On a weekday night, 8-year-old Soleha Yuldash is in pajamas on her couch playing a game on her laptop. It has colorful characters and bright sound effects. But, if you look closer, it’s not a typical video game — it’s math!
“This is where you get your homework,” she explains, showing off her math game platform “Beast Academy.” “So, if you want to play, let’s say the 2×2 area model, you just hit play.”
The Naperville 4th grader — who skipped Kindergarten — is part of “National Math Stars.” It’s a program aiming to identify and support the nation’s top young math minds that just welcomed its first cohort of Illinois students — like Soleha — this year…