As many of you may know, this month is Women’s History Month. Let’s celebrate by learning about some women astronomers past and present.
This is a video of an interview with Dr. Letisha McLaughlin, an astronomer at NC State. She talks about how she became an astronomer and how she was inspired when her mother got her a telescope.
I was also able to find this video tribute to Women Astronomers in History: Telescope Women in History.
Please Note: One of the images in this video is a star map overlaid with a drawing of a woman with one bare breast, which some people may find offensive. Please preview this video for suitability for your children.
Finally, here is a video about Women in Astronomy from NASA, which begins with a recent history of the field.
Do you ever wonder whether all the science enrichment you do as a parent really matters? Well, parent involvement made a huge difference to Dr. Dale Emeagwali. As a Black, she felt her teachers were not supportive of her interest in math and science when she was growing up in the 1960’s. She says she became a scientist because her parents did simple science experiments with her and her two brothers at home. Her father also encouraged their interest in math by showing them tricks with numbers and having math books available. She fully credits her parent’s efforts for her success.
Dr. Emeagwali is now a Lecturer in Biology at Morgan State University. She has a PhD from Georgetown University in Microbiology, and was honored with National Technical Association’s “1996 Scientist of the Year” award for for her contributions to the fields of microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry.
In the book Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits the authors agree that “an important value of informal environments for learning science is being accessible to all.” Although it covers a lot of topics, one I thought was interesting was that “…in the retrospective studies of what launched female scientists down their career paths. These women often cite particular individuals or contexts outside schools as significant influences on their pursuit of science careers.”
Dr. Emeagwali continues to encourage informal science learning for children. For example, while at the University of Minnesota she worked with the Science Museum of Minnesota on the annual African-American Science Day there.
While looking around the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website, I came across a section called “Becoming A Scientist” in the Cool Science area. There are videos of eleven prominent biomedical researchers talking about what they think it takes to become a scientist. As you might expect, the answers are a diverse as the scientists themselves. I particularly like the advice that anyone can become a scientist, as long as they aren’t afraid to give it a try.
