It’s Family Literacy Week here in British Columbia – a week-long celebration of literacy and the important roll of family in building, supporting and strengthening a child’s literacy skills.
This year’s theme is “Make it count! Play * Sort * Measure.” Numeracy is as important as any other form of literacy, and building positive associations with math and numbers in early childhood can set young children up for a lifetime of success. I’ve been preparing a series of book lists for a presentation I’m delivering to a group of educators, and I thought I might as well share some of that hard work here on my blog, and get twice the mileage out if it!
I’ll start with one of my nonfiction book lists – a celebration of the roll of women in the advancement of mathematical and scientific discovery. All too often unsung, these pioneering females are an inspiration to all young people, and an example of how brilliant minds can persevere and strive and ultimately overcome, all in the pursuit of knowledge.
Maryam’s Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani : The fascinating story of the first woman to win the Field’s Medal, mathematics’ most prestigious award, who found in geometry a way to blend her passion for storytelling with her innate gift for math.
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 : Most of us have heard the incredible story of Apollo 13, made famous by the Tom Hanks film, but few have heard of the brilliant Katherine Johnson, who struggled through racism and sexism to find her place as a prominent mathematician at NASA, and whose calculations were instrumental to the safe return of the ill-fated moon mission.
Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of : Emmy Nother refused to let sexism or anti-Semitism stop her from pursuing her passion for mathematics. Though little known, the discoveries of this contemporary of Einstein continue to influence how we understand the world today.
Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain : Nothing stopped Sophie. Not her parents. Not her instructors. Not the societal expectations of her 18th century world. Nothing would stop Sophie, and she became the first woman to be awarded a medal by the prestigious French Academy of Sciences for a formula she discovered.
The Girl with a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague : Raye knew from childhood that she wanted to be an engineer and build amazing new seagoing vessels. She never let go of this dream, despite the crushing sexism and racism that surrounded her, and became a renowned pioneer in the field of ship engineering and design.
Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer : Driven by her natural gift for math, and inspired by the Cherokee traditional values she was raised with, the brilliant engineer Mary Golda Ross pushed through racism and sexism to become Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s first female engineer.
Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing : If there’s one thing to take away from this list, it’s that women have been behind some of the greatest scientific discoveries and achievements, yet their names are rarely prominently displayed on plaques or printed in the history books. Margaret Hamilton hand wrote code that was vital to the success of the early Apollo moon missions – in fact, they would have been impossible without her.
Grace Hopper : Queen of Computer Code : Insatiably curious (and the first to use the term “bug” to refer to a coding error), Grace Hopper was a “software tester, workplace jester, cherished mentor, ace inventor, avid reader, naval leader–AND rule breaker, chance taker, and troublemaker” – an all-around inspiration for any math-obsessed boy or girl.
How many of these math pioneers were you familiar with? I have to admit, quite a few of these names were entirely new to me, which is why I’m so excited to share their stories with new generations of young learners, so that their struggles, successes and passion for knowledge can be an inspiration to children of all genders, backgrounds and identities.