Importance of History of

Mathematics in Math
Learning
Prabha Betne
LaGuardia Community College
Mathematics Department
April 8, 2005

Background
This presentation is about an inquiry based learning
project that was conducted in an Elementary Statistics
class.
The study involved a search of the biographical literature
about a mathematician, and an inquiry into the various
contributions made by him/her.
Five groups of students researched their subjects using
library resources, online databases, and search engines.
Each group developed a PowerPoint presentation,
incorporating images found on the web.

The Assignment
In this project you will research about a
mathematician/statistician assigned to your
group. Consider the following points to
include in your research.
1. About the person (one small paragraph)
2. Some interesting situations or events in the life of this
person

The Assignment (continue)

3.

Select a work of this person that relates to one of the

topics included in your course. Discuss why this work
was needed (what problem led to the development of the
work), how this work led to the solution of that problem.
For example: the famous thinker Archimedes
discovered the relationship between density, mass and
volume known as Archimedes principle when ordered by
the King to find out if there was impurity in the Kings
gold crown.
You may also add your thoughts about other applications
of this work.

Goal
The goal of this project was to motivate the students
and give them reasons to learn more about the people
and historical contexts that have led to the
development of mathematics.

Objective
Students will be able to research the lives and
contributions of mathematicians, discern what information
is relevant, and create a multi-media presentation
summarizing what they have learned.
This will motivate students to learn the subject, and learn
how to work in a team. They will also find ways to apply
what they are learning about their subjects to the course
curriculum, as well as to other fields of study or
employment.

Activity Overview
Five groups of four students each were established. Each
group bore the name of an important mathematician or
statistician: Andrei Kolmogrov, Carl Friedrich Gauss,
Florence Nightingale, John Tukey, and R. A. Fisher. The
students were charged with finding out any important and
interesting events in the persons life, researching the
contributions of this person to the field of mathematics or
statistics, and describing at least one piece of the subjects
professional work related to topics in the course curricula.
The students presented their work utilizing PowerPoint
presentations.

Example of Students Work

http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ctl/dfl/sampler
/docs/pbetne/maria-nightinangale.ppt
http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ctl/dfl/sampler
/docs/pbetne/Presentation1-tukey.ppt
http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ctl/dfl/sampler
/docs/pbetne/probability-kolmogorov.ppt