This website is a collection of resources for incorporating the history of mathematics in Multivariable Calculus and Differential Geometry.  The user can search to find articles or content that relate to the history of a topic and, possibly, activities for incorporating this history in the classroom.

In their Curriculum Guide (MAA, 2004), the Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM) recommends that mathematics programs “guide students to learn mathematics in a way that helps them to better understand its place in society: its meaning, its history, and its uses” in order “to serve all students well – not only those who major in the mathematical or physical sciences.”  Teaching history in the context of standard lower division courses, like Multivariable Calculus, will help other majors also see history despite the fact that these students are unlikely to take a course in the history of mathematics.  Generation and organization of materials is provided to facilitate the inclusion of history in context.

As one student noted:

Seeing the individuals gave me a glimpse of the people in math.  This was the most interesting to me.  It showed the personal side of math.  I think people see math as the most impersonal and generic of the subjects.  This is far from the case.  By seeing the work these people do I have a new respect for the math that makes much of life possible.  If all people were to see these examples and applications, they would think the same.

The strength of this reaction is exactly the reason that we use history in context and this is the kind of response that we hope for in all of our students.

This project was supported in part by an Appalachian Foundation Fellows Grant.