Summer brain drain strikes the math classes of Wilsonville!

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Mr. Reschke’s Pre-Calculus class is hard at work. With over a month since school started, the class is in full swing.

From the gap from the last day of school in the 2020-2021 year in June to the start of the 2021-2022 year in September, the majority of our wildcat students we’re more than glad to catch a break from the previous year. 

Most are familiar with the concept rooted into their minds since elementary school known as summer brain drain. Putting it simply, your brain turns off some of its creative and problem solving thinking ability while it is being used much more minimally over the summer.

Almost all math classes at Wilsonville will go over things from the previous years before starting to ramp it up and teaching the new things of the year. Now let’s wonder, with math being a subject that requires an extreme amount of problem solving skills, does the summer brain drain affect students in math classes?

“I think the only impact I had after the summer would be forgetting some little concepts that made some problems difficult to understand. I also think it did slow down my problem speed a little,” remarked Kevin Bruce, a sophomore in advanced algebra. 

Summer brain drain has impacted my recall speed in Calc BC. While I didn’t forget anything, I am noticeably slower compared to when I took my AP test for Calc AB. I am excited to be back in Calc this year however.

— Ben McClelland, senior

The Wilsonville math programs do a good job of catching up with our busy Wildcats once they’ve come back over the summer, our students this year are appreciating it, especially coming back from online school during the thick of the pandemic.