Zain Rehmtulla

  The Math History project taught me a lot about the connections to history and how to incorporate it into mathematics today. Before deciding on Shadow reckoning, I perused through various topics. I decided on shadow reckoning because of its clear and straightforward application to students. Given that the lower level maths (Math 9) are taught in every school and are often given to new teachers and the concept involved in shadow reckoning is related to similar triangles, I figured it would be a good topic to discuss. I first read an article that talked about the thinking of Thales a Greek Mathematician who travelled across the world. He wanted to find the height of pyramids and it’s intriguing how he used his height and measured the distance using pacing. I question how he was able to get the distance of his shadow as he would need some assistance to find the distance. I think there’s a great lesson here that math is not some abstract concept and can be applied into daily life ...

I think this concept of drawing in the sand and the idea of the constraint of their bodies is a brilliant way to make use of the land. I definitely believe that this idea needs to be more incorporated into a classroom. Classrooms have so many geometrical objects. For example, for a unit on surface area or volume, the teacher could make use of different constructions of the tables. I remember, when I took an undergraduate educational course on teaching and learning, the professor made two paper constructions and proved that the volume of a cylinder was greater than that of a cone even though the cylinder was much larger in height. She then filled the paper constructions with rice. What I thought was clever was that the proof tied nicely by taking the rice from one container and putting it into the other one which demonstrated it visually. I think this idea of using grains, whether it’s grains of rice, sand, quinoa, etc. is very useful as it’s inexpensive and can be used in various appli...

  The Pythagorean theoroem is a theorem that is an integral part of the BC curriculum today; yet, the history of the theorem is never considered. In fact, the gou-gu theorem was similar to the pythagoream theorem and is written in ancient chinese literature. Moreover, the Zhou Bi Suan Jing contains a method for fiding sides of right-angles triangles. I think there is much value in students’ learning the non-European sources of Mathematics. If we are examining the pythagorean theorem for instance, the Chinese were more concerned with practical measurements and geometric constructions, while the Greeks were concerned with abstract reasoning and formal proofs. Therefore, it would cater to certain learners to perhaps approach the theorem from a geometric viewpoint instead of a more algebraic/numerical one. Consequently, it would also encouarge students to think critically about their solutions and how there is more than one method to solve a problem.   Moreover, I think it...