Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to make math a fun part of kids’ everyday lives, as beloved as the bedtime story.
Bedtime Math offers a playful math problem daily for free, which engages both parents and kids while putting math on equal footing with literacy. In its first few months of existence, Bedtime Math increased its regular following from 30 families to well over 20,000, and garnered national press coverage.
Laura knows a little something about numbers. As a child, she sat and memorized perfect squares for fun, back before it was cool. She went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, and continues to star-gaze today.
In addition to her work with Bedtime Math, Laura currently serves as Chair of the Advisory Board for Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth (CTY) and as a trustee of Liberty Science Center, Drew University, and the Governor’s School of New Jersey.
When not playing with numbers, Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, wine, extreme gravity stunts, and Lego Mindstorms.
In this episode we discussed:
Differences between how teachers treat boys versus girls in the classroom The psychology of why students do well in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects The 'Bedtime Math' book series.Resources
Laura Overdeck, Bedtime Math (Feiwell and Friends, 2013)
Carol Dweck, Mindset (Ballantine Books, 2007)
