February is Black History month and to help students understand more about the struggles and triumphs of African Americans, we are reading an excellent kid’s biography called Counting on Katherine by Dow Phumiruk. It features the story of Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who saved the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970. Because the ship had gone off-course, Katherine had to re-work her calculations in real time, by hand, in order to bring it back safely to earth. She figured out that if it went around the far side of the moon, the moon’s gravity would act like a slingshot to zing the ship back to earth. And it worked! Katherine and her colleagues are also featured in another new book, Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. Similar to the movie, this book tells the inspiring story of Katherine and the other black women who worked at NASA and used their talents to help the space program, despite facing discrimination. Both books will be available to check out from our library in the coming weeks.
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