It’s the rare child who’ll choose an afternoon of math homework over a family vacation. That’s partly because of the negative way that we talk about and teach math, says Chris Emdin, a professor of education at the University of Southern California.

Math, he says, can absolutely be a lot of fun. The problem, he says, comes from believing that being good at math is all about getting the right answer. “It’s not whether you get something wrong,” says Emdin, author of Stem, Steam, Make, Dream: Reimagining the Culture of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, “but how innovative and creative you are in trying again to get the answer.”

The key, Emdin says, is rethinking how math is taught—and travel