(playful music) (electronic gadgets clinking) - [Children] Math Mights! - Welcome 3rd grade Math Mights. I'm so excited you joined us today. My name is Ms. Askew and I can't wait to have fun learning ...

(bright music) - [Children] Math Mights. - Welcome, third grade Math Mights. I'm so excited you joined us today. My name is Ms. Askew, and I can't wait to have fun learning about math with you today.

This summer, battle lines were drawn over a simple math problem: 8 ÷ 2(2 + 2) = ? If you divide 8 by 2 first, you get 16, but if you multiply 2 by (2 + 2) first, you get 1. So, which answer is right?

A key part—though surely not the only part—of early-grades math is ensuring students get the basic arithmetic functions down and, beyond that, making sure they’re able to swiftly and automatically ...