S4 Ep05: Building Meaningful Experiences with Cara Neff

Hosts: Steph & ToddGuest: Cara Neff – Math Teacher and Head Flag Football Coach at Cary-Grove High School. In this episode, Steph and Todd talk with Cara Neff, a math teacher and coach who brings creativity and purpose to everything she builds, whether it’s a new geometry lesson, a construction project, or a first-year athletic program.Cara shares how innovation shows up in her teaching as applied creativity, finding hands-on, meaningful ways to connect math to the real world. Her geometry-in-construction classes look different every year because the projects change each year. Students design, problem-solve, and collaborate as they turn math concepts into something tangible, learning that formulas and framing have more in common than they think.As the head coach of Cary-Grove’s new flag football program, Cara also reflects on what it’s like to start from scratch, creating new traditions, building a culture, and learning alongside her athletes.Throughout the conversation, Cara emphasizes that innovation doesn’t always come from fixing what’s broken; it often comes from asking, “What could be even better?” Whether she’s in the classroom or on the field, she’s constantly reimagining what learning, teamwork, and growth can look like