History of Math was a semester long course, complemented by a study abroad for 10 days in Spain. This class was both an honors class, and fulfilled the requirement for Goal 9, Diversity.

The artifact I chose for this class was a picture of La Sagrada Familia. While in Barcelona we visited this amazing church, which has been built for the past century, and is still in the process of being built. The reason I chose to display this picture as my artifact is because this class helped my realize that math is everywhere. I gained a new appreciation for math on both during this semester and on our trip to Spain. Beginning in the semester, we learned the different types of math that were performed in ancient times, and how different civilizations solved the same problems. To me, it was amazing to see how math as a practice has developed, and the ways that different civilizations have managed to function with the level of math that they could perform. It was also interesting to understand how math has shaped history. Without mathematicians performing important spherical trigonometry calculations, navigation practices may have never developed at the rate that they did, and sailors would not have been able to navigate across the sea.

The reason La Sagrada Familia really stuck out to me on this study abroad trip was due to the architecture. The way in which the building is constructed is fascinating, and made me wonder how it has managed to be built so tall without collapsing or structural issues (math!!). This picture represents the first time I truly appreciated how prevalent math has been throughout history, and how it effects almost everything that we do. This class has also helped me develop a perspective on how to create an interdisciplinary class. As a future teacher, I am always looking for ideas on how to format my future classroom. Merging two subject areas such as history and math made me think, how could I combine chemistry with different subject areas to provide a richer learning experience? The idea of infusing history, english, or art into science, which is predominantly paired with math, has helped me think of developing new ideas for the future.