Introducing ST Math~ 8 min

Games? No directions? Get your students ready for a whole new experience in math.

Courses /
The Essentials /
Before Day 1 /
Introducing ST Math

Role

Sign-in Type

Grades

Teacher: Students, today in math you'll be playing computer games that have no instructions and you have to figure out how to solve the puzzles yourself. There's a penguin whose name is JiJi, it's all based around how your brain learns, and if you play a lot you're going to get much better in math.
Student: Are you kidding?

Introducing ST Math

A great introduction will help students understand how to approach ST Math while they build problem solving skills and become self-directed learners. You can choose to introduce the program by using our ST Math Introduction Tool, playing a game together on your own, or showing one of our videos.

Using Our Guided Intro

Project this web link and it will walk you through introducing ST Math to your students: Guided ST Math Intro.

You can preview it here:

Review of how to use the Guided Intro*:
First, choose whether to play a game right away or watch a fun introductory video that your students will love.

After asking and answering some fun questions, you'll be guided through helping your students with the Notice, Predict, Analyze, Connect Learning Cycle as you play a simple game.

When you've completed the puzzles from lower grades, you'll have the option to continue with similar games, choose more challenging games, or try games that are even more challenging than that.

*Includes English and Spanish

By Playing a Game Together

To use a game, select a game by going to your Educator Experience home screen, clicking the Curriculum menu, and choosing All Learning Objectives. Then you can select a grade level and choose which Objective you'd like to use. We suggest choosing one of the early Objectives in that grade level's Journey and project the game.

Explain that ST Math is a special math program that teaches math in a very different way.
Looking at the screen, what do you see? Answers will vary depending on the game you choose.
What do you think you're supposed to do? ST Math doesn't give you any instructions. Your job is to figure out what the puzzle is.
What do you notice when I click on the screen? Parts of the screen shimmer.
What should we do now? Try out several of the students' suggestions.
Discuss JiJi, the penguin Introduce JiJi (see JiJi, The Penguin module) and explain that the goal is to get JiJi across the screen by solving the puzzle. If JiJi's path is blocked, you have to figure out what went wrong.
Explain that they'll have to get every puzzle correct to go to the next puzzle.
Explain to students in grades 2 and up that each set of games will start with a short quiz. They should do their best and use paper and pencil if they need to.

Using a Video

Using a Video (Spanish)

For grades k-5:

For grades 6+

What's Next

The Essentials > After Students Start Playing > The Student Experience

The Essentials