Students in Vincent Emanuele’s sixth grade ELA classes at CVMS learned about African-American astronauts, engineers and mathematicians involved with NASA as part of a Black History Month activity.

Ronald McNair, Mae Jemison, Guion Bluford, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Michael Anderson, Charles Bolden, Victor Glover, Stephanie Wilson, Joan Higgenbotham, Jeannette Epps and Mary Jackson are some of the figures they learned about who made tremendous contributions to our nation’s history.

Students broke into groups to conduct research and create slideshows to present to the class.

They ended the unit by watching “Hidden Figures,” a movie telling the story of Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson who were a team of brilliant mathematicians that served a vital role at NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.