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Without further ado, here’s Parent at the Helm Becky Rupp!
Good Stuff for Special Days by Becky Rupp
March 24 is Ada Lovelace Day – time to celebrate the role of women in science and technology!
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of the poet, Lord Byron, and a brilliant (homeschooled) mathematician, is famous for her work on Charles Babbage’s prototype computer, the “analytical engine.” She wrote what is now known as the world’s first computer program.
For more on Ada, see BrainPOP’s “Ada Lovelace” for a wonderful short animated video for kids on the life and work of the young woman who was nicknamed “The Enchantress of Numbers.”
The Computer History Museum’s Babbage Engine includes illustrated explanations of Babbage’s famous early computers, along with biographies and portraits of key people involved, among them Ada.
For older readers, see Scientific American’s “Ada and the First Computer” by Eugene Eric Kim and Betty Alexandra Toole (May, 1999).
Lynn Hershmann-Leeson’s film Conceiving Ada (1999) is a surreal and thought-provoking film about Ada’s life and times, in which the 19th-century mathematician’s memories are accessed by a modern computer scientist and brought to life on the computer screen. Tilda Swinton – the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – plays Ada. It’s available through Netflix. It’s not rated and is aimed at an adult audience, so parents might want to screen it first. Ada was a bit on the wild side.
Stuff you missed in history class podcast on the enchantress of numbers is good