Blog #14

Celebrate and highlight the achievements and contributions of mathematicians from diverse backgrounds and promote inclusivity and diversity in the field of mathematics.  Have you ever done an online search for mathematicians?  The results are pretty amazing.  So many different people, male and female, from all over the world, going back hundreds and hundreds of years, who have made significant contributions to the field of mathematics.  It is a blessing and a curse if you are trying to incorporate diverse mathematicians into your lessons…with so many possibilities, where do you start?

Student Research

Many of us can probably recall when we were younger being assigned the task of researching a mathematician for a report or presentation.  This is one way to provide students with the opportunity to learn about the rich diversity of backgrounds among mathematicians…letting them choose.  However, when left to their own devices (figuratively and literally), the students are likely to choose someone that they already know or have heard of, and therefore may miss out on discovering someone new and interesting.   As such, if you want to assign a research project for students to dive into, I would make the following suggestions:

• Provide a list of lesser-known mathematicians for the students to choose from.  Or, conversely, provide a list of extremely well-known mathematicians whom they CANNOT choose and let them explore from there.  Either way they are forced outside of their comfort zone and expected to find someone more obscure.

• Only allow one student to research any one mathematician.  This will encourage students to do their own digging into the person and will provide a wide variety of mathematicians to be presented to the class.  (If you have multiple sections, you may want to consider not allowing overlap between sections as well.)

• Strongly suggest the resources that will provide students with more in-depth information about their mathematician.  You could allow them to use AI to ask a question like “Tell me three interesting facts about _____________” to get a place to start, but then require that they explore those facts further and include the evidence of those facts in their project.

• Include specific questions that students must answer that go beyond the facts.  Questions that encourage students relate to the person behind the facts in some way.  You could ask something like, “What is one thing you think you might have in common with your mathematician?” or “Comment on a struggle your mathematician may have had when they were your age and why you think that way.” or “What is something you really admire about your mathematician?”  If you want to give the students choice and flexibility, provide a list of 5 – 8 questions like this and require them to pick 2 to include.

Following these suggestions will make the most of the student’s opportunity to explore the life of an interesting person.  The scope of mathematicians research will be much more broad, and it will be easier to highlight and promote the diversity and inclusivity in the field.

Mathematician of the Month (or Week, or Whatever Time Period You Want)

Allowing students to research a mathematician can be beneficial for really digging into the life of someone who has contributed to what they are studying.  But let’s be honest…many of us do not have the luxury of dedicating class time to such a project.  We have standards to get through and assessments to prepare for and time is precious.  So why not consider something like a Mathematician of the Month (or Week, or Whatever).  Maybe you have a poster of mathematicians that you can refer to and you can point out one of them every month.  Or maybe your textbook has a feature that highlights prominent mathematicians and you can follow its lead to pick one day a month to highlight that person and their accomplishments.  Schedule it into your lesson plans and take 5 minutes at the beginning of those predetermined classes.

If you want something a little more packaged and ready to go, I have created a PowerPoint presentation called “Celebrating Diversity – 18 Mathematicians” that you can find at my TPT Store.  In the presentation, I have included 18 mathematicians from various backgrounds.  Six are female and 12 are male, ranging from the 800’s to present day.  On each slide you will see the name of the individual with a picture, demographic information (when they lived, gender, and nationality) and three interesting facts.  It is currently set up so that the demographics and interesting facts each enter the slide with a click of the mouse.  You can choose a mathematician to highlight and present everything about them at once.  OR, you can choose a mathematician for the month and start by only highlighting the demographics.  Then, at different times throughout the month, you can reveal a new interesting fact.  It is easy to copy and paste the slides from my presentation into your own.  This approach will keep students more interested and “on the hook” throughout the month as you revisit your mathematician multiple times.  It should only take a few minutes at the beginning of a lesson, and still allow you to promote diversity and inclusivity in your classes. 

I hope these suggestions give you a couple of concrete, manageable ideas for how to celebrate the achievements of so many amazing people in the field of mathematics.  And if you decide to try my mathematicians presentation, let me know if it is helpful or if you have suggestions for improvement.  Until next week!