History of Mathematics Sources on the World Wide Web
COURSE EFFORTS (1)
Course Efforts
Overview
A number of instructors have put together resources for their history of mathematics classes. These range from simply demonstrating student work on the Web to putting together larger collections of materials for their classes and outside use. Some of the most successful efforts have been those that are cumulative, pooling contributions from a series of classes to make for a site rich in content and genuinely useful to the community.
In addition to providing content for use by other students, putting projects on the Web is a good motivator. Students are able to reach out to a vast audience, thereby imparting value to their work. Additionally, quality tends to increase since students will be much more hesitant to turn in shoddy work.
Most efforts have been made at the post-secondary level, but several sites built by high school students exist. One site, written entirely by fourth-grade students, shows that age need not be a barrier to the use of history in the classroom.