Teaching a Course in the History of Mathematics
The intent of this page is to gather together information on teaching
courses on the history of mathematics. It is intended to be especially
helpful to first time teachers of such courses. The proximate reason
for creating this page is the following minicourse at the annual MAA meeting in
TEACHING A COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
V. Frederick Rickey, U.S. Military Academy
Victor J. Katz, University of the District of Columbia
Many schools are introducing courses in the history of mathematics and asking
faculty who may never have taken such a course to teach them. This minicourse
will assist those teaching history by introducing participants to numerous
resources, discussing differing approaches and sample syllabi, providing
suggestions for student projects and assessments, and giving those teaching such
courses for the first time the confidence to master the subject themselves and
to present the material to their students.
Download materials for this minicourse.
PowerPoint used during the minicourse.
Topics to be discussed:
I. How to Organize a Course
Who is your audience
and what are their needs?
What are the
aims of your course?
the nature of mathematics and its history.
Types of history courses.
Textbooks for survey courses and
comments about them.
Textbooks for other types of courses.
The design of your syllabus.
Is a field trip feasible?
History of Math Courses on the Web
II. Resources in the History of Mathematics
Electronic library catalogues and
Electronic discussion groups.
III. Student Assignments
use the library.
What to do about problem sets?
Joint or individual projects?
Written projects and/or oral reports?
Possible student paper topics.
Projects for prospective teachers.
IV. How to Prepare Yourself
Start a reading program now!
your course day by day.
Resources available to the teacher.
Is there a course
in the history of mathematics at your school?
Advertising your course.
Get to know your
library and librarians.
Record keeping for the history of mathematics teacher.
V. Evaluation of Your Course
Evaluation by the instructor.
Evaluation by the students.
Evaluation by outside "experts".
You may be interested in the original
for this minicourse. It contains a tentative list of topics that will be covered.
Hopefully it will be of interest to people who are considering submitting a proposal
for an MAA minicourse on any topic.
Return to the Fred Rickey's home page.
If you have comments, send email to V. Frederick Rickey at
First posted 2 December 1996. Most recent revision: January 2009.