Hands on History：A Resource for Teaching Mathematics

With a few simple tools and a surprisingly small number of parts, mathematics instructors from around the US present ways to make historical instruments and learning devices, producing labyrinths, Napier's Bones, the Towers of Hanoi, Pythagorean and string models, French curves, a panimeter, a cycloid pendulum clock and a brachistocrone. As each project is the pet of an individual instructors, information on projects varies but most include background on the mathematics behind the construction, step-by-step instructions on building and operating the device, a list of references, and illustrations, which vary from period line art to amateurish snapshots. Depending on the project, this could work to liven up students from elementary school through college. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Amy Shell-Gellash is currently a faculty fellow at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She is the Programs Chair for the History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the MAA as well as Chairing the MAA Committee on SIGMAA's. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1989, her master's degree from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in 1995, and her doctor of arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000. Her dissertation was a biographical piece on mathematician Mina Rees. Most recently, she conducted research with V. Fredrick Rickey on the history of the Department Sciences at the United States Military Academy, where she was an Assistant Professor.