01/10/2022

We are all mathematicians, says Jack Dieckmann.

Jack Dieckmann, diretor de pesquisa do Centro de Stanford

"Do you remember the last time you went to the supermarket?" With this question, speaker Jack Dieckmann, PhD and director of research at the Youcubed Research Center at Stanford University (USA), led the audience to identify mathematics in everyday activities.

The opening lecture of the third day of the National Mathematics Festival, entitled "Mathematics for everyone? Deconstructing myths about learning mathematics from the perspective of Mathematical Mindsets," addressed the logical reasoning present in the lives of ordinary people.

Dieckmann argued that everyone present has probably already faced the challenge of choosing the supermarket checkout line that is most likely to be the fastest, based on criteria such as the number of items customers have and the efficiency of the cashiers.

“It’s concerning that highly competent and successful people feel excluded from mathematics. I believe we are all capable of learning, and many of us are already mathematical thinkers,” he argued.

Despite stating that the subject is present in activities common to all, Dieckmann acknowledges that there is an aversion to the topic. “Many students feel alienated, bored, scared, and anxious when it comes to school mathematics. So the question I propose is: where is the problem?” the professor asks.

According to Dieckmann, researchers see mathematics like "a musician sees a melody." They can choose an area of interest and spend a long time studying it. School mathematics, on the other hand, does not have these characteristics and often follows limiting beliefs.

“Be quick, memorize everything, and never make mistakes. If those were the rules of a game, no child would want to play. Students can make lists and lists of exercises, but they won't be listening to the music of mathematics,” Dieckmann stated.

Mathematics and the environment

In the afternoon, the lecture "Mathematics at the service of society and nature: our present – and urgent – challenge" was given by Professor João Frederico Azevedo Meyer from Unicamp (State University of Campinas).

During the meeting with the public, the professor explained how mathematics relates to environmental problems and demonstrated how arithmetic progressions, for example, can be used to calculate the impacts of pollution on nature.

João Frederico Meyer, professor da Unicamp (Universidade Estadual de Campinas

"The Public Prosecutor's Office has already used this model to calculate the fine to be applied to a company," he explained, referring to a case of environmental pollution. He took the opportunity to highlight the importance of mathematics working hand in hand with other areas of knowledge.

"Problems that aren't school-related don't have answers at the end of the book. There's no way to work with them without stepping outside the boxes of each subject," said the professor, defending interdisciplinarity.