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Re: 7th IHPST Newsletter 1



Please excuse this cross-posting, in the interest of
interdisciplinary synergy, to discussion lists with archives at:

Math-Learn <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/math-learn/>,

Math-Teach <http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach>,

Phys-L <http://lists.nau.edu/archives/phys-l.html>,

PhysLrnR <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/physlrnr.html>,

DEWEY-L (John Dewey Discussion List, sadly - no easily accessible archives!


In his PhysLrnR post of 13 Nov 2002 09:49:57-0700 titled "7th IHPST
Newsletter 1," Dewey Dyksta wrote:

"We are sending this note to invite you to participate in the next
conference of the International History, Philosophy and Science
Teaching Group to be held next summer at the University of Winnipeg
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in collaboration with the University of
Manitoba. Plans and preparations for the conference are proceeding
well. So far, the organizing committee has obtained a grant from
Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to assist
with the running of the conference, a website has been launched, and
a Call for Papers has been issued. To date, we have received 25
committed paper contributions to the conference, which are listed,
along with abstracts, on our website,
<http://www.ihpst.uwinnipeg.ca>."

If one clicks on the above URL and then clicks on "Confirmed Papers" s(he) will
find among the distinguished invitees Michael Matthews, Jonathan
Osborne, and PhysLnR's own Sanjoy Mahajan, who will present a talk
on:

HASSLER WHITNEY'S IDEAS FOR HUMANISTIC MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Sanjoy Mahajan, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

"Abstract: Late in his career (why is it always so?), the great
topologist Hassler Whitney became fascinated by mathematics
education. He discovered the classic and mostly forgotten papers of
Louis Benezet (1935, 1936), worked with schoolteachers and
mathematics educators, and produced a huge number of papers, almost
all unpublished. They are a treasure of teaching ideas in the
democratic and humane tradition of Dewey and Benezet. Simply because
it is an enjoyable story, I will discuss how I found the papers. .
.(finally tracked through superb detective work and a bevy of
bloodhounds to the 'Robert B. Davis Institute for Learning' at
Rutgers University). . . .; and then discuss some of the ideas and
their historical origins. Perhaps we can rid teaching of its current
locust infestation: testing, testing, and more testing."

More regarding the Whitney/Benezet connection can be found at
Sanjoy's excellent Benezet Centre
<http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/>. The "History
and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching" (HPSST-L) website is
at <http://post.queensu.ca/listserv/wwwarch/hpsst-l.html>.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.