April 25
"Hidden Figures", a book by Margot Lee Shetterly and a movie released in 2016, celebrates the behind the scenes contributions by hundreds of unheralded NASA workers, including "human computers" who did the calculations for the orbital trajectories of Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. The story follows mostly three African-American women hired as human computers, a job title designated someone who performed mathematical equations and calculations by hand, according to a NASA history. These are inspiring role models and can be an inspirational tool to share with your audiences combining the screening with more in depth, beyond the movie explanations.
