Natasha Dahir, (Upper Sixth, Sigma Co-coordinator)
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics played an important role in the success of the first and subsequent US crewed spaceflight, and sending astronauts to the moon. She analysed flight paths of many spacecrafts during the three decades she worked with NASA. However, as she was an African American woman, she did not get the recognition she deserved. On the 24th of February 2020, she sadly passed away.
To commemorate her death, a competition was organised by Maths Week England for children up to the age of eighteen. The aim of the competition was to make a short video on either Katherine Johnson or any other mathematician, who for reasons such as race or gender did not get the recognition they deserved.
At BGS, we have had many discussions about being bold and imaginative, so pioneering and powerful women like Katherine Johnson serve as a great inspiration in our school environment. Hence, this competition was also run internally for sixth form students as part of the Sigma Society.
It was a great opportunity for students to explore mathematics from a different perspective and research some very important mathematicians like Sophie Germain and Florence Nightingale. All the entries were extremely informative and detailed, and each was deserving of a prize.
A special congratulations to Romina Johnson (Upper Sixth) for winning with her immensely detailed video on Sophie Germain and her thorough mathematical explanation on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Similarly congratulations to Krishnaa Parmar (Lower Sixth) and Emily Coton (Lower Sixth) on coming second with their very engaging and insightful video on Florence Nightingale, showing her importance as a mathematician despite her being predominantly known for her work as a nurse. Finally congratulations to Sabira Egan (Upper Sixth) and Harriet Jones (Upper Sixth) for coming third with their highly detailed video on Katherine Johnson, delving much further into her life, and describing her legacy. Thank you, again, to all the entries and we hope to be able to have more competitions like this. The links to the videos are down below.
Sophia Germain - by Romina Johnson, click here.
Florence Nightingale - by Krishnaa Parmar and Emily Coton, click here.
Katherine Johnson- by Sabira Egan and Harriet Jones, click here.
