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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010218866 | QA11.2 H35 2007 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Research shows that students learn best when they actively participate in their learning. In particular, hands-on activities provide the greatest opportunities for gaining understanding and promoting retention. Apart from simple manipulatives, the mathematics classroom offers few options for hands-on activities. However, the history of mathematics offers many ways to incorporate hands-on learning. By bringing this material culture of mathematics into the classroom, students can experience historical applications and uses of mathematics in a setting rich in discovery and intellectual interest. This volume is a compilation of articles from researchers and educators who use the history of mathematics to facilitate active learning in the classroom. The contributions range from simple devices, such as the rectangular protractor, to elaborate models of descriptive geometry. Other chapters provide detailed descriptions on how to build and use historical models in the high school or collegiate classroom.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Editor Shell-Gellasch (Pacific Lutheran Univ.) has compiled a collection of articles written by researchers and educators on various topics such as labyrinths, Napier's bones, surveying, sundials, the cycloid pendulum, and more. Hands on History, part of the "Mathematical Association of America Notes" series, provides more than a dozen hands-on projects that can be used in a history of mathematics course or simply for student projects. These activities provide students with palpable connections to numerous problems in their historical context. Faculty may convince their students with mathematical arguments, but physical models can be just as compelling. Most often physical problems motivated the development of early questions in mathematics, but the connection between the theoretical and the physical is often lost. This little book helps the student (and teacher) reestablish this connection. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and up; technical program students. R. L. Pour Emory and Henry College
Table of Contents
| Preface |
| Introduction |
| 1 Learning from the medieval master masons: a geometric journey through the labyrinthHugh McCague |
| 2 Dem bones ain't dead: Napier's bones in the classroomJoanne Peeples |
| 3 The towers of Hanoi AmyShell-Gellasch |
| 4 Rectangular protractors and the mathematics classroom AmyAckerberg-Hastings |
| 5 Was Pythagoras Chinese?David E. Zitarelli |
| 6 Geometric string models of descriptive geometry AmyShell-Gellasch and Bill Acheson |
| 7 The French curveBrian J. Lunday |
| 8 Area without integration: make your own planimeterRobert L. Foote and Ed Sandifer |
| 9 Historical mechanisms for drawing curvesDaina Taimina |
| 10 Learning from the Roman land surveyors: a mathematical field exerciseHugh McCague |
| 11 Equating the sun: geometry, models, and practical computing in Greek astronomyJames Evans |
| 12 Why is a square square and a cube cubical? AmyShell-Gellasch |
| 13 The cycloid pendulum clock of Christiaan HuygensKatherine Inouye Lau and Kim Plofker |
| 14 Build a brachistochrone and captivate your classV. Frederick Rickey |
| 15 Exhibiting mathematical objects: making sense of your department's material culturePeggy Aldrich Kidwell and Amy Ackerberg-Hastings |
| About the authors |
