When it comes to school subjects, we're sure you mums and dads out there can agree that math is one of the most challenging, and one person who is on a mission to put the fun back in math for young kids and teens is actress, author and mathematician Danica McKellar.
Danica first shot to fame playing the role of Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years and went on to study mathematics in college, later publishing a bestselling series of math books aimed at injecting fun into a much-loathed subject.
Now, following the success of her book series, the mother-of-one is back on our screens in a brand new role, in Netflix's latest tween show, Project Mc². The show tells the story of four super-smart and capable girls who are recruited to join top-secret spy organisation NOV8, and it incorporates science and math in a fun way.
Danica's belief is that smart is cool, and she wants to empower girls to embrace their smarts, even when school can get a little tough. In an interview with MummyPages, she shared her tips for getting little girls excited about math.
 
1. Make it relatable
Removing the traditional stereotypes in math problems and making them relatable is half the fight, according to Danica. “My mission...is to help make sure that they understand that they do belong, that math is for them,” she explains, and she urges parents and teachers to take an innovative approach when it comes to teaching the subject.
Rather than using the same old examples of dinosaurs and football teams in problems, Danica suggests that using “fun and silly things that girls are thinking about” will make all the difference when it comes to getting them interested in the subject. Pizza, puppies and shopping are among the examples in one of her bestselling titles, Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.
 
2. Instil confidence in the home
Danica firmly believes that society has perpetuated the idea that math and science are not 'girly' subjects, and the only way to help them to overcome this is to boost their confidence and self-belief in their own abilities. This is something that Project Mc² is also going a long way towards changing.
“The only way to get them over that hurdle is to slow them into it and have them tackle problems that they think they can't do, and then overcome that fear and succeed. Then they have learned, slowly but surely, that they are stronger and smarter than they thought they were,” says the mother-of-one.
 
3. Make it fun
The titles of Danica's math books alone show that taking a fun approach goes a long way towards helping girls get interested in math. This can be done by using something as simple as rhymes or songs for teaching theorems, as Danica proved with a very clever trick.
Referencing her work, she recalls: “I told them that I wanted to do something with pi, and they added this line where I recite 50 digits of pi...I actually wrote a pi song...It's called 'Dance of the Sugar Pi Fairy' and it's very girly and very math-y...And again, it’s one of my ways of telling girls, yes, you can be girly and be really good at math.”
 
 
 
4. Break the ‘girly’ stereotype
According to Danica, one of the greatest things standing against girls when it comes to math is society's stereotype that they can't be girly and a brainbox, and this is a message that Project Mc² is sending out to its young viewers, too.
“From the earliest of ages, girls are led to believe that their greatest value comes from their appearance and not from their brains,” explains Danica, recalling how she herself struggled with math until finally meeting a teacher who made the subject relatable.
By breaking the 'girly' stereotype and teaching our daughters that they can be 'girly girls' while also being smart, Danica says that we are opening the doors for them to embrace their smarts and get excited and enthusiastic about maths.
 
5. If at first they don't succeed, try and try again
Consistency is key, and Danica believes that one of the main reasons why girls lose their enthusiasm about math is because they aren't encouraged to keep going when they hit a hurdle – which is why encouraging them to persevere is so important.
“I can’t tell you how many women tell me 'Oh, there was some point where I was good at math, but then I had this teacher, or then then there was this one class, and I never really got it after that,'” explains Danica. “They don't give themselves another chance, because they feel that that is revealing the truth instead of just hitting a stumbling block, which they could overcome.” The solution? Encourage them to keep going, even when it looks impossible.
 
Project Mc² is now available to stream on Netflix.

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