One does not have to teach for very long to see students applying the wrong formula in the wrong situation (e.g., Kirshner and Awtry 2004; Tan-Sisman and Aksu 2016). Students can become overreliant on the power of the formula instead of thinking about the relationships it describes. It is not surprising that students can see formulas as a way to produce an answer as opposed to a way to understand and describe mathematical relationships. The simplicity of formulas makes them attractive to teachers and students alike as something to learn, remember, and apply. This raises the question then, where are the opportunities for students to engage in reasoning and sense making when it comes to formulas? In this article, the author offers seven techniques for supporting students' engagement of reasoning and sense making through formulas. Although the examples given are based on area formulas, many of these techniques can be applied to other less spatially intensive formulas as well.