Why learn Math?
Read on to learn a few reasons that math is a powerful and incredibly useful tool.
1. Learning math is good for your brain
Research conducted indicates that children who know math can recruit certain brain regions more reliably, and have higher gray matter volume in those regions, than those who perform more poorly in math. The brain regions involved in higher math skills in high-performing children were associated with various cognitive tasks involving visual attention and decision-making. While correlation may not imply causation, this study indicates that the same brain regions that help you do math are recruited in decision-making and attentional processes.
2. Math helps you tell time
“I’m late, I’m late for a very important date.” – White Rabbit from the movie Alice in Wonderland. Don’t let your ignorance of math make you like the White Rabbit! A recent study indicated that 4 out of 5 children living in Oklahoma City can’t read their hands on an analog clock to tell time. Knowing math, and particularly fractions can help you better tell time. While analog clocks may eventually become obsolete, don’t let your ability to tell time become outdated! Use your knowledge of fractions to help you tell time on analog clocks that have an hour, minute, and (sometimes) second hand.
3. Math helps you with your finances
Math can be helpful for balancing your budget because you will have a good understanding of how to make sure that your costs are less than the money you have. Balancing one’s bank account, for example, is an important life skill that requires math in order to subtract balances. People who know math are therefore less likely to go into debt because they did not know how much money they had versus how much money they spent. Many teaching resources can be found in Teachers pay teachers
4. Math makes you a better cook (or baker)
With knowledge of math, for example, you can quickly deduce that a half-cup of flour is the same thing as eight tablespoons of flour. This skill can prove handy if you find that your half-cup measure is missing. Likewise, if you are cooking from a recipe that serves four people, but you need to feed eight people, your math skills tell you that you can simply double all of the necessary ingredients. Without math, you may not have enough food (or have too much food) to feed your guest!
5. Math helps us have better problem-solving skills
Math helps us think analytically and have better reasoning abilities. Analytical thinking refers to the ability to think critically about the world around us. The reasoning is our ability to think logically about a situation. Analytical and reasoning skills are essential because they help us solve problems and look for solutions. While it may seem far-fetched to believe that solving the train problem above can help you solve a problem in your life, the skills that you use in framing the problem, identifying the knowns and unknowns, and taking steps to solve the problem can be a very important strategy that is applicable to other issues in life.
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