Celebrating Black Scientists, Engineers, and Mathematicians

NASA astronaut Victor Glover was the first African American to live aboard the International Space Station (ISS) during a long-lasting mission in 2021. Glover worked in space for 168 days as a member of Crew-1 on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Resilience, where he served as the pilot and second-in-command. Glover was also the Flight Engineer on the ISS for Expedition 64. Explore space with your classroom:

Victor Glover, Jr. (2021) 

Photo credit: https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/victor-j-glover/biography

Mary Elliott Hill was an organic and analytical chemist, born in North Carolina. She attended the Virginia State College for Negroes, now Virginia State University (VSU) from 1925-1929. She was one of the earliest African American women to acquire her master’s degree in chemistry (1941). Her work focused on ultraviolet light and using that to develop analytic methodology. Learn more about chemistry here:

Mary Elliot Hill (1941)

Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elliott_Hill

Gizmos gives everyone something to visualize, manipulate, and explore. That's hundreds of opportunities where students don't just act like scientists and mathematicians. They are.

What Are Gizmos?

Over 400 math and science Gizmos gives everyone something to graph, measure, and compare. Even predict and prove. That's hundreds of opportunities where students don't just act like scientists and mathematicians. They are.

Gizmos gives everyone something to visualize, manipulate, and explore. That's hundreds of opportunities where students don't just act like scientists and mathematicians. They are.

Meta-analysis of educational research identifies several instructional techniques that have a strong positive impact on student achievement. Math and science Gizmos bring these powerful and effective instructional techniques to the classroom.

Why Gizmos Work

Gizmos gives everyone something to visualize, manipulate, and explore. That's hundreds of opportunities where students don't just act like scientists and mathematicians. They are.

We are educators, just like you. We have that drive to be our very best each day and to make the next day even better. This continuous improvement is what ExploreLearning professional development is all about.

Professional Development

Over 400 math and science Gizmos gives everyone something to graph, measure, and compare. Even predict and prove. That's hundreds of opportunities where students don't just act like scientists and mathematicians. They are. 

What are Gizmos?

Meta-analysis of educational research identifies several instructional techniques that have a strong positive impact on student achievement. Math and science Gizmos bring these powerful and effective instructional techniques to the classroom. 

Why Gizmos work

We are educators, just like you. We have that drive to be our very best each day and to make the next day even better. This continuous improvement is what ExploreLearning professional development is all about.

Professional Development

It's never too early to learn science.

(Grades K-2)

Science4Us covers Inquiry, Physical Science, Life Science and Earth & Space Science with 1000’s of online and offline activities that can be completed in as little as ten minutes, and teach students using videos, interaction, poems, songs, and digital notebooks.

Make fractions finally make sense.

Frax is adaptive and game-based, it uses the latest research-based instructional methods to create a better way to learn fractions. The fun challenges, personalized instruction, and motivating rewards help students build their skills and understanding of fractions.

(Grades 3-5)

Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective system for mastering basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Full of games that students love, Reflex takes students at every level and helps them quickly gain math fact fluency and confidence.

When they use Reflex, kids love math.

(Grades 2-6)

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown became the first African American woman surgeon in the South, eventually being made chief of surgery at Nashville's Riverside Hospital. She was also the first African American woman to be made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Learn more about the science of health with Gizmos here:

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1948) 

Photo credit: https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_46.html

Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer who in 1958 became the first African American female engineer to work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Much of her work centered on the airflow around aircraft. Discover more about engineering here:

Mary Jackson (1958)

Photo credit: https://www.nasa.gov/content/mary-w-jackson-biography

Guion S. Bluford, Jr. is an astronaut who was the first African American launched into space. Bluford received an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964 and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he trained as a fighter pilot. Teach your students more about space here:

Guion S. Bluford, Jr. (1964)

Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guion_Bluford

Dr. Aprille Ericsson-Jackson was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Engineering from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She’s held many roles after more than 27 years at NASA, including Instrument Project Manager and Project Engineer for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter project. In 2016, Dr. Ericsson-Jackson won the Washington Award for her accomplishments in engineering. Bring engineering to your classroom:

Dr. Aprille Ericsson-Jackson (2016)

Photo credit: https://sbir.nasa.gov/content/aprille-joy-ericsson

She was an African American child prodigy who became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in entomology, the study of insects. A voracious reader with endless curiosity, Collins entered West Virginia State College at 14 years of age. She completed her Ph.D. in zoology in 1949 with a thesis on termites, making her the first African American female entomologist and the third African American female zoologist in the U.S. Learn more about bug populations and evolution:

Margaret S. Collins (1949)

Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_S._Collins

Charles Henry Turner, a zoologist and scholar, was the first person to discover that insects can hear and alter behavior based on previous experience. He was a pioneering African American scientist and scholar. Among his most notable achievements, Turner was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago. Learn more about animal behavior:

Charles Henry Turner (1907) 

Photo credit: https://www.biography.com/scientist/charles-henry-turner

Shirley Ann Jackson was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT, where she studied nuclear physics. She is currently the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the United States. She has been a trailblazer throughout her career, including becoming the first African American woman to lead a top-ranked research university. Learn more about physics: 

Shirley Ann Jackson (1973) 

Photo credit: https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/shirley-jackson-1973y

Mae C. Jemison is an American astronaut and physician who, on June 4, 1987, became the first African American woman to be admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program. On September 12, 1992, Jemison finally flew into space with six other astronauts aboard the Endeavour on mission STS-47, becoming the first African American woman in space. In recognition of her accomplishments, Jemison has received several awards and honorary doctorates. Discover space with your students here:

Mae C. Jemison (1992) 

Photo credit: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison