We’re shining a light on some of our Middle School mathematicians who are working independently and collaboratively to build their understanding of math concepts. These students are working to apply familiar skills in a new context, looking for relationships and patterns among scale, ratio, reciprocals and proportions using real world scenarios. Sometimes pushing our math thinking can feel hard and we put up mental blocks — thoughts like “I’m not a math person,” are all too common in schools.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! As you can see in the video, these young mathematicians aren’t confused or intimidated. They’re exploring. When we’re not teaching to a test, we have the space to lower the stakes and let kids explore during math blocks. These mathematicians are working intentionally to build their ability to “not know, but try” as they work with finding patterns and relationships. They’re exploring questions like “what is the relationship …” “what patterns do I notice …” “where in my real life do I see…” and making room for this kind of exploration and open-ended thinking — blending conceptual thinking and computation — helps mitigate some of the harsh, negative thinking that can too often accompany middle school math work.