Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

The algorithms that drive artificial intelligence are rooted in sophisticated mathematical concepts. So, then, it might make sense that the marriage between AI and math instruction in K-12 schools ...

Both the dreams of young people and the reality of jobs have changed dramatically over the last 30 years, moving math success from optional to a necessity. But the way we educate children hasn’t ...

Imagine you are a mountaineer. Nothing excites you more than testing your skill, strength and resilience against some of the most extreme environments on the planet, and now you've decided to take on ...

The Riemann Hypothesis is one of the most famous problems in that set. It’s about prime numbers. That’s any whole number that can only be divided by 1 and itself – like 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11.

This story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of Texas Monthly as part of our public-education feature, “What Our Schools Actually Need.” Humans have been learning math for thousands of ...