04/08/2020

BBC discusses math lessons during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the applications of mathematics in everyday life. Concepts such as "exponential growth" and "contagion rate," which until then were far removed from basic education, have become popularized. A video from BBC News Brazil highlights the lessons we can learn from the subject during the pandemic, revisiting the discussion from the webinar "How to teach the mathematics of the future?" , from theMathematical Mindsets Program , promoted by the Sidarta Institute .

Reporter Paula Adamo Idoeta highlighted the observations of Marcelo Viana, director-general of IMPA, regarding neglected content in mathematics education. He believes that statistics, combinatorics, and logical reasoning are crucial tools for young people to understand the world and, therefore, should be explored in greater depth.

“Statistics collects, organizes, and interprets information from a database. It's from this that probabilities and percentages arise, such as 'what is the mortality rate of the new coronavirus?', 'which fuel will my car perform better with?'”, explained Paula. The reporter pointed out that those who master these concepts have a better chance in high-demand careers such as data analyst, statistician, systems developer, financial analyst, and data scientist.

Considered by Viana to be the foundation of data science and information technology, combinatorial analysis allows us to know how many different combinations can be made with a set of elements. Paula gave a relevant example: "How many combinations of eight or ten-character passwords are possible using the 26 letters of the alphabet and ten digits?"

Logical reasoning, which involves using systematic thinking to reach a conclusion, is highlighted in the video as another skill considered crucial in present and future professions. The BBC reporter showed an exercise from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in which this content is applied.

Jack Dieckmann, director of research at Youcubed at Stanford University (USA), who also participated in the Sidarta Institute webinar , reinforces that teachers should think of ways to address urgent issues that are not usually present in math classes, such as climate change or voter participation. "Otherwise, he believes that people will find themselves facing numbers, graphs, and trends without understanding their own capacity to influence the behavior of this data," Paula highlighted.

Watch the video from BBC News Brazil:

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