About the book

This book was developed at the University of Western Ontario. The development of the book was supported by the Open Educational Resources Grant and Support Program. The program is a partnership between Western Libraries, the Instructional Technology Resource Centre, Centre for Teaching and Learning, and Western Research’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team.

The book was created by Vera Sarina, a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, with invaluable contributions from many people. My special thanks go to my students, pre-service teachers Andrew Rethazi and Emily Deeb who wrote solutions to the problems in the book. And I cannot thank enough Abby Chapman and Sophie Furtado of Centre for Teaching and Learning for transforming all my materials into this beautiful multimedia book.

The intended audience of the book is current and future teachers of Mathematics.

Solving word problems is considered to be the most challenging and boring part of mathematics learning by many students. To engage students and make them enthusiastic about solving word problems is a goal not easily achieved. An open online multimedia book of historical problems where problems are accompanied by stories introducing the historical/cultural context of the problems could hopefully do the trick in your classroom.

The book aligned with the Grade 7-9 Ontario mathematics curriculum (which is consistent with to the Content Core Standards) that gives teachers an easy-to-use tool to bring history into math classrooms and at the same time engage and motivate students in problem solving.

The book has three parts: Chapters, Solutions and Teacher Supports.

Chapters

Each chapters has four components:

• Map and Timeline. Map and Timeline are not specific for each Chapter. However, all the regions and times where the problems in the book come from are present on Map and Timeline.
• Introduction. The purpose of Introductions is to place the topic of a Chapter into its cultural and historic context.
• Problems. The problems of each Chapter are drawn from various historical sources. Their subject is the topic of the particular Chapter. Problems are numbered and open as drop-down items.
• Stories. Each set of problems is preceded by a story from the geographical and cultural context of the problems. The stories are narrated. Narrations are included in each story.

Solutions

The solutions to problems are sorted by the Chapters. Solutions are numbered as their corresponding problems. Solutions open as drop-down items.

Teacher Supports

Teacher Supports include:

• Connections to Curriculum Expectations.
• Sample Lesson Plans