Mathematics is an essential part of life, and its importance is often overlooked. It can improve analytical and problem-solving skills, create the basis for systems thinking, and help develop logical conclusions. It can also broaden the mind to handle unknown tasks with ease and confidence, and promote cautious and careful thinking. Mathematics, especially mental arithmetic, is known to significantly increase brain capacity.
The study of shapes, numbers, and patterns encourages one to develop strong observational skills and stimulates critical thinking. In the medical field, mathematics is essential for treating systemic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes. Doctors must calculate how long a drug will last in the body and how long it is required for effective treatment. A 70-pound young woman may not need as much medication as a 160-pound male athlete.
Despite a great deal of research into how memory affects important early learning skills, such as language and reading, the fundamental memory systems that underpin math learning are not well understood. By looking for similarities in brain activity when children complete memory and math tasks, researchers hope to establish a link between memory and mathematics. Science and mathematics broaden the horizons of your mind, giving you the ability to look at the world from a new perspective and question everything you see. The analysis of the study corroborates this and concludes that mathematics education is associated with “educational progress, socioeconomic status, employment, mental and physical health, and financial stability”.
But what exactly is happening there? Despite decades of research into teaching and learning mathematics, much remains to be learned about how specific brain functions are linked to math skills. If basic mathematical data has not been dedicated to long-term memory, the mind is concerned with formulas rather than analysis. In light of current problems, such as vaccines, gene therapy, global warming and nuclear energy, the future generation of science and mathematics students have a vital and fascinating role to play in developing new solutions or helping to make the planet a better place to live. Most importantly, the skills you acquire while learning mathematics and science are versatile and transferable and can be applied to any profession. According to the article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers were able to detect those studying mathematics or not after age 16 based on the concentrations of the brain chemical in each student.
Mathematics requires abstract and concrete thinking, leading to the development of brain muscles. Tanya Evans from Stanford University demonstrates: “Children who know mathematics are able to recruit certain regions of the brain more reliably and have a greater volume of gray matter in those regions than those who perform lower in mathematics”.Students over the age of 16 were asked if they had already stopped studying mathematics while younger students were asked if they planned to quit mathematics. Parents can encourage teens to see the lifelong and far-reaching benefits of math education, and help them continue taking math classes after they stop being compulsory in some schools and move on to higher education. Parents don't have to worry about specific educational materials, although some math apps can be fun because as Aronian says: “The world is your math classroom”.
