Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of mathematics in studying disease transmission became widespread in the mainstream media. As our society faces the VUCA-world of the future, mathematical models will become more prevalent and each one of us should have a certain understanding of what it is – and to an extent, use it to address not only large-scale but also small-scale everyday problems.

Our school mathematics curriculum taught us to do simple modeling and prepared us to address more complex problems in our disciplines or vocations. There are mathematical models meant for understanding societal relationships and help us in our decision-making.

Decision problems like in strategic situations can be represented as matrices which can then aide in examining behaviors of individuals. Understanding the model can aide to make better decisions and possibly resolve conflicts.

Mathematical models can also help us to understand dynamics of systems involving human, animals or plants. In scenarios concerning survival of individuals, models can be used to determine factors that result to competitions and who to achieve coexistence despite insufficient resources.

Mathematical modeling is a process of representing real-world phenomena as systems of functions or equations which relate the different variables being studied. The term “mathematical modeling” might sound technical and advance but mathematical modeling arises in our everyday lives.

Truly, mathematical modeling is for everyone!

Mathematics should be for everyone!