Early in my career as a mathematics teacher, I assigned my students an end-of-year geometry project.
Their task was to take photos of the world around them that captured the geometry concepts they had studied. Each student then explained the concept represented in their photo. For an extra challenge, I suggested students capture one photo with as many geometric concepts as possible in that single photo.
Although I would handle that project differently now, I remember how many students said, “I didn’t realize that geometry was everywhere!” At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now, twenty years later, I often reflect on that project. Through this simple assignment, my students started to see the beauty in mathematics and began viewing it as connected to their lives, not just a subject in school.
This is what I want for all students. I want them to see mathematics as a beautiful, integral part of the real world. Too often, my high school students would ask, “When are we ever going to use this?” — a question I frequently struggled to answer meaningfully.
Looking back, I wonder if the question they were really asking was: “Where does this mathematics exist, why does it matter, and why should I care?”
This example is one of the (many) reasons I was drawn to Curriculum Storyboards. Storyboards provide a framework that helps me reflect on the big picture without feeling overwhelmed.
With a Curriculum Storyboard, I can map out units in a way that makes connections clear from the start. For instance, I can show how geometry skills connect to real-world contexts, like architecture, nature, or design.
Through this intentional design, storyboards allow us to create a curriculum that doesn’t just teach isolated skills but instead connects them, helping students see the purpose behind each concept. Curriculum storyboards give the teacher — and their students — a clearer path to answer those questions for ourselves:
Where does this mathematics exist, why does it matter, and why should I care?