Black History
By
Valerie Russell
Celebrating Black History month in my math classes has always been a challenge. After taking a History of Mathematics class I decided to incorporate some of what I learned. Many of the math problems were too difficult for my students. I took several texts I had been teaching from over the years and surprisingly found many problems I could relate to Black History. I have used them as opening exercises, quizzes, extra credit, and as a ticket out the door. Feel free to use these slides and add more to create your own Black History folder. Giving students a project where they have to research various mathematicians from the different ethnicities represented in class allows them to learn what their culture contributed to mathematics.