Schools : Ada Lovelace Day : girls in STEM

Ada Lovelace

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/

"That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show." 

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

Mss draft of Ada Lovelace sonnet The Rainbow (Add MS 5408

@BL_ModernMSS

"It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM."

 Ada Lovelace

credits: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

https://i.guim.co.uk/

Founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, it is now held every year on the second Tuesday of October. 

Ada Lovelace Day, aiming to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and celebrate their achievements.

 Ada Lovelace & Charles Babbage

credits: tearlel/HM Passport Office

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/

The day is named after Lord Byron’s daughter Ada, a mathematician who worked with Charles Babbage to create and program the world’s first general purpose computer, the analytical engine, creating the precursor to modern programming.

The day also includes dozens of grassroots events around the world, organised entirely independently from the ALD Live!event. 

These events take many forms — from conferences to Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thons’ to pub quizzes — and appeal to all ages, from girls to university students to women with well-established careers. Last year and was the biggest ALD to date with over 150 independently organised Ada Lovelace Day events, in 82 cities, in 25 countries. 

https://tech.co/

Some information:

Called the 'Enchantress of number' by Charles Babbage, Lovelace was the daughter of infamous poet Lord Byron and the admired intellect Annabella Milbanke. 

She studied science and maths at a time when women rarely had access to such subjects and collaborated with Babbage on his calculating machines. 

Lovelace is now celebrated for identifying the machines' potential to manipulate symbols rather than just numbers, foreshadowing modern computing a century in advance.

Ada Lovelace
Cartoon: Sydney Padua
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Education:

"In the early nineteenth century there were no 'professional' scientists (indeed, the word 'scientist' was only coined by William Whewell in 1836), but the participation of noble women in intellectual pursuits was not widely encouraged." 

And what about in the 21st century? Here we are! The reason why Ada Lovelace Day is important.

How much tech progress has there been in tech companies themselves since Ada Lovelace Day began in 2009?

"We are trying to effect cultural change,” (...) “But you don’t change culture overnight. Equality is here, but it’s not evenly distributed. Some technology companies are doing a grand job. Other companies need to work a lot harder."

“These sorts of cultural problems can be solved much more quickly than we can train up a new generation of girls and women, but I don’t think this part of the problem is being taken seriously enough.”

Charman-Anderson, Silicon Valley

Ada Lovelace Day/ Women in Science

@WomenDoingSci

I'm not a woman of Sciences. But as an expert in Humanities & Technologies in Education, And Art. But I'm a big admirer of Ada Lovelace, the English scientist. 

Ada Lovelace who continues inspiring countless girls and women and young gilrsto achieve their goals in a time of achievements of women and young girls in science, technology, engineering and maths. 

Sydney Padua

Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: the (mostly) true story of the first computer

http://knopfdoubleday.com/

Ada Lovelace is a wonderful example to our students young girls. Lovelace keeps motivating young girls to pursuit STEM studies. 

The day must be inspirational for girls to study STEM. Promoting the work of women in science and encouraging girls to enter the sciences is important for achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

So, the gap of girls and young women in science and techonology in the 21st century is still a big problem. We must  motivate the young girls to pursuit Science studies.

Ada Lovelace

@WomenDoingSci

Some thoughts:

I wrote about Ada Lovelace on my blog to students, a blog to encourage my students to learn online using the technologies.

Girls and women are more and more proving in different situations at school and in business that they are equal to men in the intelligence and capacity.

This begins early in school where girls must be encouraged to access to science and technolyogy.

The aim is to encourage creativity in the field of science and new technologies and highlight the importance of developing innovative skills at an early age.

Sometimes, "women leave tech for a variety of reasons, such as not seeing opportunities for advancement, hostile male culture, feelings of isolation – it’s not that they want to leave to have a family, as is often assumed."

Charman-Anderson, Silicon Valley.

However, we must not give from encourage our students to achieve their goals in STEM.

Resources: Useful links

Finding Ada
http://findingada.com/blog/

On Ada Lovelace Day, we break down how diverse tech companies actually are
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/ada-lovelace-day-tech-company-diversity-equality

Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: the (mostly) true story of the first computer by Sydney Padua
https://penguinrandomhouse.tumblr.com/post/117282649895/pantheonbooks-hey-ada-lovelace-fans-looking

Sydney Padua: 'Once I started drawing Ada Lovelace, I couldn't stop' (graphic book)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/11/ada-lovelace-day-sydney-padua-babbage


G-Souto

11.10.2016
Copyright © 2016G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Schools : Ada Lovelace Day : Girls & STEM by  G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.