Assignment: Great Mathematicians

This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.

Assignment: Great Mathematicians
Create a short film about a famous mathematician. Tell the story of their life, and explain why their work is important.

Suggested techniques
You can do this using an on-screen presenter, or completely with voice-over, or even have the author narrate their own life. You could interview the author in the style of a chat show.

Intersperse the presentation with still images and video if appropriate. Create diagrams to illustrate theories if necessary.

You could do this as a studio presentation or lecture, and display the images on a screen behind the presenter, or else you can make the images go full-screen.

Add extra content on-screen by using text to complement what you’re saying.

Add appropriate background music to create atmosphere, and ensure you have a striking title sequence.

For teachers: benefits to students

• Students get the opportunity to talk about mathematical concepts and theories in an interesting way.
• It gives students a perspective on history in mathematics, and helps them put things into a different context.
• Adding multimedia content enables the student to approach the subject in a richer way than just using written text and still images.
• Finding or creating images and music to enhance the presentation requires detailed research.
• Providing narration builds confidence in speaking without needing to do it in front of an audience or camera.
• Creating a multimedia presentation helps develop presentational skills and requires the student to consider what information is best presented using the different media: spoken, written, or visual.

Suitability

• Ages 14+
• Suitable for solo work
• Mathematics, History