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Tasks | Early Adolescence | Historical Matchings

Tasks - Early Adolescence

Historical Matchings by Glenys Stade, Hampton SHS

Phase of Development: Early Adolescence

Learning Area/s: Mathematics

Strand/s Appreciating Mathematics
Working Mathematically

Substrand/s Contextualise Mathematics

Brief Description: Introduce students to aspects of the history of mathematics through a library research activity.

Expected Outcomes:

Begin to appreciate the history of mathematics.
Realise a need to use a variety of resources.
Understand the role of some women in the history of mathematics.

Context:

Metropolitan Area Senior High School.
Used for the library research component of a Mathematics Enrichment Course.
Year 9

Learning Activities/
Experience: The activity involves matching the name of a mathematician with a picture and a brief description.
This activity was not possible before because of limited resources, but history sites on the Internet along with the usual resources of the library makes this viable.
Biographies of Women Mathematicians
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
The second part of the activity which involves writing about some women mathematicians reinforces the research process.

Resources: Learning Technologies - Computer with Internet access, Books and Encyclopaedias, CD-ROM Encylopaedia

Worksheet: Historical Matchings

Historical Matchings

Your Task

Match each name of a famous Mathematician with the brief description provided. Can you find a picture of each one?
Present this information in an appropriate way (ie. in a way which makes it easy for making).
Add in the date and place where each of these men were born. (Hint: use more than one resource, because sometimes there are discrepancies in historical facts.)
Research three of the famous women mathematicians mentioned below. Write a paragraph on each, giving a brief description of their contributions to the history of Mathematics.
Write a list of all the resources used for your answers (bibliography). This is a requirement for all library research.
Go to Copyright in the classroom - Citing sources for more information about citing resources..

Historical Matchings
*Mathematician*	*Information*
Georg Friederich Bernhard Rieman	He is known as the inventor of logarithms, but he was also very influential in the introduction of the decimal notation for fractions.
Blaise Pascal	He invented and sold the first calculating machine in 1645. His later interest in probability was attributed to his gambling during this period.
Carl Friedrich Gauss	This man dominated the mathematical community during and after his lifetime. A child prodigy, he taught himself reading and arithmetic by age three. In 1796 he made his first mark as a serious mathematician by proving the possibility of constructing a regular 17-sided polygon using only a ruler and a compass.
Rene Descartes	He is best known for his work in the field of non Euclidian Geometry. His ideas were first published in 1826, while working as a professor in Kazan.
John Napier	He was a mathematical astronomer and founder of the theory of Mathematical probability. During the French Revolution he helped establish the metric system.
Nicolai Ivanovitch Lobachevsky	Known as the father of analytical geometry, he was considered one of the scientific giants of the 17th century.
Pierre De Laplace	This son of a Lutheran pastor was considered one of the most influential 19th century mathematicians. Unfortunately he inherited a poor constitution and died before he had reaped a tithe of the golden harvests in his fertile mind.
Choose Three Women Mathematicians
Sofia Kovalevskaya Sophie Germain Hypatia	Emmy Noether Grace Brewster Murray Hopper

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