Katherine Johnson Biography

In the book Hidden Figures written by Margot Lee Shetterly, Katherine Johnson is one of the main characters. Known as a human computer working for NASA. Katherine is a very smart woman who graduated from college when she was 18 years old and when she was 10 years old she attended high school. She is one of the first African Americans to work for NASA. She would work on some of the hardest calculations and would still find ways to solve them. She was a very hard worker but did not get credit for what she did because she is African American, she made history.

Mary worked with the West Computers for 2 years and then she went to work with Kazimierz Kanreki. He was an engineer working on high speed wind tunnels. While she worked with him he offered her the idea to go back to school to study to become an engineer. For Mary to take classes she had to get permission. She had to obtain permission because Virginia school had not desegregated at the time. Mary got to take her classes and she became an engineer. She got to become NASA’s first African American women to have a degree in engineering in 1958.

August 26, 1918 Katherine Johnson entered the world in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Katherine loved math at an early age and helped her siblings who were years older than she with their homework was. Katherine counted everything like her dishes to the steps she took to get to church. Katherine started high school as a freshman at age of 10 and left at 14.She began college at 15 years old and took classes to become a mathematician. She graduated college at 18. (Mathematics and French) Married James Francis Goble and had 3 daughters Joylette, Katherine and Constance. Katherine became a teacher and taught for 7 years. At the age of 34 she heard NACA (NASA) was hiring women of color to solve math problems. She applied one year and didn't get the job and she applied the next year and got it. She later on

One of the women that worked in NASA was Katherine Johnson. Katherine Johnson was the first black woman to graduate from college at age 18. Johnson went to West Virginia University at age 14 because women couldn’t go to school past 8th grade. Katherine Johnson attends the institute in West Virginia. But also went to another school in the summer so that she get could get a teaching job in Virginia. During her summer she learned French and Mathematics. Later Mrs. Johnson went and worked for NASA, there she was solving calculations that could

Katherine Johnson was born August 26, 1918 and lived to be 99 years old. She was loved by many people including her spouse James Johnson and her later spouse James Goble. Also by her three girls Constance, Katherine, and Joylette Goble, and loved even more by her proud parents, Joylette and Joshua Coleman. She was one of three african americans to integrate to West Virginia’s School is something many people wanted to do but never did. She was so smart that she started High School when she was 13 and enrolled in college when she was only 18! She graduated with the “highest honors” in 1937. After that she took a job in teaching at a black public school in Virginia.

Even worse if you were a black woman it was even harder to get an employment because of racist and sexist employers. During the 1970s, she participated as the director of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, for which she argued six landmark cases on gender equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. The most remarkable thing she did was show the world of gender-blindness and that’s a huge problem in America today. People don’t understand and are blind to think that men are also entitled to the same equal rights as women do she encouraged the true definition of feminism. Which by definition is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

Katherine only had the choice to be a nurse or a teacher so she decided to be a high school teacher. She worked there for seven years until NASA had an opening for African American women. Two weeks have passed and Katherine

A female African-American mathematician who contributed to mathematics was Janice E. Cook. Her birth and death date is unknown, however, she was born in New Orleans. She is one of seven children of Florence L. Cook and Henry Cook. Growing up, she admired her mother, who was an elementary teacher, describing her as an inspirational and heroic person in her life. After Janice completed her studies for the bachelor and masters degree she began a professional career in the corporate arena, however, she wasn’t satisfied. She later realized her true passion was in teaching mathematics as a teacher at the middle and high school levels. Once she determined her true educational passion in life, she continued her studies and gained her pre-doctoral

Katherine Johnson born Katherine Coleman was an African-American research mathematician and computer scientist for NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics now known as NASA. She made phenomenal contributions by calculating trajectories, helping to send the first Americans into space.

She was one of the many women looking to obtain equal rights of women, and I believe she really stood out as woman who could achieve notoriety and prestige just by being who she was, a well-educated disabled woman who did not succumb to her

Jumping forward from Rochelle’s work in 2002 now I am going to look at piece of work she published in 2011. In the article Beyond Gap Gazing: How Can Thinking About Education Comprehensively Help us (Re)envision, Rochelle prompts the readers with a few thought provoking questions about the state of research today in mathematics education. With a main focus on some of the main issues that are in research today through an achievement gap lens readers are forced to grapple with the idea of how mathematics play a role in society and in our lives (Gutiérrez and Dixon-Román 2010). Along with growth in work around the achievement gap and “closing the gap”, there is increasing concern over using the achievement gap as a reason to address equity in our schools (Gutiérrez and Dixon-Román 2010). I agree with Gutierrez when she discusses that research around closing the achievement gap used as an easy way out for researchers addressing real racial issues in schools today. These students are compared to white students as saying that white students are the students that we should compare achievement to (Gutiérrez and Dixon-Román 2010). I find these questions thought provoking that researchers need to stop and think about as we push research forward. Knowing the role that researchers play in influencing the field. Researchers need to

It was also my mother who force me to read every day and made me learn about math every day. With the lesson of my mother teachings, I was privileged to graduate high school at the age of 16 and be attended my mother’s alma mater the University of Chicago for my bachelors, masters and Ph.D. degrees. During my time at the University of Chicago, I found the love of my life, Hannah Elizabeth Smith, freshman year of college. She was there for all the lowest point of my life and the highest points in my life. It was her presence along with my mother that drove me to do all-nighters until I contribute to the mathematical profession and change the world of mathematics. When I achieve my goal, it was one of the most significant

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” said Jackie Robinson. This quote describes the daily life of Professor Charlotte McMath, an older woman with reddish blonde hair and welcoming eyes hidden behind a pair of round framed glasses. Professor McMath is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Mississippi College (MC) in Clinton, MS, and she is also an advisor to many students who plan on graduating with a degree in mathematics from MC. When she is not in a classroom, Professor McMath can usually be found on the third floor of the Math, Chemistry, and Computer Science (MCC) building on the campus of MC in office 311, anxiously awaiting students that have questions and concerns regarding schedules, class work, and even personal problems. Behind the door of Professor McMath’s office students will be greeted by a welcoming room filled with angel figurines of all different shapes and sizes, homemade Longaberger baskets filled with assorted candy, and walls decorated in awards, recognitions, and diplomas. Professor McMath makes an impact every day in the lives of her many students,

"More than fifty years ago I came to the conclusion that every college student who desired to learn mathematics could do so.” This quote is from the late Clarence Francis Stephens, an African American, who earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1943, during a time when African Americans were often denied access to higher education. Today, he is renown for his dedication to mathematical teaching. Dr. Stephens’s story resonates with me because it shows the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts’ (LSA) commitment to racial inclusion throughout the years, and how the College’s belief in diversity materialized into a positive effect on pedagogy, the profession that I hope to one day pursue. (Quote and information from MAA.org)

The Special Issue in Teachers College Record was comprised of five papers that examined how well respected African American mathematics teachers in urban settings influence the development of students’ mathematics identity. While the podcast interview briefly discussed all the articles that comprised the Special Issue, particular focus was given to Clark’s case studies, which focused on the racialized experiences of two African American mathematics teachers.