The second paper (due Wednesday, 23 March)
You will need to both email a .pdf to me at sottile@tamu.edu (or through Piazza; I think
this works),
and submit this to turnitin.com.
Here is the information for our class:
Math 629 History of Mathematics Class ID: 33187690 Class Enrollment Key:
Sottile629
Please make your paper double-spaced (actually 1.3 or 1.5 will do), also 12 pt type for
my old eyes, and a running head with your name and finally, page numbers and a title. Thanks.
A note about length: I'd like to see papers of at least a couple of pages long; I suggest a lower bound of 1200
words, to encourage you to choose to have enough space to develop your ideas, but also to signal that this need not be an all-consuming
activity.
There are two options for your second paper.
Option 1:
We are studying the history of mathematics this semester, as well as trying our hand at doing mathematics from different historical periods,
sometimes with the methods from that time.
Most of us are teachers or have plans to teach, and we have all long been students.
I would like to hear your thoughts about the following question:
How may the history of mathematics be used to enrich the teaching of mathematics?
(at the high school or college level)
I'd like to hear both some general suggestions, as well as one or two specific examples of
topics that could be presented, including what to present, and why this would be useful
for the intended curriculum.
The example(s) should involve most of your writing. This is a bit hard, as we have barely started the course.
Pay particular attention to the dangers of unintentionally demotivating students:
- women and minorities (the Dead White Male problem).
Note that this changes with time. While a young child in the 1960's (which was when I decided to become a scientist) most of
my heroes were European Jews; the great scientists who came to the US as war refugees,
as well as early 20th century physicists.
That was very different from my working class Sicillian background.
While aware of this, I do not recall that it was off-putting. Now about 50 years later, the cutting edge of ethnicity has changed.
I just heard an interview of a famous and pioneering planetary scientist, who expressed the gender imbalance in Science as an
opportunity (she also had supportive family and friends, abd surely was an outlier).
My point is that lack of representation in the historical and current milieu is not optimal, people can overcome that with
mentoring or by concentrating on other aspects.
and/or
- Students who should be encouraged to attempt careers in mathematics need not be prodigies,
("I can never be Newton or Gauss...." " When Galois was my age, he was already dead!").
Option 2:
Write a paper on one of the books (but not the one you reviewed).
This is to add flexibility for you, particularly for the students who are not teachers.
Below are topics/books that students have chosen so far.
- Infinity Powers by Steven Strogatz
- The Historical Development of the Calculus by Edwards
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
- The Golden Ratio: The Universal Pattern by ????