MIND Research Institute, an award-winning neuroscience and education social impact organization dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems, today announced the launch of an all-new version of its flagship solution, ST Math®.
Based on 20 years of neuroscientific research and the belief that every student has the potential to deeply understand and love math, 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.
The mastery-based and standards-aligned ST Math offers equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. Proving that a game can change how students feel about math, the unique approach delivers robust results on a national scale. Independent education research firm WestEd recently published the largest ever cross-state study evaluating a math edtech program on multiple state assessments. The results were especially significant at the 239 schools that used ST Math consistently. These high-fidelity schools outgrew similar schools in statewide rank by an average of 14 percentile points.
The newest version is built on the latest website technology, featuring responsive design to work seamlessly on any device. 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. The update also allows students to track their logins, minutes played, and puzzles solved each week to improve accountability and intrinsic motivation.
For administrators, ST Math now has 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.
Improvements for teachers will 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.
“Our whole team at MIND Research Institute have been hard at work on the new ST Math, and we are so excited for students, teachers, and administrators to experience it,” said Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND. “Our partners asked for increased flexibility and even more reporting and student details. The new ST Math delivers all of that and more, helping students and teachers alike to deeply understand and truly love math.”
ST Math meets What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) 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.
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. For those attending FETC, Vice President of Engagement Elizabeth Neiman will be available for meetings and can be reached at eneiman(at)mindresearch(dot)org.
About MIND Research Institute
MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math®, a PreK-8 visual instructional program that builds a deep conceptual understanding of math through rigorous learning and creative problem solving. MIND has also developed programs under MathMINDs to provide students, teachers, and families dynamic ways to actively engage with math and to close the experience gap for all learners. MathMINDs includes Family Game Nights, the national K-12 Game-a-thon, and MathMINDs Games. For more information, visit mindresearch.org.