Math in a Box
San Francisco · a student-led project

Free, hands-on math kits for kids experiencing homelessness.

Laser-cut wooden puzzles, games, and an illustrated booklet, packed into a box a child keeps. Every kit is designed for shelter life: no internet, no tutor, no classroom, and no table needed.

Bring kits to your families See what's inside
MATH IN A BOX

Tower of Hanoi, staircases, and tangram pieces from the pilot kits

3,000+students identified as homeless in San Francisco public schools each year
7–12ages the kits are built for
12puzzles and games across two kits, built and bagged
100kits we aim to donate by the end of 2026
The idea

Math isn't just the worksheets you see in school.

It's also puzzles and games: a tower you rebuild one disk at a time, a tile that never repeats, a chocolate bar where the first player can always win. Math in a Box brings that kind of math, the kind found at math festivals and conferences, to children who can't get to those rooms.

Each box holds hands-on puzzles cut from birch plywood, a booklet that explains how to play and then the math behind it, and a few paper puzzles solved with a dry-erase marker. Nothing needs charging, and nothing needs a grown-up who already knows the answer. Kids keep the box, so a puzzle put down tonight can be picked up next month.

"This isn't a test, so you can take your time. Play around a bit before checking the explanations." — from the kit booklet

Designed for shelter life
No internet, no screensEvery activity works on paper and wood. A video is a bonus, never a requirement.
No table neededPieces are small enough for a bunk or a lap. Puzzle pages slide into a clear sleeve so the marker wipes clean.
Explains itselfEach card says how to play, then flips to why it works, so a curious kid can go as deep as they like without a tutor.
Theirs to keepKits are gifts, not loans. Families who move keep the box, and the next box builds on the last one.
What's inside

Two kits are built and ready. Six challenges each: four to build and play with, two to solve on paper.

Kit 1 · Puzzles & Games

Ready
  1. 1
    Tower of HanoiA base, 3 pegs, 6 disks. Fewest moves? 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63… do you see the pattern?
  2. 2
    Hat TilesOne shape that tiles the plane without ever repeating, found in 2022 after a 50-year hunt.
  3. 3
    ChompA 5 × 6 chocolate bar. The first player can always win, and nobody knows exactly how.
  4. 4
    StaircasesTwo staircase pieces snap into a 10 × 11 rectangle. That's why 1 + 2 + … + 10 = 55.
  5. 5
    KenKenFive puzzles with a dry-erase marker. Sudoku, but more mathy.
  6. 6
    RectanglesFive area puzzles adapted from the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival.
Theme: recursion and proofs without words.

Kit 2 · Shapes & Sequences

Ready
  1. 1
    The Area of a Circle24 wedges that rearrange into something surprisingly close to a rectangle.
  2. 2
    Fibonacci SquaresEight squares with arcs that spiral together.
  3. 3
    Spectre TilesThe hat's cousin: an aperiodic tile that needs no mirror images.
  4. 4
    TangramsSeven pieces, five silhouettes from easy to hard, every one with a guaranteed solution.
  5. 5
    GerrymanderingDraw districts so the minority color wins. A JRMF puzzle about how elections work.
  6. 6
    Yin YangLogic grids with exactly one solution each, checked by computer.
Theme: tiling, area, and sequences. Revised from what kids told us about Kit 1.
Laser-cut pieces3 mm birch plywood, cut and engraved at Sequoia Fabrica in Potrero Hill. Each puzzle is bagged and numbered.
An illustrated bookletHow to play, the math behind it, and solutions at the back. Written to be read by a kid without a grown-up nearby.
Paper puzzlesFive KenKen and five logic puzzles, a clear sleeve, and a dry-erase marker so they can be tried again and again.
How it got here

From a math festival to a shelter, in about a year.

Brandon started the project in the fall of 2025 after a summer hunting for puzzle ideas at math festivals. The question underneath it was simple: the best math he'd ever seen was happening in rooms two miles from home that most kids in the city would never walk into. The box is a way to carry that math out of the room.

  1. Summer 2025Research and design. Puzzle-hunting at MAA MathFest and the MoMath Festival; the first box concepts take shape.
  2. Dec 2025Davidson Institute Ambassador. Selected for the Class of 2026, one of 40 nationwide.
  3. Feb 2026Gathering 4 Gardner. G4G16, the first Gathering held outside Atlanta, two miles from home. More puzzles, and permission to use several of them.
  4. Spring 2026A makerspace says yes. A cold email to Sequoia Fabrica turns into a free Member-Scholar membership and access to a laser cutter.
  5. Aug 2026Pilot and sponsor. LifeMoves agrees to a pilot at two family shelter sites; Proof School becomes fiscal sponsor. Kits 1 and 2 are built and bagged.
  6. Aug 2026Aria Krishnamoorthy joins the team as curriculum lead.
  7. Aug 2026A partner in San Francisco. Children of Shelters, which works with families in shelters across the city, agrees to accept and distribute as many boxes as we can deliver.
  8. Sep 2026First grant. Awarded a $2,000 Fall 2026 Mini Grant by the Youth Empowerment Fund at Urban Services YMCA, which backs youth-led projects in San Francisco.
Team

Students at Proof School, with adults who help where it counts.

Brandon Yoonsu NamFounder & project lead

Brandon Yoonsu Nam

Designs the puzzles and booklets, cuts and assembles the kits, and works with shelter partners and funders. Davidson Institute Class of 2026 Ambassador; member-scholar at Sequoia Fabrica.

Curriculum lead

Aria Krishnamoorthy

Leads curriculum development: designing and testing new puzzles and activities and shaping what goes into each box. Will lead the Math in a Box club at Proof School once it launches.

Adult ally

Linda Green

Proof School faculty. Adult advisor for the project's grant work and its growth into a school club.

Proof School in San Francisco serves as the project's fiscal sponsor. The plan is the one that worked for Math Mail before us: a solo project becomes a student team, becomes a school club, and gets handed down.

Partners & supporters

Nobody builds a hundred boxes alone.

LifeMovesPilot partner. Family shelter sites in Daly City and Redwood City receive the first kits.
Youth Empowerment Fund, Urban Services YMCAFunder. Fall 2026 Mini Grant for kit materials.
Children of SheltersSan Francisco distribution partner. Accepts and delivers as many boxes as we can build to families in shelters across the city.
Sequoia FabricaPotrero Hill makerspace. Every wooden piece is laser-cut, engraved, or 3D-printed here, free of charge.
Davidson InstituteYoung Scholars Ambassador program, Class of 2026.
Proof SchoolFiscal sponsor and home base for the student team.
Julia Robinson Mathematics FestivalPermission to adapt any JRMF puzzle for the kits.
KenKen Puzzle LLCPermission to include KenKen puzzles in the booklets.
Get involved

Three ways to help a box reach a kid.

Host kits at your sites

Shelters, family programs, and school partners in the Bay Area: we bring assembled kits, you hand them to families. We ask for two things back, a rough head count and honest feedback: was it fun, was anything confusing, do they want the next one?

Start a conversation →

Fund materials

Plywood, markers, sleeves, and printing run about $15 per kit. A gift of $375 puts Kit 1 into every family at one shelter site; $1,500 covers a hundred kits. Donations run through our fiscal sponsor, Proof School.

Ask how to give →

Design, cut, or test

Students who want to design a puzzle, makers with laser or 3D-printer time, and families with a seven-to-twelve-year-old willing to try a prototype and tell us what's confusing.

Join in →

Write to us.

Brandon reads every message. If you're a shelter, a school, a funder, or a kid with a puzzle idea, we'd like to hear from you.

mathinabox26@gmail.com

San Francisco, California