On 7 February, prior to the Day of Russian Science, Ekaterina Sirota, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, Associate Professor at the Department of Digital Technologies of the Faculty of Computer Sciences of VSU, gave a public lecture on “Mathematical mindset” at the Atomic Energy Information Centre. The audience included students, school children, and other people interested in the issue. Ekaterina Sirota talked about the fields of science where mathematical mindset can be useful, as well as about the way it affects our lives.
“You can’t just learn maths by heart without understanding it. It’s a language we speak. If you know how it works, mathematics can be a great tool for describing the world around us”, said Ekaterina Sirota. “The culture of thinking is a quality which ensures the effectiveness of cognitive processes”.
Ekaterina Sirota pointed out that people who have mathematical mindset find it much easier to solve everyday problems, because it helps to formalise complex phenomena and use creative approaches to find solutions.
“A person with a mathematical mindset knows that every problem has a solution. Such people can structure the search for the solution into consequent stages. They are not discouraged by failures and mistakes, but rather see them as opportunities.”
A good way to develop mathematical mindset is to study a book “Problems for children from 5 to 15” by Vladimir Arnold, a Soviet and Russian mathematician who studied the topology, the theory of differential equations, the singularities of smooth mapping, and theoretical mechanics.
“The book contains 79 problems found or designed by the author which aim to develop a culture of thinking. Most of them do not require any special knowledge, besides what you learn at school. However, children often find solutions faster than experienced grown-ups”, said Ekaterina Sirota. She also discussed some of the problems from the book with the audience.
The lecture was interactive, with students and school children actively participating in the dialogue, asking questions, and discussing the role of mathematics in various spheres of life.
This lecture was the first in the 10th season of the project “A Large University for a Large City”. The Atomic Energy Information Centre is a new platform for the project traditionally organised by the Department of Pre-university Education of VSU. The moderator of the event was Larisa Diakova, Associate Professor at Voronezh State University.
