Project: Mathematician Videos

The rules are fairly simple: Choose a mathematician -- different from anyone else in the room -- and give three interesting facts about their life, and three facts about their math, all in video that is 60-90 seconds.

In addition, students must create some sort of poster for their mathematician which is featured in the video.

As much as students are becoming used to using the camera on their phones, this seemed like the perfect marriage of skills they already have, combined with the curriculum.

For students who merely sat on the edge of their bed and filmed one continuous "selfie" while reading from note cards, the grade was closer to 70. The more creative they became, the more the grade would rise.

Ultimately, Mr. Goettman would create posters in the hallway with QR codes which linked to the different mathematicians. Since only the mathematicians were labeled, phone-users had no idea who would pop up on their phones with a 90-second video about that mathematician.

Here are some of the more interesting videos (CLICK ON THE PICTURE)

Maria Agnesi, Aryabhatta, Benjamin Banneker, George Boole

Albert Einstein, Euclid, Pythagoras, Yang Hui