Katherine Johnson Research Paper

Katherine Johnson was born to Joshua and Joylette Coleman on August 26,1918 in White Sulphur Spring in West Virginia. Even at a young age Katherine loved math she was always known as the “Girl that Loves to Count”. “I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to the church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed … anything that could be counted, I did.” (Katherine Johnson: A Lifetime of STEM) Unlike most of the children in her day she was 10 when she was in high school. Katherine favorite teacher in high school was Miss Turner she taught Katherine geometry.Katherine stated that she was a great encourager in her life.
At the age of 15 she was accepted to West Virginia State College to become Mathematician and computer

She quit so she can start a family with James Goble. When he had an accident she stared back teaching to help with the bills. Later her husband died of a brain tumor in the year of 1956 and left her with 3 children.Then some year later she married again to James A. Johnson he took care of her and her 3 daughters. However that was just the start to Johnson life at a family reunion a family member said that NASA was hiring and Johnson jumped at that opportunity. NASA hired her in the year 1953.Even though she didn’t start on the top she was willing to work her way up. She start working with an organization called “Computer with Skirts”. Unlike the other women Johnson had ask a lot of questions about why or why not to do the job a certain way.The women that she worked with did not like when she came to the meetings that they had because she asked so many question and they were ready to go home.Katherine recalled that “The women did what they were told to do. They didn’t ask questions or take the task any further. I asked questions; I wanted to know why. They got used to me asking questions and being the only woman there.” When NASA began to work in space she work with the team. Johnson work with the team so much that she became the team leader.Not only was she the leader but she was the only female on the team. She also help plan the trip to space. in the year 1969 she calculated the actual moon