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.
It's time for a revolution. Join us as we work to make learning accessible to all. Join us as we make learning a blast. Join us as we disrupt the system. Join us. Join MathBait™.
If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.
-Henry Ford
Our Mission
Accessible
We believe that high-quality education should be a right for everyone.
You won't find our material behind a hefty paywall. Why? Because we believe that every child has a right to an amazing educational experience.
We offer high-quality educational content at a low price to ensure all students can participate.
We provide scholarships to students in need, no one will ever be turned away. Consider supporting us through a donation or grabbing some fun math gear in our Swag Shop!
Fun. Fun. Fun.
We believe learning should be first and foremost fun, a lot of fun.
Learning should be fun. Schools have a horrible habit of taking even the most curious student and turning them against the system.
Every MathBait™ resource is designed as something we'd want to do, as something our children would love to do. Puzzles, quests, games, and so much more all painstakingly mulled over to ensure engagement and deep learning is at the forefront. Students will soar to new levels of understanding while having a blast along the way!
Knowledge
We don't believe in rote practice and memorization.
Memorizing formulas and steps forces students to hit their learning ceiling quickly. At MathBait™, we focus on conceptual understanding. This means students don't know as much as computers, they know more than computers - ensuring they will have the knowledge and skills needed in the career marketplace of tomorrow. Stop holding them back with boring and instead send them soaring!
The Team
Designed and developed by award-winning educators and mathematicians, MathBait™ uses the most up-to-date research on learning, cognitive science, and engagement to provide students with an amazing experience.
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. Outside her continued work with MathBait™, she now teaches for The Art of Problem Solving where she has won numerous student awards for her unique and engaging approach on mathematics education. As often as possible, Shayla contributes to academic journals including her article Building Conceptual Understanding: Improving Mathematics Education in Online Courses in which she stressed the importance of moving away from rote practice to prepare 21st century learners for the career-marketplace of tomorrow. Shayla is a home school mom of 5 wonderful children and resides with her family in New Mexico.
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!
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 make them sorcerers in our world as well.
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.
What are you waiting for? Join the Revolution!
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