Introduction
In this WebQuest, students will explore how modern day Algebra came about. The person of interest here is Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who is known for the father of Algebra. As you know, in most of your time spent in Mathematics courses, tons of time is spent going over Algebraic topics. But how did Algebra come about??? Why is this so important to our every-day lives? What would a modern-day world look like if the concepts in algebra were not discovered? This WebQuest will hopefully answer these questions. This will be accomplished by having a team of researchers find out the historical facts about Algebra and Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi to piece together and solve this mathematical mystery.
Task
In this assignment, students will be broken up into groups of three or four. One member of the group will be the "detective", doing the research and gathering up facts. These "facts" will be organized by the detective in an outline format where there will be one column designated for historical findings, a second column for books written and published by Al-Khwarizmi, a third column for mathematical problems attempted by Al-Khwarizmi. A second member of the group will serve as the "reporter". The reporter's job is to take the facts written down by the detective and write a informative essay that will be submitted to the Cleveland Historical Society. This essay should be three pages long with at least three references at the end done in MLA format. For tips on how to cite a paper in MLA, consult https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. A third member of the group will serve an "interviewer". The interviewer's job will be to interview a member from the Cleveland Historical Society to build a rapport with them. As part of the interview, statements will be made to the curator about the historical findings and will explain why it is so important that Al-Khwarizmi's work be added to the site. Also, the interviewer will pose questions regarding if this would have an impact on the community as well as an impact on the curator's life. These interview questions should be typed out and be double-spaced. The fourth member will be the "curator" of the Historical Society and will evaluate the points that the interviewer has brought fourth. This is an important job because its the curator's responsibility to evaluate the facts and use that evaluation to make the final decision whether the research should be published and included in the Historical Society. The evaluation piece should be typed up and follow MLA guidelines. For groups of three, I will act as the curator. Finally, in addition to the above, each member of the group will write a reflection piece describing how the research experience went. The reflection piece should be written in MLA format and be no more than one page.
Process
- The detective will be responsible for gathering historical bits of information pertaining to the work of Al-Khwarizmi's life and his contributions to modern mathematics, specifically algebra. The detective should consult these sources:
- The reporter's job is to construct an informative essay that will be published to the Cleveland's Historical Society. Note: It is crucial that both the detective and the reporter work together on this because it is going to be the facts that the detective finds and writes down that will serve as a backbone for the informative essay. It would also be useful if the reporter adds to his or her essay some facts about the political, economic, and social attributes of the country and time period that Al-Khwarizmi lived in. Knowing this will give the readers a deeper understanding of what drove Al-Khwarizmi's decisions for doing his research. Some sources to consult:
- file:///C:/Users/2635700/Downloads/FINAL%20PAPER.pdf
- https://sunnahmuakada.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/al-khwarizmi-the-father-of-computer-science-and-algebra/
- https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/cross-cultural-diffusion-of-knowledge/a/the-golden-age-of-islam
- https://themuslimtimes.info/2013/09/03/the-father-of-algebra-muhammad-ibn-musa-al-khwarizmi/
- The interviewer and the curator are going to essentially use the evidence that the detective and reporter found to come up with a decision of whether this information is worthy enough to be admitted to the Cleveland Historical Society. They both have to listen to each other and weigh the facts. This job is equally important and has a basis on the facts found by the interviewer and detective so you must work together on this. I will be assessing the thought and contribution put into this and also I will be looking to see if the questions that the interviewer poses as well as the evaluation piece from the curator tie into the research that the detective and reporter found. So, in another words, if you are lazy with the interview and the evaluation, it will adversely affect your grade.