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Middle and Primary School Math Department | Seamless Integration of Math and Real Life

November 17, 2023

When studying math, students often wonder, "When are we going to use it in the real world?" The reality is that by working with experts in different fields, mathematicians are changing the world in powerful ways. In this math project, students are going to use math to explore the real world in a mathematician way.

Mathematics is involved in almost all aspects of life, especially regarding health and safety. Whether preventing a flu epidemic, warning of a tsunami threat, or ensuring the safety of a building structure, mathematics is at the forefront. When public health agencies want to effectively prevent influenza from becoming a pandemic, they simulate numerical models, analyze the transmission patterns of influenza cases and viruses, and then formulate effective epidemic prevention and control measures. Tsunami warning systems are also the result of collaboration between multiple experts. Mathematicians collaborate with geographers to use sophisticated modeling and data analysis to identify the signs that recognize a tsunami so that people can evacuate hazardous areas in advance. Mathematics also plays an instrumental role when it comes to our homes, schools, and places of business, as the famous Pythagorean Theorem is vital when it comes to calculating structural safety in the field of construction.

In this project, students can choose one societal safety issue: from the flu prevention model, tsunami detector placement, and the Pythagorean Theorem to explore the real world deeper. Furthermore, students will also explore the wide range of applications of mathematics in fields such as medicine, finance, environmental science, engineering, etc., and produce posters and PowerPoint presentations of these findings to demonstrate more fully the multiple uses of mathematics in real life. Students with outstanding performance are awarded exquisite medals after several rounds of selection.

The aim of this project is to encourage students to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between math and reality. Learning math not only provides students with knowledge but also opens the door to a world of self-innovation and change for them. It is our hope that more students can actively participate in solving global problems through math and make more personal contributions to the development of society.

Written by Wei Xu

Pictures by Wei Xu

Edited by Cong Luo, Wu Shiyu (Intern), Bianca Noguera