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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We've got a guarantee that students will learn at least one year of math using our system 30 minutes per week. So it's 10 minutes per day, three days per week. After 10 weeks, what we measure is about a year and a half of gain.
Aditya Nagrath is a visionary, innovative and influential mathematician and education reformer who is the founder of Elephant Learning, a platform transforming math education through conceptual learning. Most students coming into kindergarten have a challenge counting to 10, and kindergarten kind of starts at two-digit numbers. And so that language gap exacerbates over time.
If you came into kindergarten able to understand the teacher, then the education system really actually works very well for you. But if you didn't, you kind of struggle all the way along.
my name's rudy moore host of living the red life podcast and i'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue pill take the red pill join me in wonderland and change your life
Welcome back to another episode of the Living the Legacy podcast, the Red Life edition. We're moments away from filming another episode of Legacy Makers. Today, our featured guest is Aditya Nagra.
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Chapter 2: How does Aditya Nagrath define the language gap in education?
Did I butcher that or how did I do that?
You did pretty good.
Oh, right on, cool. I appreciate that affirmation after several hundred episodes, my friend, of podcasting. Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Is this the most reddest set that you've been in?
I think so, yeah.
Cool. I'm pretty sure reddest is not even a word. My friend, we're moments away of filming your Legacy Makers episode. What will we learn? Give us the preview.
There's a lot, I think. But I'm hoping that people learn how important mathematics is.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of teaching mathematics as a language?
Oh, dude.
And I'm hoping that people learn to believe in themselves.
Yeah, it's beautiful how belief and mathematics, there's math in everything. There's math in music, there's math in the code, to the code of the source that everything connects us all. When did you find out the magic behind the numbers? When did you find your calling that there's numbers everywhere?
Yeah.
That God is a big equation. Yeah.
It's hard actually to realize how important mathematics is until you sit down and think about it because most professions, most activities that people engage in, they're kind of mathematical in nature. Always. But most of the time we don't approach it that way. So a lot of professions are based on experience.
But I think that when you start to look deeper, what it really is, is a type of applied mathematics. And so it happens to be just about everywhere. But at the same time, no one can pinpoint where do I use it in everyday life.
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Chapter 4: How does Elephant Learning measure student progress?
I got to ask for a friend. In school systems, there's basic math, multiplications, geometry, algebra, and then you start getting into calculus. You start getting into the really nitty-gritty stuff about math. It's almost like math equals life. As a person that enjoys math, where do you think is enough for the human person to survive day to day? Is it just...
good enough math what is good enough math to get along to get by i would say i think that people have to be versed in algebra i think that algebra is a good primer great is the equivalent of the third grade uh reading level okay for mathematics right and the reason why is because when you start to get into other sciences such as biology physics um any of your stem majors really yes sir
Uh, the language is actually happening inside of algebra. And so then these other, uh, techniques are these other tools such as calculus and et cetera. Those are also kind of happening on top of algebra, but like, uh, the challenge is, is that it's harder to determine where, uh, it's being applied as much as, uh, algebra since algebra is just about everywhere.
Right on. Where do you come into play into the pool of numbers? Where does your journey start?
Well, so I've got a PhD in math and computer science. Our system starts with counting and then goes through algebra. So what we do is we treat mathematics as a language. Right on.
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Chapter 5: What role does algebra play in STEM education?
And by doing that, what we're hoping to do is we're hoping to get the student to understand the teacher in the classroom because... If we can do that, then the student can participate in class and actually math time becomes fun. So instead of something where it's like, when am I going to use this? It turns into something like, well, this is an interesting problem to solve.
Yeah, it stops being utilitarian and now it becomes like an art form. How difficult is that? Do you see a lot of resistance where folks are like, well, and then they have that eureka moment? Talk about some journeys that some people use transform because of math.
So like, I mean, because these things are occurring as language, I don't think there's a lot of struggle behind it because... You're talking about the concrete thing that's happening underneath the numbers, right?
Chapter 6: How does the Elephant Learning system personalize math education?
So like, give me five things, give me four more things. Sure. That's the exhibition of addition. You see what I'm saying?
Yes, sir.
And so people don't struggle so much with it in our system. And I think that we've heard story after story of a student that's come through. Just last week, I was in Orlando, and someone told me that my daughter was struggling with mathematics. They went through your system. they weren't just struggling with mathematics, but they were struggling with school altogether.
And after they came through your system, not only did they do better at mathematics, they did better at all subjects. And they were no longer struggling with school. School was easy for them.
Right on. Is it a lot of, I feel like that's a lot of gunk you removed. Like the school system is obviously not perfect, but it's still a system that we kind of need to create, you know, our future leaders of America are full in the blank. Is your program far more advanced? Are you kind of like, you know, figuring out the good crops versus the bad crops?
Like, how are you up advancing education when it comes to like the way it's done the old fashioned way versus how you're doing it?
Well, I mean, I think that the idea is that mathematics has been taught the same way for thousands and thousands of years.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do students face in traditional math education?
And it could be that no one's really sat down to think about how to teach in a different way. And it wasn't even really me that started this. It was these professors out of the School of Education over at the University of Denver. Mm-hmm. they have all these activities that were designed to teach math conceptually. And that's kind of the same idea as teaching mathematics as a language.
It's just, it sounds a lot better in a research paper to say I'm teaching it conceptually. Sure. Or in a podcast. But really what it is, is it's teaching mathematics as a language. And it's like this red room, right? So like if you were teaching a child the color red, you're going to show them a lot of red things and they're going to have to infer that what you're speaking about is the color red.
But with mathematics, it's a little bit more abstract because you can't see it, right? When you do the addition piece, you're talking about that idea of more, right? Give me five, give me four more things and the quantities, right? So like the same idea is you have to show them four of the same thing, right? And they have to infer that the four is referring to the quantity. Right on.
And so this kind of shift gets them to understand what's happening rather than just repeat the calculations over and over and over again until they get it.
That's awesome. You just saying that kind of gave me the realization. Numbers are the constant. You just saying that story, I can kind of see the thought bubbles and my thought bubble kicking in. A one and a two will always look like a one or a two. But when you start turning these ones and twos into actual stories...
Now my version of that math is completely different from your version of that math because now we've turned it into a story, but the science is still the source.
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Chapter 8: How can parents and educators learn more about Elephant Learning?
It's quite interesting. Yeah, like how do you approach folks on the interwebs? How do you get folks to sign up? Are you telling stories? Are you doing math music videos? I actually have a former mentor and client that has turned math and turned them into music videos and it's for kids and it's a new way of teaching where it's through music. You're doing it through storytelling.
Gosh, how do you approach this now through social media? Are you sitting in front of a camera telling stories that equates to math? What's your approach?
So the system is occurring through puzzle game. What we did was we took the activities that the researchers already found to be most effective at teaching mathematics conceptually, and then we combined it with algorithms that are able to quickly determine what does a student understand and not understand, and then adjust the system to their level of understanding.
So it's a very personalized experience. But everything happens through the puzzle games. So it feels kind of like an Angry Birds, but for mathematics. Right on. And then, but basically they solve the puzzle. In solving the puzzle, they're exhibiting the idea. And then we're trying to label it right afterwards. So like, give me five things. Give me four more things. Right on.
How many do I have now? They get it right. They say five plus four equals nine. And that's the whole idea is can you connect that idea, that activity, with the written mathematics that you're seeing in the classroom?
That's amazing. How do you talk to folks that are using games like Roblox or even Fortnite where they're essentially creating universes Is there a form of that? Is that form of storytelling? What would you say? Where it's far more visual and they're grabbing those four blocks and then moving them here and creating nine. But out of those nine blocks, they created a house.
Like, is there, is that, does that kind of, is that sort of the same ballpark with what you, what you do, what you do?
Well, so like our system was designed mainly to be effective. So the way that we're approaching it is that we've got a guarantee that students will learn at least one year of math using our system 30 minutes a day after three months. Not sorry, not 30 minutes a day, 30 minutes per week. So it's 10 minutes per day, three days per week.
After 10 weeks, what we measure is about a year and a half of gain.
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