Week 1:Early Life
Character Lexicon
- resilient: able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult situations
- apt: appropriate or suitable in the circumstances
- respected: deeply admired or esteemed
- genius: exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability
- passionate: showing or caused by strong feelings or strong belief
Comprehension Questions
- When Katherine’s family lived in Virginia, her father worked as a farmer, lumberjack, janitor, handyman and hotel worker. (Pg 10)
- After her siblings left for school Katherine would follow them and count their steps. She spent the day counting anything she could. (Pg 11)
- Katherine started high school when she was only ten years old. (Pg 17)
- Besides math, Katherine learned piano, French and astronomy in high school. (Pg 18)
- When Katherine was fifteen years old, she attended West Virginia State. (Pg 22)
- It was hard for Katherine to focus on her studies during graduate school because many people did not believe in integration, and it was difficult to make friendships. (Pg 33)
- Katherine’s professors respected her because she had math skills far superior to her classmates and her attitude was inspiring. (Pg 35)
Week 2: Life’s Work
Character Lexicon
- inquisitive: curious or inquiring
- advocate: a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy
- admired: to be regarded with respect or warm approval
- knowledgeable: intelligent or well informed
- strong-willed: determined to do as one wants even if other people advise against it
Comprehension Questions
- Katherine decided to step away from her studies because she was starting a family and wanted to focus on the children. (Pg 36)
- Katherine was a member of Alpha Kapa Alpha Sorority and it was an all-black sorority, which focused on advocacy and social change especially in the education of black children. (Pg 38)
- A law was passed prohibiting companies from discriminating against women because during WWII women were needed to fill jobs that men left because they were fighting in the war. (Pg 42)
- Katherine was hired at NACA, because of her math skills and became a human computer. (Pg 45)
- Katherine’s team at NASA was different from other teams as it was made up of twelve African American women. (Pg 47)
- Katherine was known among the engineers at her job as someone with extensive knowledge of geometry, great leadership skills and an inquisitive nature. (Pg 55)
- During Project Mercury, Katherine handled the trajectory analysis for the flight. (Pg 63)
Week 3: Later Life and Legacy
Character Lexicon
- trailblazer: a pioneer; innovator
- crazy: mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild or aggressive way
- famous: known about by many people
- admired: regard an object, person or quality with respect or warm approval
- loving: to have a deep affection for someone
Comprehension Questions
- One day Katherine fell asleep while driving to work because she was working 14 -16 hour days and was exhausted. (Pg 75)
- The journey to the moon took 102 hours and 45 minutes. (Pg 83)
- Neil Armstrong had to take control of the Eagle handler because the craft was heading toward a field of large boulders and a flat surface was needed to land. (Pg 85)
- The flag needed to be held up by wire because there is no wind on the moon. (Pg 86)
- It took the astronauts eight days, three hours and thirty-five seconds to get home. (Pg 89)
- Some of the topics that Katherine wrote about while working at NASA were, the proper angle for orbiting satellites, how satellites were supposed to behave and space antennae’s. (Pg 95)
- Katherine keeps busy today by traveling, spending time with her family, playing bridge, watching sports and speaking to students about her career. (Pg 106-107)