Lead author, Dr. Ron Larson reflects on his authoring journey: "From the beginning, my purpose for California Math & YOU K-12 was to bring the California Mathematics Framework to life and help students see how math connects to the world around them. We incorporated Environmental Principles and Concepts, along with meaningful and real-world data, throughout each grade level. To support teachers, we also included insights from California educators like Nick Lopez, who helped guide the development of the Teacher Experience.”
The program’s features are built to support ALL learners and give teachers the tools and instructional strategies they need to guide student growth.
Students begin every chapter of California Math & YOU by exploring a Big Idea, an activity designed to help students connect key mathematical concepts to real-world applications and interdisciplinary topics. Connecting Big Ideas tasks are also featured, in which students apply the big ideas over multiple chapters to explore and solve engaging tasks in authentic contexts. Each lesson of California Math & YOU starts with an Investigate activity that puts students at the center of a mathematical task, encouraging them to work collaboratively, ask questions, make conjectures, and make discoveries, all while building their conceptual understanding.
Authentic applications and real-life data are embedded in the Connect to Real Life and Connect to Data tasks in each lesson. Each chapter also includes a Career feature that helps students see how math applies in different fields. Students wrap up with a Performance Task tied to that career, giving them a chance to apply their learning and higher order thinking in a meaningful way.
Dr. Courtney Nagle, Vice President of Teaching and Research at Big Ideas Learning, describes what makes the teaching experience of California Math & YOU stand out:
“The teaching experience provides support to empower California educators to facilitate meaningful, collaborative discourse to build a shared understanding of mathematics. Talk About It, Math Talks, and Data Talks are found in the Teaching Edition and provide prompts to encourage students to explain and justify their reasoning and share their thinking with their classmates.”
In addition, each lesson includes a Supporting Mathematical Practices: Lesson Facilitation Guide, which highlights opportunities for teachers to engage students in one or more SMPs using detailed prompts aligned with the practices.
Matt Totzke, CEO of Big Ideas Learning, adds: “Together, the Student and Teaching Experience offered in California Math & YOU K-12 provides a cohesive and high-quality learning environment that supports students’ deep and connected understanding of the big ideas of mathematics. We have taken further steps as an organization to promote conceptual understanding and carve our own path.”
Together with National Geographic Learning, Big Ideas Learning submitted California Math & YOU for state review in the 2025 California Mathematics Instructional Materials Adoption in March 2025.
About Big Ideas Learning
Big Ideas Learning, founded in 2008 by Dr. Ron Larson—an award-winning and influential math textbook author—has been at the forefront of educational publishing. With over 35 million copies of Larson’s titles sold in the U.S., his impact on math education is profound. Building on Dr. Larson’s legacy, which began with his first edition of Calculus in 1978, Big Ideas Learning publishes rigorous, relevant, and conceptually rich K-Higher Ed mathematics programs. Our vision is to shape a future where education transcends boundaries, curiosity is nurtured, and individuals are inspired to dig deeper.
Big Ideas Learning is the exclusive mathematics partner of National Geographic Learning | Cengage, giving us access to their outstanding expertise, resources, and global distribution network.
With the strengths of our two companies combined, we can offer a complete solution for mathematics: elementary, middle school, high school, and college-level courses, including advanced, honors, and electives.