Topics
for Final Research Project in College Geometry
Biographical:
Archimedes
Rene Descartes -- The Arithmetization of Geometry
Pierre Fermat -- Prelude to Calculus
M. C. Escher -- Symmetry and Beauty
Kurt Godel -- The Impact of Incompleteness
David Hilbert and the Formalist Program
Felix Klein and the Erlannger Programm
Bolyai, Lobachevsky and Gauss -- The Discovery of
Non-Euclidean Geometry
Benoit Mandelbrot -- The "Father" of Fractals
G.F.B. Riemann and the "Curvature" Revolution of the
Conception of Space
Topical:
Archimedean and Platonic Solids
Graph Theory and the Four-Color Theorem
Origami Geometry -- The Axioms of Paper-Folding
Logical Paradoxes and Fallacies
Topology (or rubber-sheet Geometry)
The Geometry of Kaleidocycles
Projective Geometry and Art
Penrose Tilings and Non-Periodic Tilings
Knots and the Study of DNA
The Geometry of Space-Time, Relativity
Spherical Geometry
The Geometry of Linkages
Solid (3-dimensional) Geometry
Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality
Teaching and Education:
Visualization in Mathematics Education
(What is appropriate role?)
Proofs and Abstract Reasoning in Secondary Geometry
Courses
The use of Technology in the Teaching of Geometry
(or Mathematics generally)
Discovery-Learning in the Teaching of Geometry (or
Mathematics generally)
Psychology and Geometry: Perception and Learning
(How do we "best" learn
geometrical ideas?)
Turtle Geometry and Logo
Advanced:
Differential Geometry of Surfaces
Minimal Surfaces
The Geometry of Splines and NURBS
Sphere Packing and the Kepler Conjecture
The Poincare Conjecture
The Geometry of CAT scans and other medical imaging
systems