Our mission is to cultivate students’ appreciation of mathematics by fostering intellectual curiosity and problem solving skills. We tailor our teaching to small groups of students, in order to provide individualized attention, encourage civil and productive discussion, and create a welcoming environment for exploring big mathematical concepts.
We believe that:
Spatial reasoning, and specifically the ability to mentally transform shapes, is a strong predictor of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees and careers. We encourage students to develop their spatial reasoning skills through guided play and hands-on assignments with construction sets. Our program includes puzzles, geometric games and building sets aimed at improving both two-dimensional and three-dimensional thinking.
Students’ exposure to complex, non-linear logic problems is key to developing critical thinking skills and increasing their interest in mathematics. Students find intrinsic pleasure in solving puzzles, which motivates them to think creatively. The love of imaginative problem solving we instill in our students leads many of them to great success in national and international math competitions.
The Socratic method (learning via collaborative exploration of questions and productive debate, as opposed to lecture) is a powerful teaching method for fostering independent thought. Our teachers facilitate meaningful discussions in small groups (averaging five students). Students learn better when they participate in discovering the answer, rather than hearing the solution from the teacher.
About founders
Larisa Itina
Founder and Educational Director of the Studio. Mrs. Itina has over 30 years in experience of teaching mathematics to children of different ages – from kindergarten to high school. She has developed and perfected the unique methodology used in our studio. In Russia her elementary school textbooks were endorsed by the Ministry of education and are still in use in many schools across the country. The textbooks were awarded the prize for “Best Mathematics Textbooks for the Elementary Schools of the New Generation”. These textbook are currently in use in many elementary schools across Russia. In 2013, Ms Itina’s books were translated into Norwegian, and are now being tested in Norway. Ms Itina holds an M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics.
Katherine Maslova
Co-Founder and Managing Director, holds an M.S. in Mathematics from Moscow State University (Russia) and an M.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University (Boston). Mrs. Maslova has over 20 years of experience in academia and industry. Her teaching experience includes several years of teaching mathematics in elementary school and in the high school with advanced mathematics and science programs in Moscow. Mrs. Maslova has also taught for several years undergraduate and graduate computer science courses in Northeastern University in Boston.
