Localized Project-based Math for Future Generations

Discovering, creating and "STEMifying" math in local environments to prepare learners and teachers for an uncertain world.

NumbersAlive! meets head-on the need to equip today’s students with a creative understanding of math designed to encourage innovation and application, recognizing that the way math is taught has not kept pace with the rate of technological and societal change. Think of it as “STEMifying” math.

Our solution is to unlock numerical literacy for global learners and teachers in an exploring, discovering, engaging, creative, meaningful and fun fashion. It focuses not only on the historic events that led to the evolution of our current mathematical thinking, but also new questions that will demand new ideas in math, and numerically literate citizens. Students observe math in action in their own environments through trade, sports, nature, culture, architecture, geometric relations and other world phenomena. They can respond to Dr. Klemm’s new math conjecture by playing with polygons.

We encourage learners to “make math” by selecting necessary tools to address pertinent questions, and show how numbers emerge in and run through all disciplines.  One example, “Learning to Look for Numbers,” where groups of children create and discuss with their class a book of pictures and drawings of observations of math in their environment via quantity, order, name and shape.  Another is “Building NumberOpolis!” where groups of students repurpose materials to build and decorate a house for a number, illustrating its meaning in quantity, cultural statements (i.e., 9 cotton balls for number 9 to be on “cloud nine’), 2 or 3-dimensional shapes, titles, etc.  As time permits, they identify animals, plants, designs, art, household objects, etc. that link to the number. They present their resultant design-thinking construction to their class, leaving some “secrets” for others to discover.  Number Linx (preK-5th grade) and Puzzling Polygons (MS-adult) encourage learners to dissect and make their own polygon puzzles and create a numbering system using shapes.

Our solution is intended to make an impact on a systemic level in education. School mathematics is at a crossroads. Current teaching still emphasizes rote memorization over a visceral understanding of the nature of math and its relevance to real world phenomena. Computers and calculators perform lightning fast calculations that used to take humans hours or days to accomplish, and while the ability to do that may exercise the developing brain, it is no longer a functional requirement. 

Rather, the world has entered a time when the focus in math must be on the application of integrated mathematical principles into real world challenges and opportunities. This necessarily involves exploration of the relationships between the areas of math typically taught separately:  arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus, etc. The tools and training our solution provides are designed to help teachers, parents and students of all ages prepare for a future whose precise composition is yet unknown, but for which the skill sets will need to be integrated in the student to equip them as makers and inventors, not just consumers.

NumbersAlive!’s solution moves math from repetitious workbooks to observation, discovery and creativity, with the potential to integrate into all languages throughout the world. 

Our solution involves a set of principles for “STEMifying” math, informing whatever delivery system is used. We are developing a global web-based platform and localizing programs to maintain relevance worldwide. Videos and visual presentations with translations package the original content we have been developing and presenting around the globe since 2012.  We use existing technology, and may add new tech (VR, robotics) if/when they prove their learning value and budgets allow.  We taught teachers of Syrian refugees in Lebanon during 2018, and that demonstrated the value of our approach in adapting to locations without internet and very limited funds.

Technology will be integral to host and distribute our solution globally and allow teachers to communicate with other teachers and NumbersAlive! In response to questions raised by teachers, parents or students, we develop content that is engaging, real, and references local environments and living situations. Technology is clearly identified as a tool rather than an end unto itself. Different locations will have varying access to, and budget for technological solutions.  Thus, we are designing our solution to scale with whatever technology is available in a given location, and customize it to match local resources.

We will continue to disseminate our learning tools, activities and apps via school systems, parents and individual teachers.  We will extend our initial outreach to government organizations and NGOs begun during 2018 in the Middle East and US.  We have identified specific groups of learners and teachers fascinated by our “friends you can count on” plush numbers, including homeschool parents and teachers/parents of children who require special intervention (autistic, dyslexic, blind, deaf) as well as those fearing math.  Mathematically gifted students have found our discovery and storytelling “make them think” far more than repetitive worksheets they complete very easily

We will continue to disseminate our learning tools, activities and apps to diverse educational locations and implement a first version of a combined, digitally enabled physical solution for teachers that will afford more rapid implementation in selected areas worldwide. Our previous in-person outreach has demonstrated an urgent need for this type of approach for both new and experienced teachers to help them move from the approaches they learned and have used for many years.  It has also demonstrated that our solution will work well in situations with extensive or limited budgets for digital tools. 

Our multi-pronged outreach includes web services, social media, personal contacts, global public events (i.e., STEM/math festivals, maker faires), global educational conferences, etc. Dr. Klemm speaks frequently and writes articles and social media posts, which resulted in NumbersAlive! being named among the top 100 social media influencers in k-12 education by EdWeek Market Brief in 2017.  Our imminent website relaunch will include sample activities and games for all ages to explore and provide questions or issues demanding alternative solutions.  As we develop lessons or learning tools in response to individual teacher/parent concerns, we increase our offerings and increase customer retention.

We have served at least 100,000 parents, teachers, and students with our engaging learning tools: puzzles, books, music, film, games, apps, and activities, through speaking and meeting people at international conferences and STEM/math events in the USA, Middle East and UK. People have identified our learning tools via web searches and we have shipped learning tools to every continent besides Antarctica. Discussions with international teachers, parents and students have revealed that we need to create a teacher/parent training solution to help them lead learners with math concepts new to them and necessary for the future.     

NumbersAlive! will work with about 100 classroom teachers and parents and their 2,500+ students as we develop our initial training and supplemental curriculum solution over the next year.  We will serve them through web-enabled presentations, in-person training and in-class practice sessions in select areas of the US, India and Middle East.  We will establish easy and frequent communication with teachers, parents and students.

Within 3 years we expect to be serving 3,000 teachers and 30,000 students using the same strategies. The scaling will result from the initial teachers and parents becoming internal champions in their schools or communities.

NumbersAlive! was founded by Dr. Rebecca Klemm, who is the CEO and currently leads all content development.  She began teaching math when she was 20, and has taught students from pre-K to adult via storytelling for 40 years.  She teachers STEMifying math to the public at maker faires/STEM/STEAM/math nights, and to teachers and students at conferences and schools in diverse areas within the US and abroad.  The team brings implementation skills of graphic design, engineering, platform and app programming, marketing and business management, as well as K-12 classroom teaching and curriculum development.  

Most of the funding is still coming from Founder Dr. Rebecca Klemm, bolstered by some occasional grant money, speaking fees, and of course, online and live sales of the learning tools. Currently, we are working diligently to increase our reach in the for-profit side of the business via online sales of educational tools. We are finalizing our board for a public non-profit in order to attract grant and charitable funding to cover development costs.  We expect that our solution will create revenue via a subscription model, speaking fees, sales of learning tools (for-profit entity) and grant funding (non-profit). The mixture of funding sources will allow us to contribute in developing countries, populations in compromised situations, and areas in the US and elsewhere that need these tools but are underfunded. We are confident that the long-term implementation of these learning tools and programs will result in long-term sustainability. Currently we have received fabulous testimonials from parents and teachers about the impact of our learning tools and activities developed so far.  We will use some grant funds to evaluate the effectiveness of our solution which should lead to greater adoption and long-term sustainability.

Applying to Solve is part of our broader strategy of partnering with organizations we believe can add significant value to the initial and continuing development and implementation of our solution.   In particular, we believe that a relationship with the duo of MIT (with its very strong STEM focus) and the UN’s interest in education for compromised learners around the globe, reflects a perfect synergy to promote STEMifying math in ways that prepare students with better skill sets for an uncertain future, as well as empower teachers worldwide to harness their local resources, learn themselves, and then implement with their students.

Funding and outreach are typical barriers of any startup initiative.  Often, they are more efficiently accomplished when there is a clear resonance between partner organizations and the initiative, and where the weight of partnerships can help open doors, make contacts, potentially assist with finding funding, and broaden reach. One potential barrier is teachers having to learn teaching methods that might make them uncomfortable despite being important for improving their effectiveness as a teacher.  Access to professionals with expertise relating to the solution and the credibility of Solve:  MIT and UN, will help clear speed bumps and fine tune our solution.