History of Mathematics in and for the Curriculum
1. Websites
British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) exists to promote research
into the history of mathematics and its use at all levels of mathematics education.
The Society's Bulletin is published by Taylor and Francis, and carries a wide range of
articles and reviews of interest to the history of mathematics and mathematics
education communities.
This link provides information about how to join the Society; this site also contains
information about the Society and its history, its current activities, and various
resources on the history of mathematics.
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/
There is now a BSHM Education site:
http://www.bshmeducation.org/education.html
MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/
The most reliable source for biographies and discoveries of mathematicians, accounts
of civilisations and cultural aspects, particular topics and many other items.
Mathematical Sciences Digital Library (MathDL) is sponsored by the Mathematical
Association of America.
http://convergence.mathdl.org/jsp/index.jsp
It has an on-line publication called LOCI with a subsection called CONVERGENCE
a collection of resources for teaching mathematics using its history.
http://convergence.mathdl.org/mathDL/23/
Biographies of Women Mathematicians can be found at:
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm
For Mathematicians of the 17th and 18th Centuries go to:
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/RBallHist.html
The History of Mathematical Words, Symbols and Notation
http://jeff560.tripod.com/mathword.html
and
http://jeff560.tripod.com/mathsym.html
Here there are links to images of mathematicians on postage stamps and words that
are ambiguously defined in school books.
NRICH
These articles are mostly for KS3, KS4, KS5 and some A Level.
Leo Rogers’ history ‘episodes’.
I have added what I am calling ‘Pedagogical Notes’ to each of these.
© Leo Rogers.
Revised June 2009
Leo.Rogers@education.ox.ac.uk
Oxford University
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History of Mathematics in and for the Curriculum
From a Random World to Rational Universe
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6120
Randomness and Brownian Motion
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6127
History of Time Measurement
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6070
History of Negative Numbers
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=5961
Proof - Brief Historical Survry
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=5996
The Four Colour Theorem
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6291
Geometry from Practice to Abstraction
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6352
A History of Algebra - Part 1 Visualisation
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6485
Some selected topics by other people:
The Ishango Bone
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6013
Understanding Hypotheses
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6178
Women in Maths
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=5748
Negative Numbers
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=5747
The Victorian Classroom
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=5892
History of Astronomy
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=2567
History of Time and Measurement
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6070&part=notes
Babylonian Numbers
http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6001
If you go to the ‘Search NRICH’ box at the top of the main page and put in ‘History’
you will find a wide range of topics and articles all classified by Key Stage.
MOTIVATE
This is the Video Conference site for schools set up by the Millennium Mathematics
project and run by Cambridge University.
http://motivate.maths.org/
Click on ‘Mathematics’ under Conference Programmes to find the list of video
conferences and you will find Babylonian Mathematics (for 11-13 yr olds) at:
http://motivate.maths.org/conferences/conference.php?conf_id=175
Eleanor Robson is one of the world’s foremost experts in Babylonian Mathematics
and a member of BSHM.
Here you can download Eleanor Robson’s PowerPoint presentation, copies of the
© Leo Rogers.
Revised June 2009
Leo.Rogers@education.ox.ac.uk
Oxford University
2
History of Mathematics in and for the Curriculum
project work and pages on numbers and fractions. (and for 8 - 10 yr olds) at:
http://motivate.maths.org/conferences/conference.php?conf_id=153
Maths is Good for You
This site is run by Snezana Lawrence at Simon Langton School in Canterbury.
http://www.mathsisgoodforyou.com/
This site is growing and has a number of good ideas and historical materials for use in
schools.
© Leo Rogers.
Revised June 2009
Leo.Rogers@education.ox.ac.uk
Oxford University
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