Albree, Joe, "An alternative to the conventional wisdom of a term paper in history of mathematics survey courses," pp. 175-182 in In Eves' Circles, MAA Notes #24, 1994, edited by Joby Milo Anthony.
This excellent paper begins with an enumeration and discussion of the main weaknesses of term papers: inappropriate topics, mathematical content, variability in the use of sources, cut and paste work, and writing mechanics. After redefining the goal to making students aware of the rich historical literature available, Albree designed a sequence of five "literature reports" which lead the student from textbooks, to journal articles, to original sources. These literature reports avoid or solve the problems with term papers.Anglin, W. S., "Mathematics and History," Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 14 (1992), no. 4, pp. 6-12.
The tone of this article will probably put you off, but read it anyway. The questions posed, but not answered, here should be considered by every instructor who is designing a history of mathematics course. Swetz 1995 is a reaction to this paper.Asher, Marcia, "Mathematical ideas in non-Western cultures," Historia Mathematica, 11 (1984), 76-80.
Bos, H. J. M., "History of mathematics in the mathematics curriculum at Utrecht University," Historia Mathematica, 3 (1976), pp. 473-476.
Dittrich, Alan B., "An experiment in teaching the history of mathematics," Mathematics Teacher, vol. 66(1973), pp. 35-38.
Development and content of a half-year elective for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students. Annotated bibliography of recommended materials.Dunham, William, "A mathematics seminar from the National Endowment for the Humanities," pp. 177-182 in Essays in Humanistic Mathematics, MAA Notes #32, edited by Alvin M. White, 1993.
Describes a NEH sponsored five-week seminar on "Great Theorems of Mathematics in Historical Context" that he has conduced several times. Gives a daily schedule and a description (with references) of the 19 great theorems considered.Katz, Victor J., "Using history in teaching mathematics," For the Learning of Mathematics, vol. 6, pp. 13-19.
Katz, Victor J., "Non-western mathematics in the university classroom," pp. 63-72 in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics, University of Victoria, May 31, June 1, 1990. Published by CSHPM 1991, edited by Francine F. Abeles, Victor J. Katz, and Robert S. D. Thomas.
Gives examples of how non-western mathematical ideas could be used in the classroom, but these ideas could also be used in a history of mathematics class. "These topics include calculation both in base 20 and with relation to various moduli in Mayan culture, indeterminate equations and the use of the Euclidean algorithm from India, numerical equation solving and its relation to synthetic division from China, the use of calculus in solving cubic equations from the Arab world, and ideas from graph theory taken from cultures in the South Pacific, central Africa, and South America." (p.63). References are given.Katz, Victor J., "Ethnomathematics in the classroom," For the learning of mathematics, 14(1994), 26-30.
Kleiner, Israel, "Famous problems in mathematics: An outline of a course," For the Learning of Mathematics, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 31-38.
Laubenbacher, Reinhard C. and Pengelley, David J., "Great problems of mathematics : A course based on original sources," American Mathematical Monthly, 99 (1992), pp. 313-317.
A math course has been developed to teach students about the evolution of five momentus theorems. An outline of the course is presented.Laubenbacher, Reinhard C. and Pengelley, David J., "Great problems of mathematics: A summer workshop for high school students," College Mathematics Journal, 25 (1994), pp. 112-114.
A three-week summer workshop in mathematics held at Colorado College in 1992 and 1993 is described. A careful combination of small group discussion and guided study was more successful than the traditional lecture approach.Marchisotto, Elena Anne, "Teaching mathematics humanistically: A new look at an old friend," pp. 183-190 in Essays in Humanistic Mathematics, MAA Notes #32, edited by Alvin M. White, 1993.
Although not a history course, there are a lot of interesting ideas here including a 39 item annotated bibliography.Mostowski, Andrzej, "Thoughts on the theme of a course in the history of mathematics," Wiadomo\'sci Matematy\c cne, 22 (1979), 65-75; "An excerpt from notes to a course in the history of mathematics," ibid., 22, 76-77; "An excerpt from the book Mathematical Logic," ibid. 22, 77-78 (all three in Polish).
I have not seen these posthumous papers of the distinguished logician Andrzej Mostowski (1913-1975) which are listed, without abstracts, in Historia Mathematica 9 (1982), p. 365, #1979-1981.Richeson, A. W., "Courses on the history of mathematics in the United States," Scripta Mathemtica, vol. 2(1933),161-165.
In 161 of the 617 (26.1%) of the college catalogues examined, a course on the history of mathemtics is offered. It is not clear how often they are offered. Improving teaching is a role of several of them, but no studies are cited that investigate the advantage of using history in teaching.Scriba, Christoph J., "Die Rolle der Geschichte der Mathematik in der Ausbildung von Schulern und Lehrern," Jahresberichte der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, vol. 85 (1983), pp. 113-128.
Siu, Man-Keung, "Mathematical thinking and history of mathematics," pp. 279-282 in Learn From the Masters, edited by Frank Swetz, John Fauvel, Otto Bekken, Bengt Johansson, and Victor Katz, MAA 1995.
After pointing out some of the difficulties of arranging a course around original sources, Siu explains how he tries to resolve these difficulties. Even with a limited library, there are many English language excerpts available in the various source books. He indicates some selections he has used. The high point of this article is his discussion of the pedagogical aspects of Euler's explanation of the Konigsberg bridge problem. A sample exam dealing with Euler is given.Shenitzer, Abe, "A topics course in mathematics," The Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 9 (1987), no. 3, pp. ?????
Shenitzer, Abe, "A topics course in mathematics," pp. 283-295 in Learn From the Masters, edited by Frank Swetz, John Fauvel, Otto Bekken, Bengt Johansson, and Victor Katz, MAA 1995.
This is an update on Shenitzer 1987 (which has the same title). Although this is not a course in the history of mathematics, many of the topics discussed have a strong historical component which Shenitzer stresses. Some of those topics are listed and briefly explained. Each topic is followed by several references that are accessible to undergraduates.Swetz, Frank J., "The use of projects in teaching the history of mathematics," Historia Mathematica, 9 (1982), 201-205.
Although the lecture method is the most common way of presenting a course in the history of mathematics "to a great extent the human drama and spirit of adventure that lie in the subject are lost."Swetz, Frank J., "Some not so random thoughts about the history of mathematics --- its teaching, learning, and textbooks," Primus, vol. 5 (1992), no. 2, pp. 97-107.
This paper is a reaction to three things: 1. A colleague who asked about teaching history of mathematics. 2. Anglin 1992. 3. Publication of the textbook of Katz 1993. This contains nice information about the objectives of teaching a History of Mathematics course. One needs to think about this in advance, although the issue is mostly settled by the choice of a textbook. So think about these issues before choosing a textbook for your course. Swetz thinks the era of survey textbooks is over, but I doubt it.Voolich, Erica Dakin, "Mathematics: A multicultural and historical approach in the elementary classroom," pp. 169-174 in the Proceeding of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, University of Victoria,1990. Published by CSHPM,1991.
Discusses ways of incorporating history in the elementary classroom.Williamson, Bruce, "History of mathematics -- A course outline." Historia Mathematica, vol. 6 (1979),PP. 318-320.
A course for pre-service and in-service teachers at University of Wisconsin, River Falls that used Eves a a textbook. He gave students a five page bigliography. The 10 objectives of the class are stated in the article! Students kept a log of what they read and their reactions to it. In class students were encouraged to share their readings, anecdotes, and to pose questions.
The URL for this file is http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~vrickey/institute/teach-hist-biblio.html