EJR is celebrating Women’s History Month by learning about the accomplishments of some amazing women.

Librarian Heather Mowen has the students reading about the women who were influential in the space race, scientific discoveries and those who pushed boundaries. The women include Mae Jemison, Bessie Coleman, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Christine Darden, Maryam Mirzakhani, Mary Anning, Kamala Harris, Eugenie Clark, and Malala Yousafzai.

 

 

For two weeks, there were activities that went along with the lessons. Students in grades 4 and 5 read Hidden Figures, the story about three female African-American mathematicians: Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who worked for NASA and were known as human computers, calculating the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Students in grade 3 read about Margaret Hamilton, an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner who worked for MIT and developed software for NASA’s Apollo program.

 

During the second week, the students engineered, built and tested straw rockets, an homage to the women who were vital to the history of our country’s space history. Their rockets were made of a straw, molding clay and an index card.

 

 

The testing of the straw rockets brought much anticipating. The students went outside and eagerly awaited their turn to launch their homemade straw rocket. They each placed their rockets on the launcher as Ms. Mowen raised and then dropped the lever on the launcher.

 

 

They compared the design of the rockets that went the farthest to those that didn’t travel far. They determined that the more successful rockets had smaller wings, which were made from the index cards, and the modeling clay that formed the tip of the rocket was shaped in a point.

 

It was a fun and informative project for our students and a terrific way to learn about the extraordinary women who helped shape our history.