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Mathematics

The African Mathematical Genius curriculum series was created by Ms. LaMailede “Assata” Moore — mathematician, physicist, and master teacher with over twenty years of transforming students who once dreaded math into young people who love it. This series takes children all the way from number recognition in pre-kindergarten to an introduction to engineering and physics concepts by the end of elementary school. Every concept is taught alongside its reciprocal operation — addition with subtraction, multiplication with division — so students develop genuine number sense rather than isolated procedures. The emphasis throughout is on application: math is connected to the physical world, to African heritage, and to real problems worth solving. Under Mama Assata’s instruction at Sankofa Shule, 7th graders surpassed both the Lansing School District and Michigan state averages on standardized assessments. Her students were ready for trigonometry by 5th grade and calculus by 9th — and were the only elementary students ever invited to Physics Day at Cedar Point. They won regional bridge-building and web design competitions as early as 1998. This curriculum is the foundation that made all of that possible.