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MIND Blog Rewind: February 2020

Each month on the MIND blog, we share stories of how our organization, our partners, and educators across the country are advancing the mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. We also share resources for educators and students, and cover some of the exciting events we take part in across the country.

Welcome to the MIND Blog Rewind! In January, MIND Research Institute announced the launch of an all-new version of our flagship solution, ST Math®! And things have only heated up from there!

JiJi spent the month of February traveling the country at special events like TCEA and visiting our schools to hear from students, teachers, and administrators. Our MIND Research Institute team did a little traveling of our own and also shared more about the new ST Math.

Here is a recap of important news, content, and resources that came out of MIND and our community in February 2020.

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What's new in ST Math for the 2020-2021 school year? In January, MIND Research Institute announced the launch of an all-new version of our flagship solution, ST Math®! ST Math is all new for the 2020-2021 school year, complete with some amazing enhancements and new features we're so excited to share!

Edith Esparza, Education Engagement Specialist, shared details about new features like a streamlined navigation for students, a new objective hub for teachers, and an optimized administrator experience featuring powerful reporting at scale. Take a deeper dive into what's new with ST Math!

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Calling All Student Game Designers! The K-12 Game-a-thon is open for submissions! In this annual event, we challenge students to create their own math game that will help engage other students in multi-step problem solving and strategic thinking.

Whether you're looking for engaging math projects for students or you have early ST Math finishers looking for how to further their math exploration, we encourage you to enter. We can't wait to see what students create!

You can also check out the top teams from last year's challenge here. Entries are open through June 30, 2020.

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Growth mindset is a term we hear a lot, but what does it actually mean? And more than that, how can embracing this mindset change education?

Twana Young, Director of Product, Instructional Development, shared how students who embrace a growth mindset are more likely to succeed. She also explained how ST Math and other meaningful experiences that push students to learn from their failures, are what helps students develop a growth mindset, inspire confidence, and bring joy to mathematics.

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How are we designing ST Math so that the data it provides is actionable? At MIND Research Institute, we use data to drive decisions on a daily basis. Internally, we monitor student success data and make program adjustments in response to that data.

Alesha Arp, Senior User Experience Researcher, shared her research insights about using data to drive decisions and how our product team uses data to maximize program effectiveness.

Alesha also joined Brian LeTendre on a new podcast episode titled, "Using Data Effectively in the Classroom." Alesha spent most of 2018 and 2019 traveling to different schools to meet with students, teachers, and administrators about ST Math. She saw firsthand how ST Math implementations varied widely and were adjusted to fit overall curriculum and students' needs per school.

Alesha shared her insights, takeaways, and important questions that teachers and administrators should be asking. Topics covered include using data more effectively in the classroom, taking action in response to data, and how to fully understand what your data is telling you.

You can listen to all podcast episodes on our blog or subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

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JiJi—ST Math’s lovable penguin mascot—and MIND colleagues had fun traveling to Texas in February for TCEA 2020, one of the nation’s leading edtech conferences.

We kept busy, from meeting thousands of educators from across the nation, to walking the showroom floor, to throwing an ST Math launch party. Check out our recap!

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Not only do we love math and STEM, but we love JiJi! This Valentine's day we shared the love by rounding up our favorite Valentine STEM classroom ideas and created a fun coloring sheet to go along with it.

We also posted some of our favorite Valentines sent in to us from classrooms across the nation. Thank you to everyone who has written in. JiJi keeps all of them!

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We have amazing things planned for next month, including a plethora of events, new podcast episodes, the spring break challenge, and a recap of something very special we had a chance to partner with Disney on. I can't wait to share it all!

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Jolene Haley

About the Author

Jolene Haley was the Content and Community Specialist at MIND Research Institute. In addition to creating content for MIND, she is an author, avid reader, and lover of iced coffee.

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