Famous Mathematicians

1st Six Weeks Extra Credit Assignment

Due: October 1st, 2014
(Late submissions will not be accepted)
Objective: Students will participate in an independent research study on a famous mathematician from our history.

Task:
1. You will need to select a mathematician from the following list. If you would like to choose a mathematician not on
this list, please check with me first.
 Ada Lovelace  Florence  Mary Lucy
 Albert Einstein Nightingale Cartwright
 Archimedes  Galileo Galilei  Nicolo Tartaglia
 Aristotle  Girolamo Cardano  Pierre De Fermet
 Blaise Pascal  Grace Hopper  Ptolemy
 Bonaventura  Hypatia  Pythagoras
Cavalieri  James Gregory  Rene Descartes
 Carl Friedrich  Johannes Kepler  Simon Stevin
Gauss  John Nash  Sir Isaac Newton
 Charles Babbage  John Wallis  Sophie Germain
 Erastosthenes  Leonardo Pisanot  Srinivasa
 Euclid of Fibonacci Ramanujan
Alexandria  Leonhard Euler  Thales

2. Complete research to learn about the famous mathematician that you chose. Use the “Let Me Introduce
You” document to help guide your research. This document must be turned in with your extra credit.

3. Select one of the project forms for presenting the research.

 Poster
 Power Point
 Brochure
 Book/Booklet
 Essay

4. Your final product needs to be written in complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation. All
components from the “Let Me Introduce You” document need to be on your final presentation, including the
Bibliography/Works Cited!!! Your thoughts should be organized and your choice of presentation should be
neat and presentable.

Assessment Rubric:

_____ 25 pts. Complete the “Let Me Introduce You” form

_____ 25 pts. Final presentation includes all necessary information
_____ 25 pts. Creativity of presentation
_____ 25 pts. Quality of final presentation
_____ 100 pts. (Total points)
 Let Me Introduce You
Your Name __________________________

Take notes on the following outline to research your mathematician. Complete sentences are
unnecessary for this document. This must be attached to your final extra credit project.

A. The Essentials
1. Name

2. Date of Birth

3. Birthplace

4. Age at Death

B. Three historic world events that occurred during his/her life (Ex. World War II)
1.

2.

3.

C. Education
Where did your mathematician get his/her education as a young adult and also into adulthood?

What was his/her education like?

How did his/her education affect his/her math career?

D. Adult Life
How did your mathematician’s adult life include math?

What were some of his/her accomplishments in math?

Was your mathematician famous for anything outside of the world of math?
E. How The World Has Been Affected
How did your mathematician’s accomplishments affect other mathematicians?

Did he/she have any famous inventions or math formulas?

How did his/her work in math affect us today?

F. Two interesting events from his/her life

1.

2.

H. Bibliography/Cited Words
List the different website links, books, or other articles you used for this project.

1.

2.

3.