Summary

This spring, hundreds of students at Sheridan Academy of New York City Public Schools jumped feet first into math with Unruly Splats, an K-8 active learning platform that combines learning with movement and purposeful play.

About the Customer

Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders is an elementary school in District 9 (Bronx, NY) of New York City Public Schools, serving grades PK through five. They are one of thirteen schools within NYCPS using Unruly Splats to bring active learning to math, STEM, and other classrooms throughout the school day.

The Challenge

Research has shown that inequalities in math achievement can begin as early as when students start school. These early inequalities can impact future success in math and STEM areas. This presents elementary schools with the important task of finding equitable resources that improve student outcomes and foster positive math and STEM identities. Sheridan Academy Principal, Lisette Febus, was in search of an equitable resource to help students build stronger math foundations in a way that was both engaging and impactful. After hearing about how LEAD 359 Academy in the Bronx was flipping math on its head with Unruly Splats, Principal Febus knew this was the tool for her school.

The Solution

This March, all kindergarten through fifth grade teachers at Sheridan Academy attended an Unruly Splats professional development session and were quickly off to the races. Their willingness to try a more playful approach to math learning and create memorable math experiences for their students helped students accumulate over 10,000 stomps on Splats. That’s 10,000 moments of active learning in math for students.

Laura Silberman, a fourth grade teacher, says that Unruly Splats has been a gamechanger for student engagement with math, with students “asking to use Unruly Math every single day.”While playing any of the standards-aligned Unruly games, students “are actively involved and consistently excited for their turn. The combination of movement and competition captures their attention and keeps them focused throughout the activity.”

Math teacher Michelle Tumminello has been using Unruly Splats to help build student confidence with fractions. For her, Unruly Splats is “hands-on and interactive. It allows students to get up and move around,” all while playing with their classmates, which has greatly incentivized her students to show up to school on time.

Looking ahead to next year, Laura Silberman plans to integrate Unruly Splats more by aligning different games with their math pacing calendar, so they can be used in both small group and whole group instruction. For Michelle, her class will continue to use Splats for fun Fridays after instruction and in small group activities.

Helping elementary students build strong math foundations and feel confident with math is no small task. At Sheridan Academy, it’s the dedication of teachers like Laura and Michelle and the leadership of Principal Febus that make this possible. Their commitment to equity, innovation, and joyful learning is what truly powers student success.

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