Communicating Mathematics

Does talking about mathematical ideas keep your viewers bored?  Does writing the mathematical areas of an assignment or review make your wheels spin or writer’s block?  It does not need to be this way. Students and experts from many professions are required to regularly create and talk about ideas that contain mathematics ideas.  The following guidelines have been developed to increase your mathematics interaction abilities.

1) Aim to be understood! – Mathematical interaction is just like all other types of interaction. The aim is to successfully express an idea.  Ask yourself: what is the primary concept you want to relay?  Desire to discuss these mathematical ideas in a way that instills knowing, involvement and fascination within your audience.

2) Who is your audience? How
much mathematics do they know? – Tailor your demonstration or review towards the needs, passions and mathematical qualifications of your viewers. If they have just moderate information of mathematics, then it will be of little benefit to talk about the accurate information of innovative mathematical ideas. Rather, keep your concept as simple and appropriate as possible by working on primary, contextualized illustrations and special situations which
can be used to light up the “big picture”.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

3) Motivate first! Then present the mathematics. – Begin by featuring the inspiration for the mathematics included within.  For instance: talk about any technical or economic enhancements that have lead from the statistical area under consideration; or some amazing traditional improvements related to the mathematics; or even  an entertaining statistical story. This will contextualize the mathematics to the viewers and fight any potential negative behavior towards the topic, like recognized irrelevance. Once the viewers are inspired and involved, their thoughts are more open and it is possible to talk about the mathematical ideas.

4) Start with easy illustrations and break complicated ideas down! – Audiences tend to best understand mathematics through the demonstration of easy and contextualized illustrations, rather than from subjective ideas. Start with statistical illustrations that are basic, understandable and relevant to your audience’s passions, background and capabilities. If more complicated statistical ideas come later, then break the ideas down into smaller understandable sections.