What is ST Math? – ST Math Help

ST Math is a supplemental math program built on the science of how the brain learns. Students engage in puzzles that invite them to explore, make sense of, and build lasting confidence in math through visual problem solving.

Jump to:

How ST Math Works

ST Math Curriculum Design

Spatial Temporal Approach

ST Math’s patented approach - manipulating objects in space and time - is totally unique in the market. The program starts by teaching the foundational concepts visually, then connects the ideas to the symbols, language, and robust discourse. Why does this approach work so well? Because with visual learning, students are better equipped to tackle unfamiliar math problems, recognize patterns, and build conceptual understanding. Without language barriers, the problem is accessible to all students, regardless of skill level or language background.

Deep Conceptual Understanding

ST Math is mastery based, which means students must pass each level with a score of 100% (all puzzles correctly solved) before the next level in a sequence becomes available to them. Each student has their own personalized journey and takes as long as they need to achieve mastery. This ensures that students are building and demonstrating a strong conceptual foundation.

Formative Feedback

In ST Math, action is critical and mistakes are the perfect opportunity for learning. Animated formative feedback offers an intrinsically motivating learning experience that shows students the mathematical consequences of each answer, helping to form and shape their understanding. Students don’t just guess at multiple choices, or worse, get a question wrong and wonder why.

Standards-Aligned

ST Math games include more than 35,000 puzzles with interactive representations of math topics that align to all state standards, with learning objectives that target key grade-level concepts and skills.

ST Math is a flexible instructional tool that can fit easily into many different curriculum implementations. In a computer lab, during designated classroom time, station-rotation, or at home - as long as students are using ST Math for 60+ minutes per week, you will see gains in their math achievement.

			Grade level math standards specify a subset of topics that are the major work of the grade level. The majority of state assessment questions are derived from these areas. The design of the ST Math Journey specifically prioritizes these topics within the objective sequence. Students will predominantly work on mastering the major topics prior to moving on to additional and supplemental topics at the grade. In this way, if not all students in a class complete the Journey, they will have spent their time on the most critical topic areas.

			Spiraling a curriculum refers to the method of presenting concepts repeatedly over a period of time with increasing layers of complexity. Research shows that it is better for long-term retention to space out learning experiences in contrast to massed learning in which a lot of information is acquired in a short period of time. The ST Math Curriculum follows this approach by having students experience Learning Objectives of one topic, moving on to another topic, and eventually coming back to previous topics, connecting with what has been learned already and continuing the learning trajectory at an increased level of complexity. As a result, the learning topics are spaced in time, leading to better retention of the material.

			While ST Math Learning Objectives are designed with a low floor and high ceiling, they are built into coherent sequences with recommended prerequisites and dependencies. Because ST Math is a mastery-driven system, students will be able to master certain topics better if they have mastered the previous games and content in the hierarchy. In this way, students progress through the curriculum starting with the more foundational content and moving through to more complex topics that build on the previous content.

			While spatial-temporal models can be used to teach all math standards, there are certain concepts where using a spatial-temporal approach really shines. Estimating the location of a number on the number line or building an equivalent fraction using virtual fraction blocks are examples of highly effective uses of a spatial-temporal puzzle. These instances of using spatial-temporal puzzles are included as a factor when structuring the Journey sequence.