathematics and statistics are important drivers of innovation in our technological world, in which new systems and methodologies continue to become more complex.’

April is a time to celebrate the diverse researchers and students in these fields who are contributing so much to furthering discoveries, solving problems, and finding beauty in our world. It also underscores the importance of math education at all levels. From our perspective, it’s especially important to help children learn to understand and to love math, so that they have the potential to grow into adults who can understand and contribute to the world through math.

Check your local listings for a Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month program near you!

“Wholes and Parts” (Number Sense Series, Part 2)

By Mathnasium | March 13, 2018

Number Sense is the ability to appreciate the size and scale of numbers in the context of the question at hand. Three elements establish Number Sense: Counting, Wholes and Parts, and Proportional Thinking. We already introduced Counting in Part 1 of our Number Sense Series. Today, we will focus on Wholes and Parts.

The two aspects of the concept of Wholes and Parts form the backdrop for many mathematical concepts: fractions and complements.