Newsletters

As summer comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a season filled with creativity, curiosity, and community where educators, guests, parents and students were immersed in Math Walks across the city of Dallas. Students participated in hands-on walk stops using the MathFinder app, which brought learning to life.

Events

NSF STEM Day on May 10, 2025: Immersive MathFinder Experiences Across Dallas

In honor of the 75th anniversary of the National Science Foundation, this past May, our MathFinder team, talkSTEM and four incredible partner sites came together to create a city-wide celebration of math in everyday life. From animals to art, aircrafts to arboretums, families across Dallas embarked on memorable, immersive learning journeys—discovering how math is intricately woven into the world around us.

On May 10th, we welcomed guests of all ages to explore the Dallas Arboretum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Zoo, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum. Each location became a hands-on classroom, where visitors were invited to see their surroundings through a math lens—making surprising connections between math and nature, art, engineering, and design.

What Made It Special?

Our interactive talkSTEM scavenger hunt across partner sites was a highlight for guests of all ages, turning familiar spaces into exciting realms of discovery. Whether exploring the sites, participants engaged in hands-on learning that brought math to life in meaningful ways. From identifying patterns in nature and analyzing symmetry in art to uncovering mathematical principles in animal habitats and aircraft design, the scavenger hunt encouraged curiosity, observation, and critical thinking. Guests walked away with a deeper understanding of how math connects to the world around them, and many shared that the experience changed how they see everyday spaces—proof that learning is most powerful when it’s fun, interactive, and rooted in real-world wonder.

Guests also joined a 90-minute guided exploration using the MathFinder app, transforming an ordinary visit into an interactive learning adventure. Highlights included:

• Math-Based Storytelling App—Real-world phenomena were brought to life through engaging narratives and relatable contexts.
• Interactive Exploration Prompts—Thought-provoking questions inspired original thinking and inquiry, encouraging learners to become discoverers.
• Family-Friendly Guidance—Our team’s support sparked rich conversations, deeper understanding and joyful learning moments for guests

Discovering the Unexpected: Becoming a MathFinder

With a sense of wonder, guests transformed into MathFinders—uncovering the surprising ways math exists all around us. With the help of the MathFinder app, each visitor received a personalized “math lens” that revealed how mathematical thinking can be found in everything from elephants to artwork, and trees to aircrafts.

Whether observing the symmetry of flower petals or exploring the geometry behind aircraft design, participants left with fresh perspectives and meaningful connections to the world around them. It wasn’t just about learning math—it was about seeing the world through the lens of math.

Keep Exploring!

Stay tuned for more MathFinder adventures—and don’t forget to share your experience with us on social media by tagging @talkingSTEM (Instagram/X) and @talkSTEM (facebook/linkedin).

Thank You to Our Incredible Partners

We’re deeply grateful to our partner sites—the Dallas Arboretum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Zoo, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum—for their collaboration and enthusiasm. Their support helped us blend math, joy, and community into an unforgettable experience.

Research Camps

We’re happy to say that our most recent Research Camps, held at the Twelve Hills Nature Center, Dallas Arboretum, Frontiers of Flight Museum, and The GEMS Camp at Southern Methodist University were tremendous successes. We were thrilled to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and attendees, especially the Mathfinder app, with its AR features, can help students connect mathematical ideas with their everyday environments.  Further, all our data helps us to continue to refine and improve the app as we near the end of our 5-year project.

Articles & Publications

• Milton, S. (under review). Rightful presence in community-embedded informal math walks. Book chapter invited to STEM Education and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Research, Practices, and Critical Reflections. IGI Global.
• Petrosino, A., Sherard, M., Sager, M., Washington, J., Milton, S., & Walkington, C. (under review). Bridging Boundaries: Insights from a Multi-Site Research Practice Partnership for Informal Math Education. Journal of Mathematical Behavior. (current decision is Revise & Resubmit)
• Sherard, M., & Walkington, C. (under review). Examining How Youth Understand and Relate Mathematics and Nature during Math Walks. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. (current decision is Reject with option to Resubmit)
• Milton, S., Sager, M.T., Sherard, M.K., Walkington, C., & Petrosino, A.J. (accepted). Students’ Attitudes towards Mathematics during Math Walks. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education.
• Sager, M., Milton, S., & Walkington, C. (2025). Girls Leading the Conversation: Harnessing the Potential of Podcasting for Informal and Project-Based Learning. Discover Education, 4(18). [link]
• Dhingra, K., Walkington, C., Darwin, T., & Govan, T. (2025). Math Walks as a Vehicle for Educators and Students to See Math around them. In Sun, L., Cheng-Yao, L (Eds.), Cases on Informal Learning for Science and Mathematics Education (pp. 171-204). IGI Global Publications. DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-1894-2.ch007
• Milton, S, Sager, M., & Walkington, C. (2025, July). Incorporating Critical Data Literacy into a STEM Summer Camp. To appear in Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2025. Helsinki, Finland: International Society of the Learning Sciences. [link]
• Sayed, J., Milton, S., Sager, M., & Walkington, C. (2024, November 7-10). It is art: Teacher scaffolding and student problem posing during math walks at an art museum. In Kosko, K. W., Caniglia, J., Courtney, S. A., Zolfaghari, M., & Morris, G. A., (Eds.). Proceedings of the forty-sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 2065-2074). Kent State University.
• Sager, M., Milton, S., & Walkington, C. (February, 2025). A STEM Summer Camp Approach to Data Science Education. Data Science Education K-12 Annual Conference. San Antonio, TX.
• Sayed, J. (2025). Developing Mathematical Thinking: The Student Experience of an Augmented Reality Math App. Presentation at the 2025 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. San Antonio, TX.
• Sayed, J., & Ringstaff, C. (2024, October 21-26). Fostering the voices of all stakeholders: A qualitative evaluation of the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogy in a community-based informal learning site through the student experience. [Conference Presentation]. American Evaluation Association 2024 Conference, Portland, OR, United States.
• Empowering Educators and Engaging Students with new talkSTEM Educator Dashboard!
• talkSTEM x Math Circle Network: A Collaborative Opportunity We are Grateful For
• Using talkSTEM Videos for Learning Standards-Aligned Science in Texas
• Immersive MathFinder Experiences across Dallas on Saturday, May 10
• The Mathfinder Podcast series is available on our Mathfinder website and also on Spotify, Apple, and Google podcasts. This year we shot an additional podcast episode in which members from the app design team share about their process: Watch Now
• We developed new 5-minute and 2-minute versions of a trailer for Mathfinder, highlighting the features of the app, the design rationale, and research results. The trailer includes testimonials from both students and informal educators.
• Girls leading the conversation: harnessing the potential of podcasting for informal and project-based learning
  • Discover Education – This study aimed to explore the implementation of project-based learning (PBL) principles in informal STEM education, focusing on the experiences of Underrepresented Racially
• Virtual STEM Fair, organized by Savvas Learning, October 2024. This social media promotion was developed by talkSTEM for our presentation on STEM walks.
• walkSTEM experience as a special event organized by Savvas Learning in collaboration with talkSTEM at the NSTA Conference in New Orleans, November, 2024. During this STEM walk, we wrote scripts and produced audio files for each of the walk stops that participants used as they toured. Here are the audio files for the walk stops.
• Webinar presented by Dr Koshi Dhingra to Math Circles Network nationally by talkSTEM, Spring 2025. Recording is available here.
• Webinar presented by Dr Koshi Dhingra in collaboration with Savvas Learning and Edweb on August 12, 2025. View info and watch the recording.

In addition to the above, we’re happy to announce that talkSTEM is a contributor to two different learning programs produced by the Savvas Learning textbook publishing company.

1. K-8 Experience Science
2. K-12 Envision+ Math (Savvas Learning)

As a result, walkSTEM methodology and content is being disseminated to students and teachers across Texas and across the country through these textbooks. To learn more about how math walks are integrated in Envision+ Mathematics textbooks, read this article: Bring Real-World Math to Life with Place-Based Learning

We invite you to partner with talkSTEM to create new math walk stops that can be added to the MathFinder experience at your site. Reach out to koshi@talkstem.org if you’d like support through that process. We have been working within our team as well as with educators on using Generative AI to assist in the development of Math and STEM walk stops. You can read about our progress and access free resources in these two recent blog posts:

Resources

Please click here to check out the MathFinder website! Click here to sign-up to receive occasional emails regarding Mathfinder news and updates! Also sign up on talkSTEM.org to join the community.  Finally, there is an opportunity for all interested to apply to be a talkSTEM Ambassador – open to students, educators and others ages 14 and up.  For more info and to access the application form, read this short article describing this opportunity and feel free to share.  Deadline for applications is September 15.

Spread the Word

We are grateful for your continued support and would appreciate your help sharing MathFinder with the larger community! Please forward this newsletter to anyone in your network who may be interested in receiving our updates. They can also join our mailing list here.

Guest blog

Are you interested in writing a guest blog post for our future newsletters? If so, we would love to hear from you! We are open to a wide range of possible topics that you could write about. Examples include different MathFinder activities at your site, learning math in general at your site, your perspective on learning, etc.! Please reach out to koshi@talkstem.org to share your ideas.

Guest blog submission guidelines:

• Word count should be approximately 250-500 words
• Videos and photos are encouraged
• Cite any quotes, data, images, or third-party content used