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s a child, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted the dishes. She counted the steps. She even counted stones. She simply counted everything!
Count the stars on this page. Then have a friend try. Who found the most?
Katherine was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She was the youngest of four children and she couldn’t wait to join her siblings at school! She used to follow them as they walked to school. Let Me Go to School!
Find the path to school.
After graduating from college in 1937, Katherine became a teacher. In 1953, she was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and was finally able to use her math skills! Patience
Katherine said it was hard work to be good at math and her other subjects. And work hard she did. She skipped two grades in elementary school, and went on to get degrees in mathematics and French. Hard Work
Determination
Katherine’s community was segregated . That meant there were many places African-American people couldn’t go, including the local high school. Katherine’s parents were so determined that she have a good education that they moved the family 120 miles so Katherine and her siblings could attend high school.
KIDNUSWTVIBTCUZTNEMWQEFSRTEVWIGRCGNICNJISA Circle every other letter to discover where the family moved.
Curiosity
Because of her intelligence, curiosity, and positive attitude, Katherine was asked to work on many different projects. When NACA turned its attention to space flight, it changed its name to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Katherine was asked to work on the complicated math problems that would establish the flight path for the spacecraft that would take the first American into space and back in 1961. Use the code to discover his name.
In 1953, computers were not as good as they are today and mathematicians, who were called “computers,” did the math needed for ight research. The Human Computer
© Vicki Whiting February 2026
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