When to Lead with PRISM

Lead with PRISM when the buyer is elementary (grades 3–5) and the conversation is about any of these: engagement, enrichment, STEM content, hands-on application, or area/perimeter/multiplication standards. This is the flagship — the product with the most classroom photos, the strongest narrative hook (pet supply store), and the simplest explanation. If you're not sure what to show an elementary buyer, show PRISM.

PRISM is also the best product for the "we already do hands-on math" conversation, because the 10-session arc makes the distinction between a manipulative activity and an extended project immediately clear. No manipulative kit gives you seven teams building seven departments of the same store over two weeks.

When NOT to lead with PRISM: If the buyer specifically needs fractions content (lead with Mega Mini Games) or coordinate geometry / upper-elementary STEM (lead with Finding P.I.P.E.R.). If the buyer is grades 6+, lead with Balance Lab + Slope Lab. PRISM can still be mentioned for 4th-grade review contexts, but it shouldn't be the lead for secondary.

The 30-Second Pitch

Students work in teams to design and build departments of a pet supply store. Over 10 sessions, they tile areas with paper squares to learn unit measurement, calculate material costs, determine pricing, build an aquarium castle with wood blocks, and present their finished department. Seven teams, seven departments, one store — area, perimeter, and multiplication applied through a project that feels like creative problem-solving. The teaching portal runs every session with slides, timing, and video walkthroughs from Howie Templer, so any teacher can facilitate confidently. It's supplemental — built for enrichment time, STEM blocks, or flex days. The math is the same math they'd be learning anyway.

What to Show in a Meeting Rep Only

If you have 60 seconds

Open the Explore page and scroll to the classroom gallery. Three or four photos of kids building, measuring, and presenting do more than any pitch. Have the page open before the meeting starts so you can screen-share immediately.

If you have 5 minutes

Open the Explore page and scroll through the session arc. Pause on Session 1 (the hook — students get the pet store scenario and start planning), Session 5 or 6 (the build — teams are tiling areas, calculating costs, designing their departments), and Session 10 (the presentation — teams present their departments and the class assembles the full store). That three-point arc shows setup → serious math → payoff.

If you have 15 minutes

Walk through the teaching portal live. Open the Session 1 slides and advance through 3–4 slides so they see the structure: the timer, Howie's video walkthrough, the student activity. Then jump to a mid-project session (5 or 6) and show how the math deepens — students aren't just measuring anymore, they're calculating material costs and checking whether their layout fits the allocated space. End with the standards alignment document. The sequence tells the story: structured, rigorous, practical, fun.

If you're meeting a teacher specifically

Show the teaching portal from their perspective. Click through 5–6 slides, demonstrate the timer, play one of Howie's video walkthroughs. The moment a teacher sees that the slides run the lesson and the videos show exactly what to do, the "will this work in my room?" question answers itself. Then show one classroom photo of students building — that combination of structured support and real activity is what closes the gap between interest and confidence.

Presentation Decks

Tailored slide decks for different audiences. Open in Google Slides, present directly or make a copy to customize.

For Teachers & Coaches Coming Soon

What it looks like in the classroom, teaching portal walkthrough, session arc.

For Principals Coming Soon

Walkthrough optics, pilot proposal, visible rigor and engagement.

For Coordinators Coming Soon

Standards alignment, supplement positioning, evaluation partnership, PD.

For District Leaders Coming Soon

ROI, funding pathways, pilot + evaluation, scalability.

PRISM-Specific Objections Rep Only

These are objections specific to this product. For universal objections (budget, time, evidence, digital), see the Scenarios page.

10 sessions is a lot of time for area and perimeter

It is — and that's the point. A worksheet covers area in 15 minutes and moves on. PRISM gives students 10 sessions to use area and perimeter in a context complex enough to require real mathematical thinking — tiling departments with paper squares to understand unit area, calculating material costs with multi-digit multiplication, figuring out whether their design fits the allocated space. The extended timeline is what makes the difference between touching a standard and actually understanding it. And the time comes from enrichment or STEM blocks, not from the core math period.

The materials are consumable — that's an ongoing cost

Yes — PRISM is fully consumable. Students take their work home at the end: the store departments they built, the planning sheets, the posters, all of it. That's by design. The physical artifacts are part of what makes the experience memorable, and parents see what their kids built. It means you repurchase the kit each time you run it. At $595 for the 4-Team Kit serving 16 students, that's about $37 per student for 15–20 hours of instruction — comparable to a consumable workbook, except students get a multi-week collaborative design project instead of worksheets.

A pet supply store? That seems young for 4th/5th graders

The pet store is the narrative — it creates coherence across sessions and gives the math consequences. But the math is not young. Students are calculating multi-digit multiplication for material costs, working with area models, managing a budget with constraints, and presenting quantitative arguments to their classmates. The project scales with the students — a 3rd-grade team and a 5th-grade team building the same department will approach the math at very different levels of sophistication. The context is accessible; the math is as rigorous as you want it to be.

We already use a project-based program

Great question: what does the project structure look like? Most PBL programs are teacher-designed frameworks — the teacher creates the project, manages the materials, engineers the mathematical content. PRISM is fully designed and fully structured: every session has slides, timing, video walkthroughs, and specific mathematical goals. The teacher doesn't design the project — they facilitate it. That distinction matters for schools that want the PBL experience without requiring every teacher to be a PBL expert.

Can I use this for intervention or remediation?

PRISM is best framed as application, not remediation — students apply area, perimeter, and multiplication concepts they're learning in their core curriculum. That said, the hands-on, collaborative format often reaches students who struggle with traditional instruction. The physical materials and team-based structure give students multiple entry points into the math. We've heard from teachers that students who disengage from worksheets participate actively during PRISM sessions. But position it as enrichment and application, not as a fix for students who are behind — that framing is both more accurate and more appealing to buyers.

What's in the Kit

Ships in one or two boxes depending on kit size. Everything sorted and labeled by session — pull the bag, open, distribute. All materials are consumable: students take their finished work home at the end of the project. Repurchase the full kit each time you run the lab.

Student Materials

Colored 1″ tiles (500–3,500 depending on kit)

Custom Petville maps (11×17)

Wood cubes in two sizes (½″ and ¾″)

Custom PRISM rulers

Department grid sheets and planning sheets

Parking lot grids

Construction paper, glue sticks, stickers

Dice, tongue depressors, chenille stems

MATHKINS™ stuffed dogs

Teaching & Organization

Quick-reference booklet for staff

QR code card for teaching portal access

Blueprint poster (24 × 36)

Bar graph poster

7 shelf posters (one per department)

3 decoder posters

Teamwork guidelines poster

Name cards and job cards for teams

Question booklets for each team

Standards by Session

PRISM: Grand Opening covers measurement, area, perimeter, and multiplication standards in your grades 3–5 scope. It supplements your core curriculum — students apply concepts they're already learning.

#	What Students Do	Standards
1	ID cards & floor plan — area by tiling; area as additive	3.MD.5, 3.MD.7
2	Choose a location — measure length; scaled bar graph	2.MD.A.1, 3.MD.B.3
3	Pet play zones — concrete models for area; products	3.OA.1, 3.MD.5
4	Parking lot — perimeter of polygon; models for area	3.MD.8, 3.MD.7
5	Order pet food — area models; multiplication; additive	3.MD.5, 3.MD.7
6	Display tables — combine objects in arrays	3.OA.A.3
7	Fish castles — add/subtract; multiplication models	3.MD.5–8
8	Signs — perimeter; area; add/subtract	3.MD.8, 3.NBT.2
9	The commercial — add/subtract; multiplication	3.NBT.2, 3.OA.7
10	Grand Opening — perimeter; area; multiplication	3.MD.5–8

PD Workshop Connection

How PD works with PRISM

In the half-day PD workshop, the facilitator uses a PRISM session — typically Session 5 or 6, where teams are physically building their departments — as the core activity. Teachers experience the session as learners first: they measure, build with blocks, calculate costs, argue about whether their layout works. Then they unpack the teaching moves with the facilitator: how to launch the session, when to let teams struggle, when to intervene, how to facilitate the whole-class debrief. They leave understanding both the math and the pedagogy, ready to run the lab Monday morning.

The sentence for the buyer: "We offer a half-day PD workshop where a nationally recognized math educator leads your teachers through a PRISM session — they do the activity themselves, then unpack the teaching moves. It's genuine professional development on structuring hands-on, collaborative learning. $3,995, up to 30 teachers, fundable through Title II-A as a separate line item from the kits."

Pair With

→

Mega Mini Games: Design Game X (Grade 4)

Natural next step after PRISM. Same collaborative format, different math focus — fractions. Schools doing PRISM in 3rd grade can add Design Game X in 4th to continue the hands-on project experience. The combination covers area/perimeter/multiplication AND fractions across two grade levels.

→

Games Library (Free)

Use as a lead-in to PRISM. Send a teacher 2–3 free print-and-play games, follow up in two weeks, ask how students responded. If the games land, propose PRISM as the full lab experience. The games demonstrate the collaborative, hands-on format with zero commitment.

→

The Full 3–8 Sequence

For district-level conversations: PRISM (grade 3) → Design Game X (grade 4) → The Next Big Game + Finding P.I.P.E.R. (grade 5) → Journey to Titan + Balance Lab (grade 6) → Slope Lab (grade 7+). One product per grade level, building from area through algebra. The sequence argument works best with curriculum coordinators and superintendents.

Pricing

Kit Size	Teams / Students	Price	Per Student
Starter Kit	2 departments · 4–8 students	$295	~$37
4-Team Kit Lead with this	4 departments · 12–16 students	$595	~$37
Grand Opening Kit	7 departments · up to 28 students	$995	~$36

All kits include paper tiles, rulers, grid maps, wood blocks (for aquarium castle), teacher guide, and teaching portal access. All materials are consumable — students take their finished work home. Repurchase the full kit each time you run the lab. Cost per student is for 15–20 hours of instruction.

Add PD: $3,995 for a half-day workshop, up to 30 teachers. Fundable through Title II-A (separate budget line from kits). See the Funding Guide for details.