Greek Mathematicians
Created By: Stacey Sims
This web quest has been designed for students of grades fourth through grades sixth as an introduction to the foundation of mathematics. The objective of this web quest is for students to create a better understanding of where the theories of mathematics came from and who was responsible for developing these theories.
Introduction Task Process Resources Evaluation
"Mine is the first step and therefore a small one, though worked out with much thought and hard labor. You, my readers or hearers of my lectures, if you think I have done as much as can fairly be expected of an initial start. . . will acknowledge what I have achieved and will pardon what I have left for others to accomplish."
Aristotle
(http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/aristotle.html)
Introduction
Have you ever wondered who was responsible for making those complicated theorems that we use in geometry and algebra? What about the fact that certain intersecting lines are called rectangles or triangles? Where did all of these interesting ideas come from?--Many of these ideas came from the great minds of Mathematicians from ancient Greece. If it weren't for these Mathematicians, we would have a harder time solving mathematical problems. For example, modern architects would have a harder time calculating distances as they would not know that the sum of the squares of two sides of a right triangle equals the square of its hypotenuse (Pythagorean Theorem). These ideas have formed the basis for the advancement of science in western civilization. This quest is going to give you the opportunity to research and to become knowledgeable about different Greek Mathematicians.
Keep these questions in mind as you begin your adventure:
Who would you like to learn about and why did you chose that person?
What part did that person play in the discovery of mathematics?
What are the important facts that you would like to share with your classmates?
Why is mathematics so important to our everyday lives.
Task
To understand the world of mathematics can be very complicated as well as fascinating, and with so much to learn it is impossible to study every mathematician. In this quest each pair of students will chose a famous Greek Mathematician to research. How can this be accomplished? It is you and your team members responsibility to research as much about the mathematician that you have chosen as possible. While inquiring about and researching your mathematician keep these questions in mind:
What is a mathematician?
Who is the most interesting mathematician you would like to learn about?
When and where was the mathematician born?
What is the mathematician most famous for?
What do he/she use their development of mathematics for?
How does the mathematicians discovery effect our everyday life?
Would life be different without that piece of mathematics?
Process
Don't forget that this is a team project and each of the pair of members will be responsible for their fullest participation. This activity will take teamwork and cooperation in order for it to be successful. It is also important to keep track of all of your discoveries in your portfolios. You may take notes, print out valuable pages, draw, or use any other skill to document what you uncover. It will be important to present any pictures of your mathematicians that you may find. Researchers remember to BE CREATIVE!! The imagination is infinite.
To Begin Your Adventure:
Meet with your groups member to decide on the mathematicians that you will be researching by clicking on the names below. Discuss what, if any, facts that you already know about the mathematician that you have chosen. Then decide on what you want to learn about the mathematician that you have chosen using questions such as:
When and where was he/she born?
What role did he/she play in the development of mathematics?
How do we use his/her ideas in our mathematics today?
Why did this person's discoveries allow him/her to become so famous?
To be successful it will be important to divide up the research. Have one group member inquire about your mathematician on one website while the other researches another. Each member will also assist in the organization of all areas including organizing information that is found, logging discoveries into your portfolio, as well as keeping the each other on task and in the right direction. Remember this is a project that will survive off of teamwork and participation of all members!!
Remember that these websites listed are only a starting point and there are more located in the resources section of this quest.
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege
While Exploring the World of Mathematics:
While researching about your mathematician you and your group members are to record what are the benefits of this mathematician's discoveries.
You will take all of the information that you have research and recorded in your portfolio you will use the information to create a poster session describing all of the important details that your classmates will need to know in order to get to know your mathematician. You must provide valid information that supports what you have written. Some of the things that your poster will need to include are:
Title: Your poster will need to have a title describing either the name of your mathematician or any theme that you and your partner may have chosen.
Facts: You and your partner's poster must provide valuable information about the mathematician that you are researching. These must be true facts about the person because you will need to support any of your ideas written on the poster.
Graphics: Your poster will also need pictures of the Mathematicians and/or drawings or your own personal artwork that reflect the person or idea that you created the poster about. Your poster should be creative and original. It should contain any graphics that may enhance the mathematics theme.
Site Resources: You and your partner will need a place somewhere on your poster to site your resources. This is very important when researching information. You must always site any information that you are using that is not apart of your own thought process instead came from someone else.
Name: The poster must contain your name somewhere on the front whether it be on the bottom or top.
Once you have created your poster with all of the valuable facts you will be required to present your mathematician in a poster session setting. You will need to be able to talk and answer any questions about your mathematician. Your classmates and I will evaluate you and base your grade on how thoroughly prepared you are and how well you inform your audience about your mathematician. Remember to be professional when you are giving your presentation and have a lot of fun!
Your poster session will consist of the following:
You will choose a part of the room to set up your poster and any information that you have on your mathematician. This will be your learning center. You will need to set up chairs in front of your center so that your audience has a place to sit.
Once you have had the opportunity to set up your learning center you will prepare to give your presentation. (You may use index cards to enhance the information on your poster, however I do not suggest strictly reading from a few index cards.)
You will then spend three minutes describing your mathematician to your audience. When the three minutes are up the teacher will have the audience rotate so that you can share your presentation with a different group of students. While you are giving your presentation your audience will be assessing based on a teacher-made rubric.
Once your have shared your presentation with the entire audience it is your turn to listen to and assess other presentations.
Resources
Greek Mathematics and its Modern Heirs
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/d-mathematics/Greek_math.html
This is a great site about the classical roots of the scientific revolution.
History For Kids
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/people/index.htm
This is a great site for kids who want to learn in more simple terms about Greek Mathematicians.
Pythagoras
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/pythagoras.htm
This is a great site for kids to learn about Pythagoras.
Greek Mathematics
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/science/math/index.htm
A great way for kids to learn about the Greek Mathematics.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Kathleen/thales.html
This is a detailed biography of Thales.
Greek Philosophy of Aristotle
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/philosophy/aristotle.htm
This site has a very thorough description of the Philosophy of Aristotle.
History of Mathematics
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/mathhist/greece.html
This webpage is a great way to see the time period of each mathematician through a valuable and accurate timeline.
Luca Pacioli
http://www.counton.org/pi/gallery2/picture1.html
This is a great site that gives a great summary of the Greek Mathematician Luca Pacioli.
http://www.rit.edu/~flwstv/presocratic.html#pythagoras
This is a site developed to discuss and highlight the Pre-Socratic Philosophers.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, Fragments and Commentary
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc/pythagor.htm
This is a detailed site that discusses the Pythagorean theory.
Great Mathematicians and Their Achievements
http://members.fortunecity.com/kokhuitan/mathematicians.html
This is a great site that describes different mathematician's accomplishments.
Era of Greek Mathematics
http://members.fortunecity.com/kokhuitan/greek.html#hippias
Throughout this page you will be able to see the different mathematicians and their contributions to mathematics.
School Time Mathematicians
http://www.kids.net.au/c.php?cat=Kids_and_Teens__School_Time__Math__Mathematicians
This is a great site for kids to learn about famous mathematicians.
Mathematicians Trading Cards
http://www.mathcards.com/index.jsp
This is a great site that describes mathematicians, just like the back of baseball cards, but with short profiles of each mathematician.
History Of Mathematics
http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/4116/History/history.htm?tqskip=1
This is a short description of the history of mathematics.
Philosophers on Mathematics
http://www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/philos/maths/faq006.htm
This site describes key philosophers and their contributions to mathematics.
Evaluation
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/d-mathematics/images/math04.jpg
Throughout this quest you will be evaluated by this student-created rubric on the following categories:
|
Categories |
Beginning (1) |
Developing (2) |
Accomplished (3) |
Exemplary (4) |
Score |
|
Teamwork and Collaboration |
The students were unable to work together in a cooperative and productive manner. | The students had difficulty cooperatively working as a team. | The students worked well together and made each decision as a team. | The students were able to work together in a very cooperative and productive manner leading to a successful completion of the project. | |
|
Creativity and Originality |
The effort made by the students showed lack of interest and very little creativity or originality. | The student's work showed some creativity by lacked originality. | The student's work showed both to be creative in thought and original in its production. | The student's worked was seen to be well-thought out and shined with not only originality but also creativity. | |
|
Thorough Completion and Accuracy of All Tasks |
The student did not accurately complete the tasks that were required. | The student partially completed the tasks that were required. | The student completed all of the required tasks with great accuracy. | The students went well beyond the required tasks to prepare and give an outstanding presentation. | |
|
Organization and Efficiency of Research and Portfolio |
The student's discoveries lacked organization and content. | The student's discoveries, although somewhat present, lacked any type of organization. | The student's discoveries were well organized and properly placed into his/her portfolio. | The student's discoveries were carefully organized and present throughout the student's portfolio. | |
|
Final Poster Presentation of Discoveries |
The student's presentation was very unorganized and hard to follow. | The student's presentation was a little hard to follow but had some valuable information in it. | The student's presentation was well prepared and contained a large amount of valuable information. | The student's presentation contained an extremely large amount of valuable and thought provoking information. | |
|
Originality of the Poster Design |
The student's poster lacked effort, creativity, and was far from the required poster. | The student's poster showed minimal effort, yet it lacked the creativity needed. | Throughout the poster the student's creativity was evident. There was a lot of time and effort placed into this poster. | This poster shined with creativity brightly stood out from all of the rest. It was clearly evident that this student spent a great deal of time creating this poster. | |
|
Poster Completed and Ready for Presentation on the Due Date |
The student did not have the materials needed to give his/her presentation. | The student's poster was somewhat ready to give his/her presentation however more, unavailable time was requested. | The student's poster as well as the student was well prepared to give his/her presentation. | The student's as well as his/her poster was completely ready to give his/her presentation well before the required time. | |
|
Students Knowledge of Mathematician Studied |
The student knew very little to no information about his/her mathematician. | The student was able to read the information off of the poster about his/her mathematician but that was the extent of his/her knowledge. | The student was not only prepared to talk about their mathematician, but also was well prepared to answer any questions that were asked. | This student was extremely well prepared to talk about his/her mathematician, and in detail, expanded on each fact that was present on the poster. | |
|
Student was Well Prepared to Give His/Her Presentation |
The student was either unprepared talk about his/her mathematician or they were unprepared to give the presentation. | The student was prepared to give the presentation, but lacked the knowledge to talk about their mathematician. | The student was not only prepared to give his/her presentation but also was prepared to talk about his/her mathematician. | The student was impressively prepared to give his/her presentation and was well knowledgeable of his/her mathematician's contributions and life. |
Rating System
31-36 Excellent Job (A)
26-30 Very Good Job (B)
22-26 Okay Job (C)
17-22 Poor Job (D)
Below 17 Very Poor (F)
