Schools : Women in Science : Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan & Mary Jackson ! Resources

Katherine Johnson [1918-20209]

credits: Associated Press

The well known mathematician Katherine Johnson, who we know from the film Hidden Figures, based on the book Hidden Figures passed away today at the age of 101. 

Johnson is perhaps best known for helping NASA prepare for the orbital mission of John Glenn, but that was far from her only achievement or contribution to space exploration.

Portrait of Katherine Johnson

credits: NASA

"Katherine Johnson not only helped calculate the trajectories that took our Apollo astronauts to the Moon — she was champion for women and minorities in the space program and the world as a whole. We honor her memory today."

NASA

• Katherine Johnson:

In 1953, after years as a teacher and later as a stay-at-home mom, she began working for NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. 

The NACA had taken the unusual step of hiring women for the tedious and precise work of measuring and calculating the results of wind tunnel tests in 1935. 

 

Katherine Johnson working at the NASA Langley Research Center, 1980

credits: Getty Images

In a time before the electronic computers we know today, these women had the job title of “computer.”  

By 1953 the growing demands of early space research meant there were openings for African-American computers at Langley Research Center’s Guidance and Navigation Department – and Katherine Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to work.

NASA’s Langley Research Center, where Johnson worked for some 33 years, NASA will carry forward her legacy. Katherine Johnson believed in equality. She overcame obstacles to achieve great things and make life better for others.

She was portrayed in the 2016 Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures.

Katherine Johnson [1918-2020]

credits: unknown

Education:

• Books

Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly, 2017

https://www.amazon.co.uk/

This young readers' edition of Shetterly's #1 New York Times bestseller tells the powerful story of African-American mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, whose work in a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as 'human computers' forever changed the face of NASA and the country.

Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly

illustrations: Laura Freeman, 2018

https://www.amazon.co.uk/

Based on the New York Times bestselling book and the Academy Award–nominated movie, author Margot Lee Shetterly and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award winner Laura Freeman bring the incredibly inspiring true story of four black women who helped NASA launch men into space to picture book readers!

Hidden Figures

Margot Lee Shetterly

illustrations: Laura Freeman, 2018

https://www.amazon.co.uk/

Synopsis:

"Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden were good at math…really good.

They participated in some of NASA's greatest successes, like providing the calculations for America's first journeys into space. And they did so during a time when being black and a woman limited what they could do. But they worked hard. They persisted. And they used their genius minds to change the world.

• Film:

Hidden Figures

Thedore Melfi, 2016

Oscars 2017 nominee

http://www.imdb.com/

Read the books in the classroom. Choose the right one according to the age level you are teaching. You can decide with your students to read aloud some excerpts.

Ask school librarian the DVD Hidden Figures, nominated for 3 Oscars and display it into the classroom.

The story of the tam of African-American women mathematicians and scientists, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan  and Mary Jackson who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space program. 

Teachers can begin by reading the book or watching the film. It's your choice. Don't forget the activities adapted to the students you are teaching. It's important to enhance  your lessons by discussing gender equality in science and the right place of women no matter the race.

When asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Katherine Johnson talks about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module. She also worked on the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite, and authored or coauthored 26 research reports.

NASA

Hidden Figures

Thedore Melfi, 2016

http://www.imdb.com/

Twentieth Century Fox

Hidden Figures

Katherine Johnson/ Tariji P. Henson
Thedore Melfi, 2016
LA Times/ Science Now
https://www.latimes.com/science/

"Her dedication and skill as a mathematician helped put humans on the Moon and before that made it possible for our astronauts to take the first steps in space that we now follow on a journey to Mars."

Jim Bridenstine, Nasa administrator 

Katherine Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Then-US President Barack Obama later cited her in his State of the Union address as an example of the country's spirit of discovery.

Resources:

• Autobiography

Reaching for the Moon

The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician

Katherine Johnson

by Katherine Jonson

https://www.amazon.ca/

Katherine Johnson’s story was made famous in the bestselling book and Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures. 

Now in Reaching for the Moon, Johnson tells her own story for the first time, in a lively autobiography that will inspire young readers everywhere.

• Videos:

Useful links:

• Inspiring stories from women scientists (International Centre of Theoretical Physics)

• The Girl Who Loved to Count/ NASA

• Katherine Johnson Biograpgy/ NASA

• Katherine Johnson Dies at 101; Mathematician Broke Barriers at NASA

• Inspiring STEM stories from history: Women: Katherine Johnson

• Cool Things the Women Who Inspired 'Hidden Figures' Accomplished

• 'Hidden Figures' may feature NASA's history, but it resonates in the present/ LA Times Science.

• Women in Science: Explore the data Interactive tool produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.”

 Katherine Johnson

G-Souto

24.02.2020

Copyright © 2020G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Women in Science : Katherine Johnson ! Resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Schools : Code Week EU, new challenges : Let's go again !

Europe Code Week 2017

http://dlearn.eu/code-week-2017/

Europe Code Week is taking place this year between 7 and 22 October, although "every week is Code Week". It's an open source initiative, aiming to connect initiatives that encourage young and adult European citizens to learn more about the art and science of computer programming.

Millions of children, adults, parents, teachers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers will again come together at events, in classrooms and libraries across Europe and beyond to learn to create with code.

Europe Code Week 2017

http://codeweek.eu/

EU Code Week is a grass-roots movement that celebrates creating with code. The idea is to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn. The initiative was launched in 2013 by the Young Advisors for the Digital Agenda Europe.

5th Birthday Code Week

http://blog.codeweek.eu/

Europe Code Week was born in 2013 by some young people who advised the European Commission on digital policies. They wanted more people "to learn how to create with code as well as get different networks together to make it easier for interested people to find a place where they could learn programming, work with hardware and find out how computers work." 

Those grass-roots movement turns five years in 2017 and it has grown exponentially.

EU Code Week is run by volunteers. One, or several, Code Week Ambassadors coordinate the initiative in their countries, but everyone can organise their own code event and add it to the codeweek.eu map.

Europe Code Week 2017

http://blog.codeweek.eu/

In 2016, nearly a million people in more than 50 countries around the world took part in EU Code Week. If your country is involved, and has organised events, put it on the map or volunteer as a Code Week ambassador.

http://dlearn.eu/code-week-2017/

Education:

Learning to code helps students to make sense of how things work, explore ideas and make things, for both work and play. 

What’s more it helps students to unleash their creativity and work collaboratively with wonderful young people both near them and all over the world.

From playing about with animations to designing computer apps and games, teaching coding in schools lends itself to plenty of fun learning activities.

The inclusion of coding into the new computing curriculum has been one of the main changes that the Department of Education in different European countries claimed would "ensure every child leaves school prepared for life in modern society."

Students at the school have apparently responded positively to the new curriculum in those countries and are already seeing the practical use of learning these new skills.

The European Astro Pi Chalenge:

Announcing the 2017-18 European Astro Pi challenge in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).

It's open to students from all 22 ESA member countries, including associate members Canada and Slovenia.

Astro Pi is an annual science and coding competition where code written by young people is run on the International Space Station!

Mission Zero

https://astro-pi.org/missions/zero/

In Mission Zero, students aged up to 14 write a simple Python program that will display a message on the International Space Station for 30 seconds.

Students will contribute to the daily routine of the International Space Station by displaying their own personal message and the ambient air temperature on the Astro Pi. 

No special hardware is needed to take part in Mission Zero, and your code is guaranteed to run in space for 30 seconds!

An Astro Pi flight unit runs student code in space from Raspberry Pi Foundation on Vimeo.

Some information:

In Mission Space Lab, teams aged up to 19 have to demonstrate their motivation to compete by planning an experiment to run in space.

Registration:

Teams have until 29 October 2017 to register and submit their idea on the Astro Pi website.

The selected teams will be notified that they have been accepted by 7 November 2017 and will receive an ESA-branded Astro Pi kit at their school, and the chance for their experiment to run on the International Space Station.

https://projects.raspberrypi.org/

Teachers: this classroom activity can be completed in an afternoon. 

Organise your students into teams of up to four, and let us guide them through writing a short Python program to show a personal message and the air temperature on the Astro Pi. 

No extra hardware is needed. Everything is done in a web browser. 

Teachers register online with the Trinket Sense HAT emulator and receive a classroom code to give to their teams. This saves time by greatly reducing the need for data entry. 

There’s no limit to the number of teams a school or club can enter. It’s entirely dependent on the teacher’s capacity to support teams.

Read the official guidelines document for Mission Zero.


Resources:

• A special film: Hidden Figures

Three women -  Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan & Mary Jackson - pioneers on computer science helped plan the mission that saw an American astronaut orbit the Earth for the first time, has been honored on Hidden Figures, a film based on true story by Theodore Melfi (2016), nominated for 3 Oscars.

The true story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. Segregated from their white counterparts, these colored computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Hidden Figures

Theodore Melfi, 2016

http://www.imdb.com/

The maths involved in the orbital mission was highly complex, and the computers of the day were prone to technical hiccups.

So as astronaut John Glenn was going through the preflight checklist – upon which his life depended – he insisted that Ms Johnson double check the calculations.

Hidden Figures

Theodore Melfi, 2016

http://www.imdb.com/

“If she says they’re good,” Ms Johnson remembered Mr Glenn saying, “then I’m ready to go.”

Hidden Figures

Theodore Melfi, 2016

http://www.imdb.com/

Aim:

Motivation to girls nd young women to code and continue their studies on STEM. Teachers must encourage girls to pursue studies on STEM.

Teachers can display the film in the classroom to motivate young girls to code. Boys will understand the role of young girls in STEM. Later they will support them at secondary education and college.

There is a gender lack studying high technologies and STEM.

Don't misse the opportunity to include Hidden Figures into school curriculum.

Other Activities: 

Teachers will find by reading my post Code Week EU, let's go again ! #codeEU

 @EP_Technology 

Other Resources:

Anyone – schools, teachers, libraries, code clubs, businesses, public authorities – can organise a #CodeEU event and add it to the codeweek.eu map. 

To make organising and running coding events easier, the CodeWeek website has prepared different toolkits and selected some of the best lesson plans, guides and other resources. Look here

Media:

Code Week EU is on Twitter as @CodeWeekEU, on Facebook. Use the #codeEU hashtag.

Invite your students to have fun building things by coding. Are they ready to share their passion? Young students are so creative. Let's them explore all the funny coding games with their imagination.

G-Souto

06.10.2017
Copyright © 2017G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Code Week EU, new challenges : Let's go again ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.