In Your Classroom: "Paul Kedrosky"

by Brian McCombs     Department: In Your Classroom

Listening to the interview with Paul Kedrosky, I was immediately struck with two ideas I currently use in my classes/department.  Although very different in their setup, purpose, and methodology, they are both excellent at producing quality student work.

First, as I listened to the inventions or products his group was looking at, I thought of all the wonderful mathematicians and the inventions/ideas they provided for our world.  Archimedes, Euclid, Des Cartes - all were great minds and great mathematicians, but they also provided some real-life applications to our everyday world.  Too often, students are told of the names of famous explorers or scientists and their discoveries.  They very seldom hear of the mathematicians of the past and their accomplishments.

To remedy this, my students complete a math history project.  They are to study a historical figure who made great achievements in the mathematics field, or an important theorem or concept in mathematics. Over the past few years I have accomplished this using different mediums.  Some years, my kids film a short play, commercial, or documentary about the mathematician they are studying.  Other years they do a PowerPoint, or other multi-media presentation.

This year, they completed a math history "happy meal" (as in McDonald's).  The students were required to create a box with specific dimensions.  On the sides of the box (all six of them) they were to create games, puzzles, stories about whom they were researching.  One side had to be biographical information in a report format.  However, the other five were for them to become creative with.  Finally, they were to create a toy to go inside the box that was reflective of the person they studied.

For example, one of my students studied Einstein.  He took one of those pencils with the hair at the end that, when you turn it back and forth the hair spreads out wildly.  He put a body and Einstein's face on the pencil and the "hair" became quite accurate.  Another student researched Copernicus and his planetary motion theories.  (I allow a little latitude into applied mathematics fields as well).  His toy was one of the spinning suckers kids eat.  He snapped off the head of the sucker, and inserted a model of the sun with all the planets around it.  When he pushed the button on the sucker, the planets spun around the sun.  It was very creative.  I believe students need to understand the purpose behind the mathematics they are learning.  I know my kids took a deeper interest in everything we learned after the history project.

A second idea is a stock market project some of my colleagues use.  They issue each student "$50,000" in pretend funds at the beginning of the semester.  The kids, with the aids or graph, printouts, and the internet, must invest this money in at least 10 corporations.  They are to turn in a portfolio on a weekly basis, showing a cost analysis.  At the end of the summer, they can use any money they made as extra credit for the course.  They also receive extra points for how they do in comparison to their fellow classmates.  It is a wonderful exercise in patience, research, graphical analysis, and even how luck or probability plays into our lives.  Every year, the kids leave those classes saying that the market project was their favorite activity of the year.

PBS has several online links using stock market ideas.  Big Apple History has very detailed lesson plans for middle school students.  Created by Thirteen/WNET out of New York, the website contains the history of the market, its uses, several worksheets, and various steps teachers can use in demonstrating how the market works.

The Community Learning Network has a a great Math History Theme Page which lists several sites on several pages relating to specific events or people in math history.  It is very user friendly, and should be easy for students to navigate and find information.

The Math Forum created by the Drexel School of Education is full of links to sites on women mathematicians, engineering fields, mathematical symbols and uses.  If you want to know something about the history of math, it's probably here.

Finally, the NOVA program, "Infinite Secrets," has many links to videos, books, lessons, etc. regarding inventions and inventors from our past.  It has extensive information on Archimedes and other inventors.

If you have any suggestions or ideas regarding math history projects, or stock market/business activities, I'd love to hear them.  Please post your comments below.

Additional WIRED Science Video Segments
Don't forget to check out our Video Section for other segments from WIRED Science that you can use in your classroom.

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