Contemporary

This lesson plan introduces students to the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP).

In this lesson plan, students will learn about the “West Computers” or “West Area Computers” – a group of African-American women who worked as “human computers” at NASA Langley Research Center from the 1940s onward. Students will practice using scientific notation and calculations as if they were computers at NASA Langley Research Center. 

In this two-part lesson plan, students will learn about the life of theoretical physicist Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr. and string theory, his field of research.

Students will learn about optical physicist and Bell Laboratories alumni Anthony Johnson, while also exploring the phenomenon of total internal reflection.

Students will learn about four African American astronauts: Michael P. Anderson, Ronald E. McNair, Guion S. Bluford Jr., and  Jeanette J. Epps.

Students will research the lives and work of some notable African American inventors and then create an invention or patent of their own.