Introduction

There are many references for activities that incorporate general multiculturalism into the classroom (e.g., [4, 21, 29]). There are also numerous “women in mathematics” courses that focus on history and equity issues. Yet, except for a few sources such as [19], [23], [24], [26], and [27], sources that discuss women and minorities in mathematics do not include related activities for the classroom that contain significant mathematical content, and those that do are mainly aimed at the middle grades or high school level. This is unfortunate since students benefit from the inclusion of the achievements of women and minorities in mathematics classes, as “the result is that students will see mathematics as a discipline that transcends culture, time, and gender, and as a discipline for everyone, everywhere.” [19, page xi]

Since there were only a handful of known women and minority mathematicians before the last 200 years, an effective study of them must focus on recent history. Projects that include such recent history are harder to create because of scarce resources for the classroom, but they are beneficial because students more readily identify with these mathematicians for the reasons stated in the next section. After examining the importance of incorporating the achievements of women and minority mathematicians into classrooms, we will discuss the methodology of historical projects about mathematicians and their mathematics. Then we will explore the implementation of these projects and the inclusion of some women and minority mathematicians as we give examples related to three living mathematicians: Andrew Wiles, Carolyn Gordon, and David Blackwell.