The front face of the cube represents "Big Ideas" in mathematics, such as, number sense, numbers and operations, algebra, geometry and spatial sense, calculus, statistics and probability, discrete mathematics, and trigonometry. These are the mathematical "big picture" topics that all students must investigate and understand. As a student develops mathematical concepts, the ideas build upon one another. Introductions in a hands-on and intuitive sense in the early years help build number sense and spatial sense, the ideas needed later for algebra and geometry. As students construct knowledge, they are later able to understand more formal, symbolic representations. Symbol manipulation without the foundation of understanding has little transfer to real problems and little utility.