Indy Lagu
In the fall of 2020, I had the privilege of teaching an undergraduate course called Mathematics Through the Ages. This senior course is taken almost exclusively by preservice teachers. As COVID-19 restrictions forced us into Google Meet instead of the classroom, the semester could have been very difficult. It was made a lot easier by the lovely group of students I had the pleasure to work with.
My idea for this course was to look at several mathematics topics through a historical lens. Most mathematics classes spend almost zero time on the history of the discipline, and even less on the people involved.
For the final project, I asked my students to investigate any topic in mathematics that interested them, write a paper and then give a 15-minute presentation to the class.
Several students decided to write about female mathematicians. I suggested that they submit their papers to delta-K. The resulting articles, which are intended for a general audience, are as follows:
• “A Brief Biography of Sophie Germain,” by Jennifer Kraft
• “Eugenia Cheng: An Inspiring Mathematician,” by Mackenzie Ha, Ihn-Ah Jung and Joseline Ortiz Cardenas
• “The Greatest of All: Female Mathematician Emmy Noether,” by Shenaé Richards
• “Mary Everest Boole: Present-Day Uses of Math from the Past,” by Kaitlyn Neal
I hope that the work of these students inspires you to investigate some mathematicians and weave their remarkable stories into your classes.
Indy Lagu is an associate professor of mathematics at Mount Royal College, in Calgary, and MCATA’s department of mathematics representative.
