Historical Topics Class Project

Historical Topics in Mathematics for Middle School Teachers
Class Project
Summer Term 2007

Goal
Create a “cheat sheet” of facts and information about famous mathematicians to use in your own classrooms.

Directions
You have been assigned five mathematicians (listed below in association with the number you were assigned in class) to write a brief biography about.

To write these biographies

Read the mathematician's biography, if available, in Mathematicians are People Too
Read about the mathematician in the History Index (note the Chronology and the Quotations are interesting)
For women, check the Female Mathematicians at the History Index, the Women in Mathematics Project and the Agnes Scott page

Turn In
Submit your work electronically, preferably in an attached Word file, Times New Roman, Font 12 to burtonl@wou.edu

Two biographies due by Monday, July 2
Two more biographies due by Monday, July 9
Fifth and final biography due by Wednesday, July 11, 4 p.m.

Completed Project
Electronic and hard copies of the completed class project will be distributed by Thursday, July 12.

EXAMPLE ENTRY

Word template for your use

Each of your biographies should contain the elements in the left column and be presented in a similar format.

MAIN BIO DOCUMENT SO FAR

Mathematician	Sonia Kovalevsky (Sofia Kovalevskaya)
Biographical Information	January 15, 1850 - February 10, 1891, born Moscow, Russia
Best Known For	After obtaining her Ph.D. in Mathematics, finally obtained job as a professor at the University of Stockholm. Russian Universalities would not hire a woman. Became the first woman since the physicist Laura Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi to hold a chair at a European university. Her struggle to obtain the best education available which began to open doors at universities to women.
Fun Facts	Father papered her walls with calculus notes when she was a young girl. Had to get married to travel abroad to study mathematics at a university; women were not allowed to take university courses in Russia at that time. Won the Prix Bordi, a prestigious mathematics prize given by the Academy of Sciences founded in St Petersburg.
Famous Quote	It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul.

Student Numbers and Assigned Mathematicians
Student Two Ron	Bernoulli, Jacob (Jacques) Erathosthenes Germain Möbius Zeno of Elea Hypatia (EC Option)
Student Three Andrew H	Archimedes Aristotle Bacon Euler Edgerton Merrill (Winifred) Abel (EC Option)
Student Four Julie	Babbage Cantor Fibonacci Lagrange Lovelace Copernicus (EC Option)
Student Five Michelle A	Banneker Cauchy Galileo Laplace Noether, Emmy Pythagoras (EC Option)
Student Six Drew R	Cardano Euclid Galois Legendre Somerville Hilbert (EC Option)
Student Seven Mandy	Agnesi Diophantus Dodgson Gauss Leibniz Yang Hui (EC option)
Student Eight Trevor	Descartes Cayley Heron Newton Robinson (Julia Bowman) Ptolemy (EC Option)
Student Ten Michelle E	Einstein Khayyam Norwood (Janet) Weierstrass Wiles Pascal (EC Option)
Student Eleven Bekka	Agnes Scott (Charlotte) Fermat Polya Riemann Venn Ramanujan (EC Option)
Student Twelve Scott	Goldbach Napier Nightingale (Florence) Sierpinksi Thales Gray (Mary) (EC Option)

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