STUDY GUIDE PROVIDED BY
Questions? E-mail Jessie Kisor, Director of Education [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biography...... 3
Video Response Worksheet...... 4
Classroom Guide...... 5
Activities for the Classroom
Coding Bracelet: Craft...... 6
Ana’s Parents: Critical Thinking...... 7
Industrial Revolution: Research...... 8
Word Wall...... 9 BIOGRAPHY
ALL ABOUT ADA - LIFE AND LEGACY
• Ada was a mathematician who is thought to have written the world’s first computer program 100 years before the first computer was made! She also correctly predicted the future possibilities for computers to contribute to our lives, including in music and graphic design.
• When you consider that Ada lived in a time when girls were not generally educated, her achievements are even more incredible.
• Ada was born in England to Lord and Lady Byron. Her father was a poet and her mother a mathematician. Ada was brought up by her mother who encouraged her to study maths and science. Ada demonstrated a natural aptitude for the subjects.
• Ada married William King in 1835 and became the Countess of Lovelace three years later when William was made an Earl.
• Ada met a young mathematician and engineer named Charles Babbage when she was 17. Ada was fascinated by Babbage’s ideas, especially his plans for a machine to handle complex calculations named the Analytical Engine. Babbage was so impressed by Ada he asked her to translate an article about the analytical engine written by an Italian engineer.
• Ada translated the article and also added pages of her own notes. Ada’s work was published in 1843. The Analytical Engine was nothing like the computers of today. It was a large clunky machine programmed using punched cards!
• Unfortunately the Analytical Engine was never finished and Ada’s notes were forgotten about until they were found and republished in 1953.
• Ada very sadly died from cancer in 1852, aged just 36. She left behind an impressive legacy. Ada Lovelace Day is held on the second Tuesday of October each year and is an international celebration of the achievements of women in STEM.
3 VIDEO WORKSHEET
ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS Ada Lovelace
Before the video begins, write down anything you already know about the Industrial Revolution:
List 3 interesting NEW facts you learned from this video.
a.
b.
c.
Write down any NEW vocabulary terms you heard in this video, and define them.
What question would you ask Ada Lovelace if you met her today?
In what ways has the invention of the computer affected the ways we live our lives day to day?
4 CLASSROOM GUIDE
“Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use and apply that language, we must be able to fully to appreciate, to feel, to seize the unseen, the unconscious.” -Ada Lovelace
Essential Questions:
1. What is an inventor?
2. What other inventions have put an impression on our daily lives?
3. How have women’s roles in society changed over the years since the 19th century?
5 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
CODING BRACELET: CRAFT
Materials:
• Pony Beads (3 different colors) • Binary Letter Chart • Yarn or Pipe Cleaners
Directions:
1. Look at the binary letter chart and find the letters for your name. (Hint: Bracelets are short, so if you have a long name you might need to use a nickname or make a necklace instead.)
2. Decide which color will represent [1] and which color will represent [0]. Pick a third color to represent spaces.
3. Using the chart, create your name by recreating the pattern of [1]’s and [0]’s that make up each letter. Use the spacer bead between each letter.
6 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
ANA’S PARENTS: CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE
Ana’s parents are both well-renowned and intelligent; however, they are both very different.
Get to Know: George Byron Have your students read the first stanza of “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron. Analyze the stanza with them and discuss:
“She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.”
How is Lord Byron describing the subject of his poem? Does it fit your idea of “Romantic,” as Lord Byron was considered a leading figure in the Romantic Movement of poetry.
Get to Know: Anne Isabella Byron Lady Byron was wealthy and educated. She was tutored by a Cambridge University professor as a child and found she excelled at mathematics. Discuss with your students:
How did Lady Byron’s fascination of mathematics influence Ana’s life? Do you think her life would have been the same if her mother had not been a mathematician herself?
7 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: RESEARCH ACTIVITY
The Industrial Revolution was possible because of the engineers, scientists, and mathematicians who put theory into practice. These new exciting feats of engineering and science included the first reliable steam engine, the cotton gin, telegraph, dynamite, vaccines, telephone, light bulb, airplane, and automobile.
Directions: 1. Individually, in partners, or in groups, assign a different Industrial Revolution invention. Have students determine how their assigned invention was created, how it changed the world, and how it changed science, math, and engineering.
2. Have students present their findings to the class.
3. After learning more about the Industrial Revolution, start a discussion with your students: Do you believe Ada Lovelace’s accomplishments could have happened during a different time in history?
8 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
WORD WALL
• Affectionate • Algorithm • Analytical Engine • Aerial Steam Carriage • Carrier Pigeon • Compute • Confined • Correspondence • Countess • Defy • Envision • Era • Impact • Mechanical • Parallelogram • Poetic Expression • Potential
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