Eureka Mathematics was founded with the belief that all scholars should have and need access to a high quality math curriculum. Singapore provides intense, hands-on, detailed curriculum from Kindergarten through the 8th grade. It is unique in its simplicity in that one of its main tenets has to do with scholars gaining a deep and true understanding of the basic elements of math (number sense, place value, etc.) so that attainment of algorithmic understanding is considered a logical endpoint for the scholars. They then have the ability to take this deep understanding of the basics and an understanding for the abstract concept of algorithms and apply it to real world uses.
Eureka takes scholars, over time, through what is essentially the CPA model. CPA stands for concrete, pictorial, and abstract and is series of systematic steps that takes scholars from the tangible to the algorithmic over time. Singapore begins by engaging scholars in dynamic hands-on activities (the Concrete phase) that allows them to “feel” and gain a sense of numbers, values, etc. It then instructs them how to create pictures to represent (the Pictorial phase) what they were manipulating in the Concrete phase.
This then culminates in the scholars converting this number sense and these pictorial representations into numbers and symbols (the Abstract phase) that allow them to complete common algorithms. This logical progression of learning and understanding allows the scholars of any community, socio-economic group, to be able to have a true sense of numbers, values, representations, and algorithms that can be readily applied to the real word.