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Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 5, “Mathematicians in History: Patterns, Order, and Relationships” (3rd-4th)

Posted by on Friday, June 27, 2025 in blog, SAVY.

Dear SAVY Families,  

 

I can’t believe that we have completed our time together in Mathematicians in History. This group of SAVY students impressed me in countless ways, and I am so grateful that I got to spend part of my summer learning with and from them.  

 

To start our Friday, we spent the morning learning about our last two mathematicians: Carl Gauss and Sophie Germain. The SAVY mathematicians were excited to study another woman, and one of the few women whose work is recorded in early mathematics history. Germain worked with palindromes, a number that reads the same both forward and backward. We learned that most numbers can be turned into palindromes using the “reverse and add” method. However, some numbers require this to be done more than once. The SAVY mathematicians were given eight numbers to determine how many steps it would take to turn the number into a palindrome. Additionally, Germain worked with number theory. The SAVY mathematicians were given a set of numbers and had to factor the numbers into primes. Many mathematicians were excited to use their known strategy of number trees to solve these problems.  

 

Next, we studied Carl Gauss. Gauss is known for being the founder of modern number theory, and he worked specifically with prime numbers. The SAVY mathematicians were quick to note that Gauss came from a poor family, which broke our previously noted pattern that the famous mathematicians came mostly from wealthy families. To model Gauss’s work, the SAVY mathematicians had to come up with strategies to solve two problems. The first was: How can you find the sum of the first 100 counting numbers? The second was: How can you find the sum of the first 50 odd numbers? The mathematicians used the habits of a scholar to persevere through this task. Gauss was a mathematician very well-liked by our SAVY mathematicians, as he, along with Newton and Archimedes, is considered one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. 

 

This afternoon, we spent time creating a final poster presentation. The SAVY mathematicians were asked: “In your opinion, which of the mathematicians we studied deserves the title of ‘Greatest of All Time’?” This question invited a respectful debate among the SAVY mathematicians, and many were very excited to create a poster in defense of their opinion. On this poster, the mathematicians were required to include biographical information about their chosen mathematician, details of the mathematician’s contributions, the historical context for their mathematician, and connections to our generalizations of relationships. Each of these domains provided evidence as to why their chosen mathematician should be considered the greatest of all time. While all the mathematicians were given the same set of expectations, I was very impressed with the creative angles from which they took this project. After completing the posters, the mathematicians each had 3 minutes to present their posters. While some mathematicians were intimidated by this at first, I was really proud of their bravery to stand up and share their ideas with the class. Some mathematicians did not complete their poster, so they may ask to complete these at home. We ended our day with a final closing circle, synthesizing all our ideas from the week and revisiting our big questions: Is mathematics discovered or invented? Students reflected on whether their opinion changed on that question throughout the week. We also revealed the answer to another question posed earlier in the week: How many people do you have to ask to find two people with the same birthday? Pascal’s probability says only 23! 

 

Questions to ask your mathematician:  

  • Who was Carl Gauss? What were his contributions to mathematics? 
  • Who was Sophie Germain? What were her contributions to mathematics?  
  • How did Carl Gauss and Sophie Germain follow the noted patterns in the lives of the mathematicians we studied? How did they break those patterns? 
  • Who was your favorite mathematician that you studied this week? Why?  
  • Which of the mathematicians deserves the title “Greatest of All Time?” Why? 
  • Is mathematics discovered or invented? Did your opinion on that question change throughout the week? 
  • Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss are often referred to as the three greatest mathematicians of all time. Do you agree or disagree? Why?  

 

The SAVY mathematicians truly exceeded every expectation this week. I am so proud of their hard work and for dedicating a week of their summer to learning more about math. Their SAVY Mathematician Binder intentionally includes many pages that are not complete to encourage future learning and exploration at home. There is even a biography and set of activities about a mathematician we did not get the chance to study, Leonhard Euler, found in the back of their binders. I know that each of the SAVY mathematicians will excel in their upcoming school year, and I hope to see all of these mathematicians in a future SAVY class.  

 

Sincerely,  

Ms. Gruchot