Snezana LawrenceSt. Edmund’s Catholic School, Dover

GATSBY fellowship 2004/5

KS3 & 4 and the History of Mathematics

Existing resources in the History of Maths for KS3 & 4

• Majority aimed at university and post-graduate level

• Some can be used by teachers, but very time-consuming exercise if they do not have maths history training

• No way of telling of the accuracy of material because not peer assessed

Divisions…

• Primary resources sites• Accumulative sites - ones that get built up over

time (not necessarily primary resources but wealth of material)

• Mutating sites - ones that change regularly(and have or don’t - archive of old material)

• ‘List’ sites - with or without original material• Purpose-made sites - for existing courses, or

developed because of the special interest or expertise of the owner

Primary resources site

Primary resources site

Primary resources site

Primary resources site

Accumulative sites

Mutating sites

List sites

Purpose made sites

Anything in between…

Few good examples

• All of the models mentioned could be used and/or combined

• Best sites already are not exclusively one or the other…

• We can learn from sites that are concerned with the teaching of mathematics but not necessarily have any content in relation to the history of mathematics

What will be used and how

• Primary resources sites (Gallica, Cornell University Library)

• List sites for further research (The Maths Forum @ Drexel)

• Purpose-made sites for existing courses at the universities worldwide

• Links to good printed sources

Some guiding lights

• Internationalisation• Understanding different cultural approaches• Interdisciplinary approach• Creative, intellectual fascination• Schematising• ‘grabbing’ at the apparatus needed • Elegance of old proofs/discoveries

Some guiding lights 2

• Comparison and links with the arts• De-trivialisation• Studying ‘old masters’ – seeing yourself in the

context of a creative tradition• Aesthetic view and approach• Development of intuition, induction and analogy• Interdepndence

Some guiding lights 3

• Story telling – taking possession of the story/topic as their own

• Familiarity – taking the torch to the next person

• Rather than large number of projects, worked out scheme, links, cross cultural and interdisciplinary approach (benefits for teachers as well as pupils).

Structure of the web sitewww.mathsisgoodforyou.com

• MAIN PAGES - which set out the mathematical topic with links to:– National Curriculum – Activities sheets– Project Proposals– Links pages for that particular topic– Links to other topics

• Schema of the NC with links to topics• Timeline with links to topics

VISIT THE SITE IN OCTOBER!!!