Let's Have Fun
We are lost. Advancements in technology are making the educational system obsolete. Worse, school has become all about testing, memorizing, and forgetting until the next benchmark.
With the belief education should be focused on instilling a love of learning, helping students see the relevance of mathematics in the world around them, and building skills for a lifetime, MathBait was born.
On a Mission
Our Founder
MathBait founder, Shayla Heavner, has worked in mathematics education for over a decade. After being awarded the prestigious Sarah D. Barder Fellowship Award for excellence in teaching, she began designing and developing mathematics courses for The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), including an innovative new offering bringing advanced logical concepts to middle school students. Serving on the Instructional Design Committee and Curriculum Committee, Shayla was a part of a 3-member team to develop the conceptual framework for all CTY courses that focused on research-based pedagogy and student engagement. A certified online teacher and master reviewer for Quality Matters, Shayla has helped a variety of programs improve their online course design and content. Alas, her true passion lies in the classroom. Laughing, playing, and helping students to find their own mathematical powers is what inspires her everyday.
One of my favorite things about Shayla is how she brings math into everyday conversations. When the kids mentioned a birthday, she turned it into a fun challenge. They were laughing, having a blast, and completley engaged with numbers. They was she loves math is contagious, and it's made such a difference in how my kids see, and enjoy, learning.
Adriana R, Parent
Our Method
Classrooms today include teachers demonstrating a concept followed by students copying the approach - again and again. Not only is this dreadfully boring, it has been shown to be totally ineffective!
What makes MathBait different is that we don't design any activities we wouldn't love to do ourselves. Focusing on conceptual understanding, we help students to build their own foundations through colorful analogies, problem-solving, and exploration. Preparing students to be the leaders of tomorrow, we encourage out-of-the-box thinking and a strong understanding, not memorization. Students are transported to a fun new world that gives them magical powers - abilities they will soon find makes them sorcerers in our world as well.
Our Platform
Most platforms are riddled with ads, bright colors, and flashing lights. That's what kids love right? While these appear engaging, science tells us these elements actually detract from memory and retention. You'll notice right away MathBait has a sleek design that is visually appealing, but also created especially to minimize cognitive load and over-stimulation.
How can that possibly be fun? You will be amazed as students catch falling primes, save a boat from sinking, create a sieve, or work to identify secret agents. You see, we have added the fun in all the right places. Not only will our activities keep students interested, this sleek design sets them up to maximize their learning transfer and have a blast doing it!
The math games are so challenging and fun that I feel a sense of accomplishment after I finish them and I feel like I'm actually understanding the concepts.
Student
Our Classes
Our 1-1 and small group classes focus on building understanding through exploration and play. Rather than catchy sayings like "flip and switch" or "a negative times a negative is a positive" we work to make sense of these ideas using intuition and relating math to our everyday lives. When students enjoy learning and understand the mathematics they are expected to know, math is no longer a struggle but something to look forward to.
Make math your playground! Our current classes cover introduction to advanced logic and problem solving, mathematical explorations, prealgebra, algebra, and geometry.
Our Why
We are not a big company. We are not looking to sell you the next best thing. We are a small business, a family. We are educators and lovers of mathematics and learning. The joy on a child's face when they understand a new idea, the sparkle in their eyes when they realize the power of their knowledge, the smile on their face when they are having a blast learning - these are our whys.
At MathBait, we truly believe that all kids are math kids. We believe that all kids have a right to quality education and we certainly believe that we should never ever do anything that isn't fun.