12A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • FEBRUARY 13, 2019
© 2019 by Vicki Whiting, Editor
Photo: NASA
s a child, Katherine Johnson lov
loved
ved
t to count
hes
count. She counted the dish
dishes.
She counted the steps. She even counted
stones. She simply counted everything!
Jeff Schinkel, Graphics
Vol. 35, No. 10
Awards and
Honors
To discover if the following
statements are TRUE or
FALSE, do the math.
TRUE statements will have
an even-numbered answer.
FALSE statements will have
an odd-numbered answer.
Count the stars
on this page.
Then have a
friend try. Who
found the most?
Katherine Johnson was given
a flag that had gone to the
moon. (18 + 4 =
)
Let Me Go to School!
Katherine was born in White Sulphur
Springs, West Virginia. She was the
youngest of four children and she Find the path
couldn’t wait to join her siblings
to school.
at school! She used to follow them
as they walked to school.
Patience
Hard Work
Determination
After graduating from college in
1937, Katherine became a teacher.
Katherine said it was
hard work to be good
at math and her other
subjects. And work
hard she did. She
skipped two grades in
elementary school, and
went on to get degrees
in mathematics and
French.
Katherine’s community was segregated. That meant
there were many places African-American people
couldn’t go, including the local high school. Katherine’s
parents were so determined that she have a good
education that they moved the family 120 miles so
Katherine and her siblings could attend high school.
In 1953 she was hired by the
National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA) and was
finally able to use her math skills!
A building is named after her
at NASA’s Research Center
in Virginia. (24 - 6 =
)
Katherine Johnson won a
gold medal in the 1960
Winter Olympics. (3 + 2 = )
Circle every other letter to discover where the family moved.
KIDNUSWTVIBTCUZTNEMWQEFSRTEVWIGRCGNICNJISA
President Obama gave her
the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 2015 when she
was 97. (28 - 8 =
)
Curiosity
Because of her intelligence, curiosity, and positive
attitude, Katherine was asked to work on many different
projects. When NACA turned its attention to space
flight, it changed its name to NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration).
The Human
Computer
Photo: NASA
Katherine was asked to work on the complicated math
problems that would establish the flight path for the
spacecraft that would take the first American into space
and back in 1961. Use the code to discover his name.
She saw her story brought to
light through the book and
movie Hidden Figures.
(4 + 4 + 4 =
)
In 1953, computers
were not as good as
they are today and
mathematicians,
who were called
“computers,” did the
math needed for
flight research.
How fast did Friendship 7
travel in its 4 hour and 56
minute flight? Do the math!
Persistence
Katherine Johnson graduated
college at the age of 18, the
age most people graduate
high school. (6 + 4 + 4 =
)
Replace the missing words.
Count the
Numbers
When Katherine was _____________ at NASA,
women were not allowed in the spaceflight
meeti
uld
meetings. She kept ____________ if she cou
could
even asking if there was
against
go, ev
as a _______ ag
ain
nst it.
persistence paid off and
finally
Her p
nd she was finall
ly
invite
_________.
invited to attend all ______________.
around
1962, as well as
arou Earth in Friendship
p 7 in 1
the A
Apollo 11 and
flights
d 13 fli
h to the
h ________.
Over time, even though electronic
ectronic ______
______
___________
SA, Johnson rem
took on more work at NASA,
remained
highly valued for her accuracy. She performed
calculations for John Glenn’s successful orbits
Working
on these manned flight paths was
Wor
stressful. Katherine knew that if her calculations
were off by even a few feet or seconds, the
astronauts might not make it ___________!
Take one page of the
newspaper and circle
all of the numbers
you can find. Then,
count the number
of numbers! What
do the different
numbers show?
miles per hour
Standards Link: Research:
Use the newspaper to
locate information.
Standards Link: Students use strategies to understand literary passages
Humility
Katherine won many awards and
made history for the space program,
for women’s rights and for racial
equality. But she always remained
humble. She quoted her father.
Replace the vowels to find out
what her father would tell her.
“Y_ _ AR_ AS G_ _D
AS _NYB_DY. B_T
Y_ _ ’RE N_ B_TT_R.”
Standards Link: Follow simple written directions.
KATHERINE
CURIOSITY
POSITIVE
ACCURACY
COMPUTER
COUNTED
DISHES
ORBIT
SPACE
STEPS
WHITE
MATH
PATH
FOUR
As a young student,
Katherine would complete
her homework and then help
her older siblings with their
homework. (15 + 5 =
)
Find the words in the puzzle.
How many of them can you
find on this page?
D K S P A C E W E A
E W H I
T E V N R C
T Y T
S O I R U C
I
N M B A D R T T O U
U R P H E
I
I
O M A H A T S
E F R
I
E A
C H T A M I O H A C
N A H S T E P S E Y
This week’s word:
PERSISTENCE
The noun persistence
means to keep working at
something in spite
of difficulties or
obstacles.
With persistence, the
volunteers were able to
clean the creek.
K R E T U P M O C S
Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recongized identical
words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
Use the word persistence in a
sentence today when talking
with your friends and family.
Mission Possible
Find a Story of Character
Katherine Johnson had many character traits
that led to her successes. Look through the
newspaper for an article about a successful
person and make a list of character traits that
help to make that person so successful.
ANSWER: MATHachusetts!
Standards Link: Research: Use the newspaper to locate information.
If it were possible to be
anything in the world,
what would you want to be?
What would you do if this
happened to come true?
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