Pizza is important in Darin DeNeal’s seventh-grade math class at Pendleton Heights Middle School. Not so much for eating, but because it’s a practical way to engage 13-year-old minds about how the science of numbers affects their daily lives. The lesson might typically begin with this question: Is a 16-inch pizza twice as large as an 8-inch pizza, or four times larger? Many adults reading this might say it’s twice as large because 8 + 8 = 16. Right? But students in DeNeal’s class would be able to tell you why that answer is wrong. One 16-inch pizza has roughly the same area as four 8-inch pizzas. Why? Because a pizza is a circle, and the area of a circle increases with the square of the radius
Something as easy as a pizza could be a useful manipulative when teaching students mathematics.
Applying these math skills to real-world situations are just several reasons DeNeal was named the secondary school winner of the Max Beigh Enriching Education Award conferred on top Madison County educators by the Anderson Noon Exchange Club earlier this month. While it isn’t always possible to use examples like the cost of pizza as a math teaching aid, “I try to make it as fun as I can,” DeNeal, 34, said in an interview last week. Many students arrive in class at the beginning of the year dreading the math challenges that lie ahead. The first nine weeks of class I’m really a salesman,” DeNeal said. “There is a lot of critical thinking and that’s not easy for them.”
The first nine weeks of class I’m really a salesman,” DeNeal said. “There is a lot of critical thinking and that’s not easy for them.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Key takeaways
- Using a pizza slice to teach math.
- How to apply math to real world situations.
- Innovative teaching idea to engage kids in math.
Take the dyscalculia test
Is your child struggling in school?
Get your free personalized learning roadmap
You describe what you see at home. We turn it into a plan you start this week.
- Answer 5 short questionnaires about what you already notice, 30–45 minutes at your own kitchen table
- Your child sits no test and gets no score: nothing to schedule, nothing for them to dread
- You do the answering, the AI does the writing, and a person reviews it before it reaches you
- Access all 40+ courses instantly: reading, math, focus, processing and more, with new ones added regularly
Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits. We work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. The roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.
Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.
A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
