I have always been interested in space, so I thought doing an NHD project about outer space would be fun. Learning what the theme was, I knew many different topics about space would fit perfectly. I originally thought a project on the first man on the moon would be really cool. But I knew that was a popular topic and I already knew some facts about that. Recently, I had watched the movie Hidden Figures and had been very fascinated by it. My group members and myself all finally agreed to do a project on Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson. One of my partners wanted to do something about the start of rock and roll music, but we decided this fit the theme better and was more interesting.
We conducted our research by using websites, vidoes, books, and photos. We found our websites throughout the database, and just by searching the internet. One of the websites I used the most and really liked was a biography of Katherine on the NASA website. It gave a lot of clear information about her life as a kid, and before she got to NASA. We also got a few books from the public library. In addition, we found one really good interview video that gave us first hand information, and we could put it on our website. Another good primary source was a site with quotes from Katherine. Lastly, we used images to learn about what she did during her time at NASA.
We chose to do a website for our project type. Originally we were deciding between that and an exhibit. We liked the idea of an exhibit because it was fun, and hands on. However, the 500 word limit concerned us. Also, we did not have to haul around a poster to work on our project. Another reason we thought a website would work well with our topic is because we wanted to integrate a video we found. We also liked the idea of being able to “decorate” the website with fun backgrounds, colors, and fonts.
Our topic of Katherine Johnson relates to the theme because Katherine broke the barriers of inequalities or women and African Americans at NASA. She was the first women allowed into briefings and the Research Flight Division. Also, before Katherine women who wrote a report would not get credit. But that soon changed when Katherine wrote over 25 reports and finally got the credit she deserved. She broke the barrier of people being treated differently due to their appearance. She is someone who continues to inspire people 60 years later.
Throughout the process of putting together our NHD project, my group and I faced many challenges. But, one of the biggest challenges we faced, was choosing which topic to research. My partners and I didn’t agree completely on everything. One member of our group wanted to do our project on Elvis Presley and how he started Rock and Roll. The other two members in the group, including me, wanted to do something related to space. This was because we thought that the entrance into space, was a really big barrier that people had to break. But, we knew that topics such as landing on the moon and the first man into space, were going to be very popular. So, we started looking into other topics related to space. Then, I remembered a movie I had recently watched called Hidden Figures. Hidden Figures is about three women who all worked at NASA and broke many race and gender barriers there. One of the three women, was Katherine Johnson. This is who we decided to do our project on.
We first started conducting our research at our schools database. Here, we found many different primary and secondary sources. Some of the primary sources included photographs and interview videos. Some of the secondary sources included biographies, movies or videos, as well as links to websites. I also visited our local library several times to check out biographies about Katherine, and more autobiographies. Lastly, we found a few sources by just surfing the internet with questions about Katherine and all she did.
At first, our group was undecided on if we wanted to do a website of an exhibit. We considered all of the pros and cons for each project type. But, we then came to a conclusion that we would have a lot of trouble keeping our project to a really low word count and that we wanted to be able to all work on the project at the same time, and not have to be together. Therefore, we thought that a website would be the best option. By doing a website, we had a word limit of 2,000. We would also be able to work on it at the same time, without being together. This would help ensure that everyone was doing an equal amount of work. One last reason why we chose a website, is because it would help keep all of our research extremely organized.
At NASA in the 1960’s, African American’s and women we not treated fairly, let alone an African American woman. No African American women had ever worked in the Flight Research Division at NASA, but Kathrine did. In addition, no women were allowed in the briefings prior, and blacks were required to work with only people of the same race. Obviously, Katherine worked to change this. She earned her spot at NASA, by breaking down all of these barriers against her gender or race.
When we first started NHD, we were debating which topic to do. We had multiple good topics, but as a group, we couldn't decide on one. Finally, we chose the topic or “Katherine Goble Johnson.” We chose this topic because we were all intrigued by outer space, and we watched and enjoyed the movie “Hidden Figures”, which is about Katherine Johnson. This truly was a great choice, and it was very fun and educational to research and create the project.
We got our research from many different places. Our primary sources mostly consisted of pictures. These were helpful in not only being able to use them in the project, but also giving us a visual while we were still finding information. For example, the pictures of Katherine working at her desk allowed us to compare her work environment to work environments today, and see what she did as a computer as well as part of the Flight Division. In addition to pictures, we had a few interviews. These were extremely helpful in getting quotes, and her opinion. For our secondary sources, we used credible websites and databases. These sources gave us information on her job and the barriers, but also her childhood. With the movie, we used it as background information, and as an easier way to understand what she did at NASA. In addition, we used some books. Even though the books had a lot of information in them, we were able to find specific research within them. Our best sources were probably the websites and databases. Because we used lots of them, we were able to find a majority of the information from these, and it was easy to understand.
We decided to do a website as our project type. We chose to do this because you can have lots of words in the website, and it looks very professional. We wanted to do well in the competition, and we believed that doing a website would be the best choice to do so. With a website, you can create it to fit your project. By changing the colors, patterns, fonts, and adding pictures, it was easy for us to make our website match our topic. Also, it was easy for all of us to work on it in our own time. Lastly, it was enjoyable to see the final product look so professional, since we spent a lot of time and effort making the website.
Our project relates to the theme of Breaking Barriers in History, because Katherine Goble Johnson broke barriers at NASA. When she was working there, she had to deal with the barriers of segregation and gender equality. Even though she was an African-American woman, she was part of the Flight Division: a division run by white men. She worked hard in the division and accomplished so much, even though people doubted her at first. She did so much for NASA and the space program, and persevered through the barriers of segregation and gender equality.