Mathematics becomes compelling when it is demonstrated rather than asserted, and connected to what a student already cares about. I have seen this on both ends of the scholastic spectrum: from elementary school to university. In college classrooms, students pursuing careers in medicine, zoology, or neuroscience typically arrive with a predisposed aversion to algebra and calculus. And, one-on-one in elementary school-aged kids whose unshakable fixations on such things as bugs, rocks, or music oftentimes struggle to engage with problems that don’t connect with their natural curiosities. Both categories of students typically have never enjoyed mathematics as a tool to be used in their own projects. Presenting this subject in a manner that provides tactile and tangible ways to understand it often leads to an appreciation for the material that mathematicians love seeing in non-practitioners. This is not a teaching strategy I adopted from outside my work. In my own research, the questions I chase start with a structure worth making visible, tangible.