Are you taking your kids to see the movie Hidden Figures? Check out Raymond Johnson’s blog post for references and teaching ideas:
If you know of any other resources, please share in the comments below. And as I find new goodies, I’ll add them to the list below.
Teachers and Students in Action
Lesson Plan Resources
- Hidden Figures Family Discussion Guide
- 156-page lesson guide from Journeys in Film
- NASA Lesson Toolkits
- Lesson Plan: “When Computers Wore Skirts”
- Girls Build LA Lessons & Resource Materials
- Space Math Problem Books from NASA (downloadable PDFs)
Background Information
- The True Story of “Hidden Figures,” the Forgotten Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (Smithsonian Magazine)
- Hidden Figures: Margot Lee Shetterly’s book about NASA’s black women mathematicians and engineers is timely and eye-opening (Scientific American)
- Official Movie Home Page
- Trailers and Cast Interviews
- Making of ‘Hidden Figures’: Re-creating the ’60s to Tell an Untold Story of Space, Sexism and Civil Rights
- Black STEM Like Me: Inspiring stories and interviews from the National Society of Black Engineers
Before computers were machines, computers were people who computed things. This complicated task often fell to women because it was considered basically clerical. That’s right: computing triple integrals all day long qualified as clerical.
— Samantha Schumacher
Hidden Figures Movie Review
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 
This interview in Teen Vogue is great for Middle Schoolers and starting discussions encouraging young women and people of color in STEM
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/yara-shahidi-and-janelle-monae-on-why-girls-should-get-involved-in-stem
Thanks for the link! It’s exciting to see how well people respond to this movie. I hope the effect extends to produce real cultural change.
Journeys in Film just published a 156-page curriculum for math, science, English, history, film literacy, and career readiness. It’s free for teachers to download at http://journeysinfilm.org/films/hidden-figures/.
Thank you, Eileen! That looks very useful.