In a ground breaking new study Joonkoo Park & Elizabeth Brannon (2013), found that the most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics. The widespread lack of appreciation of the visual nature of mathematics relates to the misconceptions that exist about the nature of mathematics. Older students often develop the idea that manipulatives are for babies and can’t possibly be useful in higher levels of math. Curriculum guides suggest that students work with physical manipulatives and drawings to help them learn abstract mathematics. Despite the importance of visual mathematics at high levels of mathematics (and all other levels) there is a common perception that visual mathematics is only needed as a crutch for more abstract mathematics. In news articles she is shown sketching ideas on large pieces of paper on her kitchen table, Maryam joked to reporters that her 3 year old daughter probably thinks she is an artist. Some of the world’s top mathematicians engage almost entirely with visual mathematics.įor example, Maryam Mirzakhani, arguably the most important mathematician of our time, works almost entirely visually. When youcubed offered “ How Close to 100” as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game. Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning.