Maths is good for you: web-based history of mathematics resources for young mathematicians (and their teachers)

Abstract

This article introduces a project which was developed as part of the Gatsby Teacher Fellowship in Mathematics (http://www.gtf.org.uk), for the 2004–5 academic year. It also discusses some other web-based resources that teachers of mathematics in England and Wales, following the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, can use to supplement their teaching of mathematics within a historical context.

Notes

¹ Many of these can be accessed from the BSHM website at http://www.bshm.org.uk.

² See the site at http://www.nrich.maths.org/public/index.php.

³ See the site at http://plus.maths.org/. Both Nrich and Plus are part of the Millennium Maths Project, an initiative of the University of Cambridge, http://mmp.maths.org/index.html.

⁴ See the site at http://www.mathsnet.net.

⁵ The Discussion Document with a full list of questions is available online at http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/bulletin/42/icmi.HistoricalStudy.html as part of the ICMI Bulletin, 42 (June 1997). Teachers may want to make use of the book that came out of this study: John Fauvel and Jan van Maanen (eds.), History in mathematics education: the ICMI study, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 and 2002.

⁶ The excellent site of David Joyce at http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html can be very helpful at this stage, with its interactive Java applets.