TEP Talk: Modernizing Math
As school is nearing an end and summer vacation is right around the corner, we thought there was no better time than to discuss the current math curriculum in schools – and if anything should be changed. So we hosted a Coffee Talk around modernizing math and headed over to Technology Enterprise Park (TEP) to ask our scientists, chemists, and researchers their thoughts.
There is a movement gaining traction to modernize America's math curriculum, which hasn't seen much change since 1957. So we set out to ask our community members if they believed anything needed to be augmented to better equip new generations, especially in order to meet the demands of the digital age.
Of those who joined in on the conversation, accompanied by coffee and doughnuts, 84 percent said that our math curriculum is outdated and needs to evolve. For 16 percent of the group, “financial literacy” was noted as being currently neglected in schools – and shouldn’t be. And others vocalized that linear algebra (and its applications to computer science) should be taught at a much earlier age, rather than starting in high school.
We can all agree that learning math is different from understanding data. And with feedback from a community that uses math and data constantly at work, it does seem evident that things should change for our future student population. Especially in today’s data-driven world, they believe we should better prepare future generations by modernizing our practices to keep up with the ever-changing times.
Do you think math should be modernized? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.