Blog Response 1

Math has been a rich part of history for the longest time, spanning even before the ancient Babylonians. In math, there are often many different ways to solve a problem. The tools we have today would make the problems of the past appear trivial. How did society transition from ancient mathematics to modern mathematics? I believe that studying math history provides a different perspective on how the ancient people solved problems that will be useful in teaching students. If students are able to understand and replicate the early math techniques, then they often show a high level of mastery.


After reading the article, I resonated with the idea that math is often messy initially. Equations and formulas today are eye-catching, but the journey to that beauty is often hidden in sight. As a future math educator, I am curious on how to show the students the methods used by the ancient people to solve problems in a fun and engaging way. The article also mentions that mistakes, uncertainties and doubts are what formed mathematics today. This is not what I experienced in my math classes growing up, where only correct answers are rewarded. I want to create a classroom environment where mistakes are accepted and to encourage students to engage in meaningful agreements and disagreements.

Comments

  1. Amanda FritzlanOctober 9, 2022 at 4:48 PM

    Teaching students that mistakes (and a certain degree of messiness) are welcome and expected can be a powerful way to keep more students included in math classrooms for longer. And, it makes for much more interesting teaching and learning. I like that you are thinking of the way that this approach connects to teaching histories of mathematics.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Response 8

The poet describes how Euclid describes his own works as “Beauty bare”, which I interpret as beautiful because it is simply the truth. Edna St. Vincent Millay writes that Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare, meaning that only Euclid sees the beauty, whereas the people who prate stare at nothing. The author defines beauty not as “shapes of shifting lineage”, but as the truth. I think Euclidean geometry has been popular for many centuries because it is clear and simple to understand. If this were not the case, it would become harder to follow along and some people may lose interest. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Euclidean geometry in high school because it is a very visual concept, rather than abstract algebraic expressions.
Read more

Blog Response 7

The first thing that made me stop and think were their decisions to differentiate the proof from the dance. The first decision was to trace out the entire diameter instead of just the radius by using both arms. Another decision was to repeat the dance multiple times to formalize the proof for the audience. I think that these additions would be extremely helpful to the reader if they were learning the proof for the first time. The second thing that made me think was the idea of incorporating oneself into the proof. The article mentions “humanizing” the proof and collaborating among one another. I find that proofs are often difficult to understand and follow through when they are written down. By having multiple people engaged and visually showing the proof, it is made more accessible to the audience. The activity in class was challenging, but fun. I think that although the activity was short, the students would be highly engaged when watching an arts based performance. One of the bigges...
Read more

Blog Response 6

After reading the article, I can say that teachers should be acknowledging non-European sources of mathematics. I say this because of two points: Europe is not the only continent in the world, and there are often many ways to solve a problem, as demonstrated by the Pythagorean Theorem and the Gougu theorem. The motivations for solving mathematical problems were different in each area. For the Greeks, they used math to pursue philosophical truths of the world, and in doing so, put a much greater emphasis on proofs. The Chinese used math more in the application sense such as land surveying, but also acknowledged the existence of purely mathematical problems. As teachers, we should help the students understand why studying math is important to them, since all students are different in their own educational pursuits. My thoughts on naming mathematical concepts is that the concepts should be named after someone who contributed most to its discovery. I also think that we should not dwell on ...
Read more