FAQs

Why Martians?

Well, Martians are fun for kids, and since they are an imaginary species, there is no danger of exclusion, offense, or triggering based on race, creed, or identity. Also, our calculations are different from what most earthlings use. The first time someone witnesses your student mentally calculating the square root of 1764, they will think he or she must be from Mars. 

Who created Martian Mathematics and why?

That would be me, Dr. David Ward. I created Martian Mathematics for my children. I am a physicist by training, with degrees from the College of Charleston, MIT, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. US math and science education is far from enviable, so it was an easy decision for my wife and me to homeschool our five children. I had found at least one excellent curriculum for spelling and grammar, but math and science curricula were lacking. Science is best postponed till a student is a bit older, but math should be learned early, as it forms the framework necessary for higher-level logic and reasoning. So I set out, with the guidance of masters like Euler and Gauss, to make a twenty-first-century math curriculum that would inspire and elevate young minds and ready them for the challenging topics they will have to grapple with later in their education, while avoiding the mindless busywork that imperils traditional math curricula and results in very little learning over a very large span of time.

What kind of student is Martian Mathematics best suited for?

One of the wonderful things about Martian Mathematics is that it is suited for both gifted and challenged students regardless of their learning style. It is multi-sensory, which is ideal for young developing minds according to neuroscience. The logical and systematic framework brings much needed order to unwieldy mathematical obscurities as well as imposes a sense of calm during difficult problems. Martian mathematics is pattern-based, and since the human mind is essentially a pattern recognition engine, the techniques learned here will seem quite natural.

Does Martian Mathematics use Common Core?

In short, no, but each chapter lists common core requirements met in the chapter. You may encounter here some of the techniques you would normally see in a common core curriculum, but only when it is useful to do so, which is not that often.

Are there online games or an app to download?

Not at this time. We may employ apps and online games in higher-level courses. At the time of this writing, only Level 1 is complete and ready for purchase.

I don’t feel comfortable teaching math, do you offer video lectures?

We will soon. That is in development. In the meantime, this teacher’s guide is fully scripted, so you can just read it aloud to your students. The guide is also filled with FYI sidebars at appropriate locations to help you address questions that may come up. I also plan on releasing a Math Boot Camp for Martian Mathematics Teachers in the near future, so check our website or subscribe to our newsletter (see bottom of this page) to be kept abreast of that.

How many Levels are there?

As of now, we are planning on five levels, which you can think of as grades 1-5. After that, your students should be more than ready for high school-level Euclidean geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus.

What are the prerequisites?

Ideally, your students should be able to count up to ten—twenty would be even better—and recognize the symbols for those numbers. If they can’t, then spending two weeks instead of one on lesson 1 should be sufficient to meet the prerequisites.