• SAI is a week-long, half-day enrichment program for average or gifted, grades 3-8, tailored to age and gender, where kids learn how to be successful in math while having fun.
• SAI’s objective is to make math sensible and fun, by using hands-on activities, games, music (for students entering grades 3&4), and substantive algebra to turn kids on to math. Since SAI's first session in 1995, some 2,500 kids have completed our program and have come to Minnesota from all over the Twin Cities metro area and outstate Minnesota and from as far away as Seattle, Kansas City, Amarillo, Houston, New Hampshire, and even Taiwan (!).
• Because of how we teach, SAI is like a rising tide that lifts all boats - kids who love math benefit from this exposure to algebra, and kids who struggle with math enrich their understanding of math as well. The only prerequisites for this course are the ability to count to 9 and the ability to make rectangles out of small squares.
• SAI uses algebra for two purposes: to look forward in planting an enduring grasp of several foundational concepts of a typical Algebra 1 course, and to look back in connecting algebra with the arithmetic that students already know (especially basic facts and place value).
• Parent and student comments about SAI:
•• "My daughter raved about this program at a time in her life when she doesn't comment much. Keep up the good work!"
•• "Great experience for my son - he loved it."
•• "My daughter loved the algebra and has shown so much improvement in place value and fractions as well - thanks so much."
•• “I took SAI just before 8th grade. So in 9th grade, I knew variables and powers, while my classmates were still trying to figure out what ‘x’ was.”