Math Teaching

Most of my teaching is in the field of algebra, geometry, history, or their interactions, often related to computers in one way or another.

For my lecture on mathematics for computer scientists I was awarded a teaching award in 2012 by the computer science students at Saarland University.

Oliver Labs during a talk on cubic surface sculptures at MO-Labs

Recent and Upcoming Courses

  • summer term 2020:
    – Elementary Number Theory and Cryptography (4 hours per week, course at the Hochschule RheinMain at Rüsselsheim, Germany)
  • winter term 2019/20:
    – Mathematics and its History – Fractals, (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)
  • summer term 2019:
    – Mathematics and its History – Mathematical Sculptures, (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)
    – Elementary Algebraic Geometry, (4 hours per week, course at the Hochschule RheinMain at Rüsselsheim, Germany)
  • winter term 2018/19:
    Mathematics and its History – Symmetry, (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)
  • summer term 2018:
    – Mathematics and its History – Infinity to the 4th, (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)
    – Elementary Number Theory and Cryptography, (4 hours per week, course at the Hochschule RheinMain at Rüsselsheim, Germany)
  • winter term 2017/18: Mathematics and its History – Cryptography (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)
  • summer term 2017: Mathematics and its History – Geometry (2 hours per week, course for elder people as part of the study 50+ project at the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz, Germany)

A large Variety of Audiences

I teach mathematics to people at all ages:

  • school kids (since 2008): e.g., I was a teacher of a math course, grade 7 to 8 (12-14 year-old kids), 3-4 hours per week, for 2 school years,
  • students at university level (since 2001): lots of different kinds of math lectures and seminars,
  • 50+ (since 2013): seminars on math and math history; intended audience: people who are older than 50 years, and who are interested to learn some mathematics which is usually not taught at school, but whose level of difficulty is not too high,
  • visitors of science exhibitions at all ages (since 2008); e.g., at the “Mit-Mach-Ausstellung” at Ingelheim (accessible even for pre-school kids, but fun also for 40-year-olds and 80-year-olds), or at the “Imaginary” exhibition which tours through the world since the “German Math Year 2008”.

Math Subjects taught

Over the years, I have taught quite a number of different subjects. Most are related to one or several of the following topics:

  • basic mathematics,
  • geometry,
  • algebra,
  • computational mathematics,
  • geometric modelling,
  • history of mathematics,
  • mathematical illustrations (2d, but also 3d such as mathematical models),
  • didactics of mathematics,
  • dynamic geometry software such as Cinderella or GeoGebra.

Some lecture notes

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