This is an article about geometric constructions and how they can "enrich students' visualization and comprehension of geometry, lay a foundation for analysis and deductive proof, provide opportunities for teachers to address multiple intelligences, and allow students to apply their creativity to mathematics." By using the computer program, The Geometer's Sketchpad, students make geometric constructions, which allows the students to see geometry and how it is created. It also discussed how students can create beautiful designs using geometric constructions.
I think using geometric constructions is a great way to engage the students in their learning and enhance their creative minds. It is also another method of teaching, which allows for teaching to multiple intelligences.
Keywords: Standards, Teaching Strategies,
Ref: Kirsten2
Author(s): Copes, Larry
Date: 2000
Title: Messy Monk Mathematics: An NCTM Standards-Inspired
Class
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 4, 292-298
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: 2/13/02
This article is a dialog of a teacher working a problem with a class. The dialog includes conversation between the teacher and the students as well as the teacher?s thoughts. The class is working the following problem: There once was a monk who lived at the bottom of a mountain and precisely at sunrise on the last 2 days of every month, he leaves his hut at the bottom of the mountain and walks up a path to the top of the mountain, timing it so he arrives at the top just as the sun sets. The next morning, the first day of the new month, he leaves the top of the mountain precisely at sunrise and walks down the exactly the same path to the bottom of the mountain, arriving just as the sun sets. Is there necessarily a point on the path when the monk arrives at the same time of day on both days? The article was written as an example of a teacher creating inquiry among the students.
I found this article very interesting and inspiring. Students challenged their own thoughts and brought up many special cases and introduced new twists to the problem. It was fascinating to see the learning process as well as the teacher?s thoughts.
Keywords: Technology
Ref: Kirsten3
Author(s): Thompson, Anthony D.; Sproule, Stephen C.
Date: 2000
Title: Deciding When to Use Calculators
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 6, No. 2, 126-129
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: 2/18/02
The 1989 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics encouraged the use of calculators in the middle grades, but problems occurred when they were introduced. This article addresses this problem and focuses on helping teachers decide when it is appropriate and when it is inappropriate to use calculators. It encourages teachers to establish thoughtful rationales based on a suggested framework, which focuses not on using the calculator, but on educational goals and the students? needs and abilities. For example, ask the question, is the calculator essential to the lesson? The article also gives some sample activities in which the calculator is both essential and nonessential to the problem.
I found this article to be very interesting and helpful in determining when it is appropriate and when it is inappropriate to use calculators in the classroom. It offers several quick questions one can ask one's self before making the final decision on calculator use.
Keywords: Number Theory, Activities
Ref: Kirsten4
Author(s): Bay, Jennifer M.
Date: 2001
Title: Developing Number Sense on the Number Line
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 6, No. 8, 448-451
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: 2/20/02
This is an article describing an activity designed to help students develop number sense using the number line. The activity involves making a bright colored rope that stretches across the room into a number line. From here the activity can be varied to address the lesson being taught, such has comprehension of large numbers, rational numbers, and algebra. Students are given numbers or algebraic expressions and asked to put themselves on the number line, where they think they should stand. Then, they all must justify their decision individually and then the class is given an opportunity to agree or disagree with their placement. The number line asks students to communicate, reason and justify their thoughts.
I think using the enlarged, classroom sized number line is a great idea.
It gives students another perspective on placement of numbers and it involves
active participation of the students. It also allows students to communicate
with each other and give explanations, which reinforces their understanding
of number sense.
Keywords: Activities
Ref: Kirsten5
Author(s): Rothbart, Andrea
Date: 1998
Title: Learning to Reason from Lewis Carroll
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 91, No. 1, 6-10, 96
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: Febrary 25, 2002
In this article, the author uses puzzles written by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, to help students gain a better sense of the language and reasoning of mathematics. Two specific puzzles are given and worked out in the article and several other puzzles are given for students to work out. The examples lay out the steps needed to understanding the puzzles. They are: Translating English sentences to symbolic sentences, solving using rules of inference, and then translating back into English. These problems work with if, then statements and help students to translate the language of mathematics.
I think this article has many great suggestions and ideas. Using Lewis
Carroll?s puzzles in the classroom allows students translate between the
English language and the language of mathematics. They are stimulating
problems, which capture students' attention causing further engagement
in the activity, which in turn allows for deeper learning.
Keywords: Teaching Strategies Optional...
Ref: Kirsten6
Author(s): Artzt, Alice F.
Date: 1999
Title: Cooperative Learning in Mathematics Teacher Education
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 92, No. 1, 11-16
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: February 27, 2002
This article describes how a cooperative-learning activity was used in a college mathematics-teacher-education course to teach pre-service teachers about the values and complexities of cooperative learning. The pre-service teachers were divided into small groups and given an activity to complete, enabling them to actively learn about and reflect on cooperative learning. After completing and reflecting on the activity, they discussed several points relating to cooperative learning. They concluded that despite detailed instructions, students often do things their own ways; how the activity is structured has an impact on the participation of the members of the group; time restraints can have both positive and negative effects; the difficulty of the problem has an impact on the amount and quality of discourse that occurs within the small group; and students within the same group may have different perceptions on the solution to the problem as well as how well the group worked together.
I think this article would be very useful for all pre-service teachers
to read. It would be best if they could actually complete the activity
to fully understand how cooperative learning works, but just reading the
article provides for a different perspective on implementing cooperative
learning in the classroom. Cooperative learning is becoming widespread
throughout mathematics curriculum and all teachers need to understand the
necessity for cooperative learning in the classroom. They also must learn
how to implement it successfully and in order to do this they must become
sensitized to the many complexities of the technique.
Keywords: Activities, Connections, Communication
Ref: Kirsten7
Author(s): Zawojewski, Judith S.
Date: 1991
Title: Dealing with Data and Chance
Journal or Publisher: Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for
School Mathematics Addenda Series, Grades 5-8
Volume, Issue, Pages:
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: March 4, 2002
This volume of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' "Addenda Series, Grades 5-8," is about dealing with data and chance. The introduction begins by informing the reader about the rapidly changing role of data and chance in school mathematics. It then discusses how people naturally use data and chance in their everyday lives. It then goes on to discuss learning data and chance in middle school mathematics. The first chapter addresses data gathering by the students. It lays out several activities as a way of getting students involved in their own data collecting. The second chapter emphasizes communication both while collecting the data and when presenting the conclusions implied by the data. It also gives several actives asking students to communicate within groups as well as communicate their conclusions. Chapter 3 focuses on problem settings from which standard and nonstandard curriculum topics can be taught. It also gives several activities, which focus on problem solving. Chapter 4 focuses on reasoning and sorting through the data. Again, many examples involving reasoning are illustrated. Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on making connections. It gives activities, which involve making connections within the field of mathematics as well as making connections to language arts.
"Dealing with Data and Chance" is a great reference for teachers who
are teaching data analysis or probability as well as for teachers who want
to include a few activities relating to data and chance into their lessons.
Many good ideas for classroom activities are presented and it gives insight
as to how to meet the standards surrounding data and chance.
Keywords: Statistics
Ref: Kirsten8
Author(s): Revak, Marie A.; Jihan G. Williams
Date: 1999
Title: The Double Stuf Dilemma
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 92, No. 8
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: March 6, 2002
This article is a statistics experiment testing the hypothesis that Double Stuf Oreo cookies contain twice as much filling as traditional Oreo cookies. Students carefully separated the chocolate wafers from the creamy filling and then carefully scraped the filling onto small squares of waxed paper, which was then weighed. After they collected the data from 49 traditional Oreo cookies and 52 Double Stuf Oreo cookies, they organized the data into charts and calculated descriptive statistics and discussed the findings. They determined, by the average weight of each type of cookie, that Double Stuf Oreo cookies did not live up to the claim that they contain twice the amount of filling. However, by modifying the computational formula for the test statistic they determined that there was not sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis, so the experiment ended up supporting the ?twice the filling? claim.
I found this article to be very interesting and a wonderful way to engage
students in the learning of statistics. Who wouldn?t get excited about
working with Oreo cookies? I also found it to be very interesting that
by calculating the averages the students determined that the claim of ?twice
the filling? was false, but when it was looked at through a statistical
model, they determined that the experiment supported the claim. It would
be interesting have another group of students complete the activity and
compare their results to the results in the article and then discuss reasons
for the differences. It would also be interesting to let students decide
how they want to measure the amount of filling.
Keywords: Connections, Number Theory
Ref: Kirsten9
Author(s): Johnson, Craig. M
Date: 2001
Title: Functions of Number Theory in Music
Journal or Publisher: Mathematcis Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 94, No. 8, 700-707
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: March 11, 2002
This article examines several fundamental notions of number theory relating each to music by developing music-related functions. It is another way of applying mathematics to real-world situations outside the norm of science and engineering examples. The article discusses the music terms pitch, and octave and the position of each note. Since there are 12 notes (including sharps and flats) between octaves the author concluded that each octave could be written as a module. The specific relation between the numbers is congruence and therefore we can write y ? x (mod m). From this, he went on to conclude that by ordering the major keys according to the number or accidentals in their key signatures, we can find a relationship that can also be displayed by using modular arithmetic. By, transferring music sheets to graphs according to the number position of keys, we can show that transposition of music is simply a vertical translation on the graph and that inversion is simply the horizontal reflection across a specific note.
I found this article to be very interesting. I had always been told
that there was a connection between math and music, but no one had ever
taken the time to explain the relation between the two. This article does
a wonderful job of outlining the connections and presenting it in a clear
and understandable way. And, it gives another way of relating math to other
subjects.
Keywords: Communication, Activities
Ref: Kirsten10
Author(s): McIntosh, Margaret E.;Draper, Roni Jo
Date: 2001
Title: Using Learning Logs in Mathematics: Writing to Learn
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 94, No. 7, 554-557
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: March 12, 2001
This article uses the standards for communication among students as a basis and support for using learning logs in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of learning logs is to have students reflect on learning and learn while they are reflecting on learning. It is a running commentary, not polished writing, yet still it has tremendous value in the classroom. The two main reasons teachers have not been using learning logs is because they claimed that they took too much teacher time and too much class time. However, if done effectively learning logs take neither much teacher time nor much class time. The article also gives several suggestions for effectively implementing learning logs into the classroom.
I plan on using learning logs or a similar concept in my classroom.
It is a valuable tool in many ways, and this article helped to support
my conviction. It also provides hints and suggestions for effectively using
learning logs in the classroom, which will prove to be very helpful. "Learning
logs allow us to know students better, understand their thinking better,
communicate individually with students through written word, and to re-evaluate
instruction." Why wouldn?t you want to use learning logs in the classroom?
Keywords: Equity, Issues
Ref: Kirsten11
Author(s): Fiore, Greg
Date: 1999
Title: Math Abused Students: Are We Prepared to Teach Them?
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 92, No. 5, 403-405
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: March 18, 2001
This article begins by discussing math anxiety and how it originates. The article says that it results from parents? and teachers? attitudes towards mathematics, poor self-concept, an inability to handle frustration, and an emphasis on drill without understanding in mathematics classrooms. Most anxiety comes from the way the subject matter was presented opposed to the subject matter itself; however, the one bad experience can cause math anxiety towards all of mathematics. The article also discusses two students who both had math anxiety and their stories as to what caused it. They did well in all there other classes, but they had a fear of math. In order to understand their math anxiety, the author assigned a paper entitled ?Math and Me.? The paper was to answer the following questions. What topics in math did you like, and what topics did you dislike? Who played a positive role in your math life, and why? Who played a negative role and why? Describe good mathematics and bad mathematics. In what environments do you learn best? What environments hinder your learning? It was through these essays that the author learned of his students? math anxiety and how he could help them to overcome their fear of math. The article then offers the following suggestions for working with students who have math anxiety: create a comfortable learning environment, give encouragement, talk positively, accommodate the needs of your students, teach to understanding, and encourage students to discover their personal learning style.
I found this article to be very interesting and helpful for those of
us who have rarely struggled in mathematics classes. It gives insight into
how many of my future students will feel towards math, and what I can do
as a teacher to help them overcome their anxiety towards math. It is very
important to always encourage students and to remember the quote, ?Math
for all students.?
Keywords: Algebra, Curriculum
Ref: Kirsten12
Author(s): Nickerson, Susan E.; Nydam, Cherie; Bowers, Janet
S.
Date: 2000
Title: Linking Algebraic Concepts and Contexts: Every Picture
Tells a Story
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 6, No. 2, 92-98
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: April 6, 2002
This article is about a computer-based instructional unit designed to help students understand algebraic concepts. It uses the program SimCalc MathWorlds, which animates characters by creating graphs of position and velocity. This 3-week unit was implemented in a 7th grade mathematics classroom in a school in California. The unit has 3 themes?graphing in a coordinate plane system, writing and evaluating simple algebraic expressions, and understanding rate of change. The students then completed several actives relating to these themes. The final project was to write a story about a character and then to use the program to illustrate the story. The curriculum and computer program is available at www.simcalc.umassd.edu.
I think this sounds like a great program and curriculum for all algebra
students. The program does not require algebraic equations so student with
no algebra background can use it without first mastering algebraic equations.
However, it is also a very beneficial program for more advanced algebra
students to understand what it means to graph position and velocity. It
engages students with the use of animated characters, and it provides for
a deeper understanding of algebra.
Keywords: Assessment, Measurement
Ref: Kirsten13
Author(s): Stelle, Diana F.
Date: 2002
Title: "Assessment in Action: Mrs. Grant's Measurement Unit
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 7, No. 5, pg 266-272
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: April 10, 2002
This article outlined Mrs. Grant?s unit on measurement, highlighting her assessment of the unit. She tries to consistently integrate assessment and teaching in her lessons in correspondence with NCTM?s standards. Mrs. Grant uses open ended tasks as a way to give students opportunities to develop measurement sense and provided herself, the teacher, with context to assess the students? understanding of important measurement concepts. In her assessment of the activities throughout the unit, Mrs. Grant observes whether all students were working and discussion and she made informal assessment of student?s understanding by asking questions and listening to students? reasoning and making sure every group member was participating. She wrote down E?s for excellent, S?s for satisfactory, and N?s for needs improvement. Another way she assesses the unit is through math logs, which the students spend the first 15 minutes of every day writing in. She then assesses the final group products. However, if every member of the group is not satisfied with the results, she allows them to turn in a separate product. She also takes participation in classroom discussions into account. At the end of the unit she individually assess the students by asking them 10 questions, which ask them to explain different measurement concepts using diagrams or pictures.
I think Mrs. Grant?s method of combing assessment and teaching is wonderful and it aligns nicely with the NCTM?s standards. I plan to use all of her techniques when I have a classroom of my own. Student?s need to be assessed in many different ways, and it is much more valuable if it is integrated with teaching.
Keywords: Algebra
Ref: Kirsten14
Author(s): Forringer, Richard S.
Date: 2000
Title: (A + B + C)^2
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 1, 6-8
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: April 22, 2002
This article discussed a way of having students discover how to cube (A + B + C). It began with expressing (A + B)2 as the area of a square with sides A + B and then showing that it can be divided into 4 rectangles which when added together, equal A2 + 2AB + B2. Most first year Algebra classes deal with this concept, however this article expands that idea by next discussing (A + B)3 and then (A + B + C)2. Finally, it deals with (A + B + C)3 by first having the students determine how many solids will be involved in the cube. Students determined 27 would be used, and then they used blocks of different sizes to see if it worked. Student then put ?like blocks? together and found an expression. Then they looked for an algebraic shortcut to find the product of 3 trinomials and found one by using what they knew for (X + Y)3 and substitution of (A + B) for X and C for Y.
I think this is a great idea for helping students understand the concept of squaring and cubing. I also think it is a great way to allow students to discover the formulas and make connections.
Keywords: Geometry, Communication
Ref: Kirsten15
Author(s): Warkentin, Don R.
Date: 2000
Title: Finger Math in Geometry
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 4, 266-268
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: April 22, 2002
This article attempts to remove the language-based barriers by using hand signals or gestures along with verbal participation to facilitate communication with students who are learning English at the same time they are learning geometry. The author has developed 30 ?finger math? signals along with the help of his students, to represent different geometry concepts. When introducing a concept to his class, the author introduces a signal or gesture as a way of developing a trigger for students to remember the concepts. Several student responses to the ?finger math? were also included in the article, in which they stated that it gave them an idea of how angels or lines look, it was fun, and that it reinforces meaning. However, they also said that more talk was needed about why the hand signals represented certain concepts.
I think this is a wonderful idea to implement, especially when there are students who are not fluent in the English language, as well as when students with disabilities are members of the classroom. Not all students will value and appreciate ?finger math,? but I think it will allow several students to see math concepts represented in yet another way, and help them to understand as well as remember more.
Keywords: Problem Solving, Activities, Games
Ref: Kirsten16
Author(s): Henderson, George L.; Miller, William F.
Date: 1972
Title: Let's Play Games in Mathematics
Journal or Publisher: National Textbook Company, Skokie, Illinois
Volume, Issue, Pages: Volume 7
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: April 29, 2002
Let?s Play Games in Mathematics is a book, which gives 113 games and activities to use with seventh and eighth graders. It was written to provide a more enjoyable way for middle school students to learn mathematical concepts and skills. It contains three parts. Part One outlines selection procedures and how the book is set up, Part Two gives the 22 behavior objectives met through games and activities, and Part Three gives the 113 games and activities. It covers many content areas and behavioral objectives common in seventh and eighth grade mathematics classrooms. The content areas it covers include computation, equalities and inequalities, fractions, geometry, measurement, numbers and numerals, place value, and ratio, proportion and percent.
This book is a great resource for teachers who are looking for games or activities to use in correlations with a lesson to help students master a mathematical concept or skill, or to meet a specific objective. It covers many content areas and has many great ideas for making the mathematics classroom more enjoyable for seventh and eight graders.
Keywords: Geometry, ,
Ref: Kirsten17
Author(s): Manaster, Alfred B.; Schlesinger, Beth M.
Date: 1999
Title: Geometry Problems Promoting Reasoning and Understanding
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 92, No. 2, 114-116
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: May 1, 2002
This article was written in response to a videotape study of eighth grade mathematics classrooms, which found that there were few occurrences of mathematical reasoning in any course other than geometry. This article offers four problems as examples of ways to include justifications of interesting math in courses before geometry. They require students to follow chains of reasoning that furnish convincing justifications of correctness of general results. Each problem expands on the previous problem and they invite exploration, encourage technology, and call for writing, which combined leads to interesting and deep mathematics.
I think that it is necessary to include reasoning and justifications in all mathematics classes. This article offers four interesting problems, which leads students to reason and justify, which in turn leads to a deeper and richer understanding of mathematics.
Keywords: Communication, ,
Ref: Kirsten18
Author(s): Liedtke, Werner W.; Sales, Judith
Date: 2001
Title: Writing Tasks That Succeed
Journal or Publisher: Mathematics Teaching in the Middle
School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 6, No., 6, 350-355
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: May 7, 2002
The purpose of this article is to record the outcome of a simple project, share a list of selected examples of writing tasks in the mathematics classroom, and to discuss the role of the teacher in integrating writing and mathematics. Writing is a useful catalyst for reflections and it presents students with an opportunity to convey their ideas clearly and convincingly. The writing project that was completed for this article was an analysis of a 7th grade mathematics classroom with 31 students during the 1997-1998 school year. Before the school year began they were administered a checklist including the following statements: Writing is important in math, I enjoy writing about math, Sharing mathematical ideas can involve writing, and Reading the writing of others can show different ways of thinking about a math problem. Most students answered no to these questions at the beginning of the year, but the checklist was administered again at the end of the year after several writing tasks were given throughout the year, and many of the no?s changed to a yes. This article also gives several examples of writing tasks for the mathematics classroom as well as appropriate teacher actions.
I found this article to be very interesting. Writing about mathematics is a powerful tool in the mathematics classroom, and if it is administered in the correct way, it allows students to reach a higher level of understanding and appreciation of mathematics.
Keywords: Probability, ,
Ref: Kirsten19
Author(s): Aspinwall, Leslie; Shaw, Kenneth L.
Date: 2000
Title: Enriching Students' Mathematical Intuition with
Probability Games and Tree Diagrams
Journal or Publisher: Mathemathmatics Teaching in the Middle
School
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 6, No. 4, 214-220
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: May 7, 2002
This article describes how four 8th grade students? used their mathematical intuitions in determining fairness. The students started out flipping a coin and playing a game known as ?odd it out.? Using their idea of fairness, they determined both of these events to be fair because the players had an equal chance of winning. Next, they flipped a coin 100 times and determined how many times they expected heads to show up. Again using their intuition, they predicted that heads out show up 50 times. For activity 3, the students drew a cube from a bag in which there were 2 blue cubes for every 1 red cube. Activity 4 used this same idea; only there were 3 blue cubes for every red cube. In these activities the results no longer coincided with their predictions. They could no longer rely on their quick intuition reaction, but their intuition needed to be influenced by more thorough analysis. In order to do this, they used tree diagrams and discussed amongst themselves what was happening in each scenario.
This article is an example of how probability can be integrated into an 8th grade classroom. The activities build on one another and evoke productive discussion about outcomes, data, chance, and fairness, something rarely seen in middle school mathematics classrooms. I think these problems are a great introduction to probability and they help students to think intuitively about mathematics.
Keywords: History, Connections,
Ref: Kirsten20
Author(s): Marshall, Gerald L.; Rich, Beverly S.
Date: 2000
Title: The Role of History in a Mathematics Classroom
Journal or Publisher: The Mathematics Teacher
Volume, Issue, Pages: Vol. 93, No. 8, 704-706
Reviewer: Kirsten
Date of Review: May 11, 2002
This article discusses the need for the history of mathematics to be taught in mathematics classes along with mathematical concepts. Recently, there has been a trend of the use of history being incorporated into the classroom. In 1995, the Mathematical Association of America Institute on The History of Mathematics and Its Use in Teaching, was founded to explore how history of math can be used in the class, and in 1997, the International Study Group on the Relations between History and Pedagogy of Math (HMP) met to discuss the role of history in teaching and learning. This article also discussed 3 research studies on the topic, which concluded that there was a significant change in the attitudes of students who also studied history, historical work motivated students to learn, and the study of history facilitates understanding through reflection and expands student?s concept of mathematics. History in the mathematics classroom can promote communicating, connecting and valuing mathematics. The World Wide Web has much to offer for student?s studying the history of mathematics. www.2.math.ilstu.edu/~marshall/ is a website from Illinois State University, which promotes history in mathematics classes, and gives access a large variety of Web sites of the history of math, and is helpful for students completing projects on the topic.
I think the idea of incorporating the
history of mathematics along with the learning of mathematics concepts, is a
great way for students to make connections in their learning. Understanding
occurs, when connections are made, and for students who do not enjoy
learning mathematical concepts, seeing where the concepts originated may
help them to find meaning in mathematics. Teaching the history of
mathematics allows for a different approach to learning math, as well as
motivates students who are not interested in math.