Earlier this week, the students at Crestview Elementary celebrated their hard work with ST Math with a visit from the one and only JiJi. JiJi is the penguin character in ST Math software games that help students solve math puzzles and master concepts.
Throughout the year, students in all grades at Crestview have been learning math concepts through engaging games. ST Math is a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. The program starts by teaching the foundational concepts visually, and then connects the ideas to the symbols and language. With visual learning, students are better equipped to tackle unfamiliar math problems, recognize patterns, and build conceptual understanding
This is the first year Crestview utilized ST math throughout the school. Wendy Killough, a first-grade teacher, said she was initially skeptical but quickly became a believer in the program.
“It is a wonderful tool to add to our toolboxes to help improve student’s foundational skills and build a practical understanding of math,” said Killough. “It is engaging and motivating! I have noticed a huge difference in students’ understanding of math as I am introducing new content to them. The students love these puzzles and soon fall in love with Jiji, the much-loved penguin.”
Marlodee Etchison, a fourth-grade teacher at Crestview, stated her students love the puzzles because it is similar to gameplay.
“ST Math has had a huge impact on the critical thinking and problem-solving skills in my classroom. It is a supplement to instruction that is very visual and interactive,” said Etchison.
To inspire competition among the grade levels, Crestview started a March Mathness bracket. Each student worked hard to excel through the puzzles to elevate their class in the campus-wide competition.
Killough stated one parent sent her a photo through Remind of their student working on the ST Math puzzles before school. The parent messaged, “he is not a morning person, but he was happy to get up early to work on ST Math. He asked me to take him to school at 6:00 am, but this was our compromise.”
At the end of the completion, a third-grade classroom was crowned champion, a first-grade class and a Kindergarten class brought home the silver and bronze. Even though the March Mathness bracket is complete, the students are still utilizing the ST Math puzzles.
Throughout the school year, Crestview students have completed 1,035,357 ST Math puzzles. This amazing achievement was celebrated with a special visit from JiJi the penguin, the featured character in all the ST Math puzzles.
The students were fired up to see their total puzzle count for the grade level and to have JiJi run through the sign celebrating their accomplishments with them.
Check out the total count of completed puzzles by each grade level.
- Kindergarten - 148,279
- 1st Grade - 174,367
- 2nd Grade - 173,172
- 3rd Grade - 158,964
- 4th Grade - 170,431
- 5th Grade - 210,144
The teachers at Crestview are extremely proud of their students and see tangible improvements in the students' comprehension. ST Math continues to provide equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem-solving, and formative feedback, all while emphasizing visual understanding and mastery of math concepts.
Crestview is excited to continue using ST Math next year and hope to solve even more puzzles.