“Why does the moon follow our car?”

To Professor Scott Baldridge, this question from his six-year-old daughter, Autumn, exhibits the youthful curiosity that inspired him to create Eureka Math. 

Eureka is a PreK – 12 math curriculum that helps students gain a deep understanding of mathematics. Scott was the first teacher writer on board. A Louisiana State University professor known for his research in geometric topology, Scott also has a talent for making math exciting to grade schoolers. 

“Most curricula are ineffective due to arbitrary applications.” In human words: Giving students math problems that don’t relate to their lives and curiosities only spurs the question all teachers dread — When am I ever going to use this?

But when you nurture kids’ curiosity and imagination, math starts to make a lot more sense. To hear Scott tell it, “With Eureka, we are going after the things that students are always asking ‘why’ about.”

After all, “The things that make you wonder are the essence of what makes you human.”

“There’s nobody who lives in a world where numbers aren’t relevant.” 

“Every kid in the world pays attention to he got more than me or I can go faster than you.”

Jill Diniz has had a lifelong relationship with numbers, having worked as a risk analyst for NASA and a high  school math teacher. Today, she’s director of Eureka Math, a PreK – 12 curriculum designed to increase mathematical rigor and fluency. She believes a strong number sense is essential for success in school and in life.

“Math is all around us. Whether it’s measurement by count, measurement by square footage, measurement of dollars — it’s in our lives. You have to be fluent with numbers to advocate for yourself in life, no matter what your career.”

Eureka provides students with a deep conceptual understanding of mathematics, so that they can apply math knowledge to a wide array of situations.

“When you can take previous knowledge and use it a new way, you are on your way to living the life you want.” 

“We might start with the sprints — that’s that high-octane, get ’em revved up, get ’em really excited piece.” 

To hear Lisa Watts Lawton describe it, you might think she’s talking about Crossfit®.  But she’s talking about Eureka Math, a PreK – 12 curriculum created to increase mathematical fluency and conceptual understanding. Eureka learns from the most effective curricula from all around the world, and then, as Lisa puts it, “turbo-charges it.”

“My typical class starts with fluency games designed to develop mathematical muscle memory.” Lessons then shift to application and concept development, where Eureka introduces new concepts and gives students visual problem-solving tools. Every lesson ends with students explaining what they’ve learned and acknowledging their progress. “In a Eureka classroom,” Lisa says, “there’s a celebration of improvement.”

A second-grade teacher for over 20 years, Lisa has seen many curricula come and go. Eureka is different.

“I just had two people from my school district come into my classroom to observe a lesson of Eureka Math. With the level of enthusiasm they saw,” Lisa jokes, “they must have thought  I paid the kids!”

“Any teacher can tell you there are some common math stumbling blocks.” 

“When students get to fractions in third grade… they are incredibly hard for them to understand,” Kate Austin says. “With Eureka Math, we’re thinking about what’s going to happen with fractions as early as preschool.”

Eureka is a math curriculum written for teachers by teachers that teaches math as a story that builds chapter by chapter. Too often, students get lost and find themselves in fourth or fifth grade without strong number sense, and teachers are left teaching a procedure hoping they will “just pass the test.” 

For Kate, that’s a big problem, because math education is about building on layers of knowledge year to year. “You can’t build on, ‘Just pass the test.’” 

Eureka Math uses models such as number bonds and 10 frames to help kids in the earliest grades see that numbers are really units. “We’re helping them understand how numbers work in a way that they can apply to fractions, so they don’t stumble and instead just take the next step on the ladder.”

“I think they’re walking away with an understanding of mathematics that’s going to allow them to look at all kinds of careers out there and say, ‘All of those are accessible to me. Engineering? I could be an engineer. I could be a computer programmer. I could do all those things.’”

“I once went to a water company purely to research a Eureka Math problem.”   

For Pam Goodner, the only way to learn math is to see how it helps you to make sense of the world. Eureka Math is a PreK – 12 curriculum crafted by a team of teachers with backgrounds in mathematics and science. Pam left a career in chemical engineering because she wanted to find a better way to teach math. 

Most curricula teach kids math as a series of formulas and rules to be memorized. Eureka goes deeper, teaching why a formula works and then applies that knowledge to real-world situations. 

When Eureka teaches ratios, it explains their relationship to television sizes. When it teaches matrices, it connects them to real-world networks like subway systems and social media. 

“Everything has a meaning and a context,” Pam points out, “because the real world is not a standard formula.”