What people say about us

For some time now I have been watching Koumio enter the field of teaching materials with a fairly bold ambition. It does not want to add yet another aid to the cupboard; it wants to turn ordinary school space into a place where children stop of their own accord, reach out, try something, get it wrong, put it right, ask a question — and start learning through that. Along the way Koumio creates situations for figuring things out, and calls its objects self-service, hard-wearing, well-designed Koumio® boards.

Figuring things out is not simply another word for inquiry-based teaching. It is its own way of setting the inquiry impulse off. Classic inquiry-based teaching usually begins with a question, a problem or a hypothesis. Pupils learn to ask questions, formulate hypotheses, plan how to test them, carry out experiments, evaluate results and draw conclusions. In that conception, inquiry is above all a teaching method. It has its logic, its phases, its demands on the teacher and on the pupil. Figuring things out sits one step ahead of that methodological structure. It does not begin with a question written on the board, but with curiosity set off by an object. The child simply sees something that draws them in. Touches it. Moves it. Tries what happens. Only out of that sensory experience does a question arise. The greatest strength of Koumio, as I see it, is therefore that it turns abstract inquiry into an experience you can physically get hold of. Inquiry-based teaching can be excellent, but it often makes fairly high demands: on the teacher, on time, on leading a discussion, on working with a hypothesis, on reflection. A well-designed Koumio® board, on the other hand, should attract attention on its own and lead the child to a question. The teacher then need not be the only trigger of inquiry; that trigger becomes the object itself.

This is very clear on the Koumio® board for the Pythagorean theorem. Ordinary teaching often moves from the formula to worked examples. Inquiry-based teaching can lead pupils to discover the relationship between the sides of a right triangle. With the Koumio® board, children assemble and shift the pieces so that they see for themselves that the areas of the squares on the legs match the area of the square on the hypotenuse. The mathematical relationship is then not an abstract formula, but something understood through their own experience. That is exactly the core of figuring things out: the knowledge does not enter the head first as a definition, but the hand first as something you can manipulate. Figuring things out is therefore not a lighter version of inquiry. It is rather its more natural beginning. It returns discovery to the moment of wonder, when the child is not yet working with technical language but is already working with the phenomenon.

Koumio is also distinctive in that it does not organise inquiry primarily as a lesson, but installs it into the space. It turns discovery into something you can come across, touch, set in motion and share with others. A Koumio® board should work even without an adult standing beside it explaining what is supposed to happen. The child should be able to start on their own. That is a large difference from many inquiry activities, which can depend on the teacher’s preparation, facilitation and management of the process. Curiosity often does not come after the explanation, but before it. Something catches the child first, and only then are they willing to spend energy on understanding why it works.

All of this is what won me over about Koumio. Because I believe that in every school there are plenty of small and large minds who want to get to the bottom of things — and who want to get there themselves.

PhDr. Jan Voda, Ph.D. — previously an academic at the Department of Primary Education, Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague

What struck me about Koumio® boards from the very first encounter was above all the precision of the workmanship. Every element feels considered, robust and ready for daily use in a school. You can see that behind them lies not just an effort to make an attractive teaching aid, but genuine care for detail and an understanding of how children discover the world around them.

I also see great value in the link to inquiry-based teaching. Koumio® boards naturally stimulate curiosity and lead children to observe, experiment and look for their own answers.

I equally appreciate the well-prepared portfolios and teaching materials. They make teachers' work easier while offering plenty of inspiration for weaving individual Koumio® boards into lessons. That makes them not merely an interesting object in the school, but a genuine educational tool with clear pedagogical reach.

In my view Koumio® boards are a successful combination of craft quality, considered design and modern educational approaches. They are proof that even a simple physical object can be a powerful trigger for children's curiosity and their joy in finding out.

I put my trust in Koumio® the moment I got to see the first prototypes of their Koumio® boards. We then ordered two pieces, and they were duly delivered in March 2026. I appreciate the precision of the work, the honest materials and the overall technical standard. I am convinced Koumio® boards will bring our school lasting, genuine value.

I also value the fact that Koumio® doesn't stop at the product itself. It does a great deal to encourage scientific thinking in pupils and an appetite for discovering the world around them.

We put our trust in the Koumio® educational concept right at the start, and it was an excellent decision. Several Koumio® boards now help with teaching here. The pupils like their modern design and the way abstract theory suddenly turns into enjoyable practice.

The teachers praise how easily Koumio® boards fit into lessons and how well they help to visualise the theory. We are delighted that the range of themes keeps growing, and we look forward to extending our Koumio® zone further.

Koumio® boards are a great thing and I'm very glad I decided to get them. I like looking into it myself and showing it to visitors on their way to a meeting with me — they're usually delighted.

We tried the Koumio® boards out and were thrilled. They are excellent mechanical aids for grasping mathematical principles and the laws of physics.

Pythagoras' theorem: for my talented pupil with Asperger's, the Koumio® board is a great thing. It also got him drawing it on paper, and now he's attempting the calculation.