Rubik's Cube is no toy in this Morningside Elementary classroom

When it comes to solving a Rubik's Cube, chances are you are not smarter than these fifth-graders.

All but five of the 24 students in Brad Culbertson's class at Morningside Elementary can conquer the 31-year-old puzzle. One of them can solve it in less than a minute, and some of the students are so fast, they beat their own teacher's record.

Culbertson is one of a handful of teachers in Florida who are using the popular toy to teach his gifted class problem solving and math skills. The class has its own set of cubes, and students are given time to play with them daily.

"They learned through the process of accepting the fact that not everything is going to be easy in life," said Culbertson, who was featured in an Oct. 27 article in U.S. News & World Report for teaching with the cube. "Despite being gifted students, they had to persevere through some adversity with the cubes."

The cube is the creation of Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture who made the first version in 1974 to help students better understand three-dimensional objects. Rubik also sold his "Magic Cubes" at local toy shops, but the device really hit it big in 1980 when an American toy company introduced the renamed puzzle to the rest of the world.

Culbertson has been using Rubik's Cubes and its "You CAN Do the Rubik's Cube!" program with his Morningside students for two years. According to the educational program, Culbertson is one of 11 teachers using it in the state and the only Treasure Coast teacher it.

Besides teaching geometry topics, such as edges, faces and vertices, Culbertson said there are some unattended consequences too.

"If the kids have the cubes by their desk, they work faster and harder on their work so they can get more time on the cube," Culbertson said. "They're focused during class time and then they're automatically using something that is quiet and directed."

His students say they've learned skills like discipline.

With a time of 53 seconds, 10-year-old Rylee Nelson is currently the fastest in the class at solving the puzzle.

"I think it helps you learn hand-eye coordination and patience," Rylee said. "It teaches you patience because you can't get it right away and you have to wait before you can do some steps and it can take quite a while before you can solve it."

Even though Winter Pepitone, also 10, can solve the cube in two minutes and four seconds, she said she keeps playing with it over and over again, sometimes in car rides and even at the dinner table.

"I keep doing it over and over again because it's so fun. I never get bored of it," Winter said. "You have to have a lot of patience. I got frustrated at times."

Co-teacher Mary Masciello also notices a difference in the students.

"It teaches them to plan ahead for their next move, it teaches them the patience to wait until they learn the next step and committing it to memory," Masciello said. "I tell them 'the way there's tricks and patterns in the cube, there's tricks and patterns to remember your science facts, your reading comprehension. Put it together as a pattern.'"