AdVENTURE Research Projects

1. AdVENTURE Research Projects STEMs - Great achievements by great men and women

2. Benjamin Banneker • Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731 just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a slave. His grandfather had been a member of a royal family in Africa and was wise in agricultural endeavors.His father, Robert, was an African slave who purchased his freedom and his mother, Mary, was the daughter of a freed African slave and an English woman. As a young man, he was allowed to enroll in a school run by Quakers and excelled in his studies, particularly in mathematics. Soon, he had progressed beyond the capabilities of his teacher and would often make up his own math problems in order to solve them.

3. George Edward Alcorn, Jr. A noted academic and administrator, George Edward Alcorn, Jr. is a noted pioneer in the field of semiconductor devices and one of the top inventors in the field of aerospace. • Born March 22, 1940 in Indianapolis, Indiana, George was the son of Arletta and George Alcorn, Sr., an auto mechanic. Both parents promoted the virtu of education to George, Jr. and his younger brother Charles. • George was an excellent student in high school and entered Occidental College in Los Angeles, California on an academic scholarship. He was a remarkable athlete and received varsity letters in baseball and football. He also graduated with honors with a degree in physics in 1962 and followed this by enrolling in the Nuclear Physics program at Howard University. He completed his Master's work in 1963.

4. Patricia Era Bath • When Patricia Era Bath was born on November 4, 1942, she could have succumbed to the pressures and stresses associated with growing up in Harlem, New York. With the uncertainty present because of World War II and the challenges for members of Black communities in the 1940's, one might little expect that a top flight scientist would emerge from their midst. Patricia Bath, however, saw only excitement and opportunity in her future, sentiments instilled by her parents. Her father, Rupert, was well-educated and an eclectic spirit. He was the first Black motorman for the New York City subway system, served as a merchant seaman, traveling abroad and wrote a newspaper column. Her mother Gladys, was the descendant of African slaves and Cherokee Native Americans. She worked as a housewife and domestic, saving money for her children's education. Rupert was able to tell his daughter stories about his travels around the world, deepening her curiosity about people in other countries and their struggles. Her mother encouraged her to read constantly and broadened Patricia's interest in science by buying her a chemistry set. With the direction and encouragement offered by her parents, Patricia quickly proved worthy of their efforts.

5. Otis F. Boykin • Otis F. Boykin was born on August 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas. After graduating high school, he attended Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated in 1941 and took a job as a laboratory assistant with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. He undertook various tasks but excelled at testing automatic aircraft controls, ultimately serving as a supervisor. Three years laster he left Majestic and took a position as a research engineer with the P.J. NilsenReseach Laboratories. Soon thereafter, he decided to try to develop a business of his own a founded Boykin-Fruth, Incorporated. At the same time, he decided to continue his education, pursuing graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois. He attended classes in 1946 and 1947 but was forced to drop out because he lacked the funds to pay the next year's tuition.

6. Luis Walter Alvarez • Luis Walter Alvarez Born Jun 13 1911 - Died Sep 1 1988 Radio Distance and Direction IndicatorRadio Distance and Direction IndicatorPatent Number(s) 2,480,208Inducted 1978Luis Walter Alvarez invented a radio distance and direction indicator. During World War II, he designed a landing system for aircrafts and a radar system for locating planes. Later, he helped develop the hydrogen bubble chamber, used to detect subatomic particles. Invention ImpactThis research led to the discovery of over 70 elementary particles and resulted in a major revision of nuclear theories.

7. Ray Dolby • Ray DolbyBorn Jan 18 1933Noise Reduction SystemsDolby Noise ReductionPatent Number(s) 3,846,719 • Inducted 2004Ray Dolby revolutionized the audio industry in the 1960s by inventing the Dolby System, which electronically reduced the pervasive "hiss" from analog tape sound recording, thus creating a clearer, crisper sound. Invention ImpactWith the Dolby System, sound is passed through an encoder as it is recorded, then played back through a decoder, dramatically lowering background noise and hiss with none of the side effects inherent in previous attempts at noise reduction.

8. George Washington Carver • George Washington Carver was born in 1860 in Diamond Grove, Missouri and despite early difficulties would rise to become one of the most celebrated and respected scientists in United States history. His important discoveries and methods enabled farmers through the south and midwest to become profitable and prosperous.

9. GranvilleWoods • The magnitude of an inventors work can often be defined by the esteem in which he is held by fellow inventors. If this is the case, then Granville Woods was certainly a respected inventor as he was often referred to as the "Black Thomas Edison." • Granville Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio. He spent his early years attending school until the age of 10 at which point he began working in a machine shop repairing railroad equipment and machinery. Intrigued by the electricity that powered the machinery, Woods studied other machine workers as they attended to different pieces of equipment and paid other workers to sit down and explain electrical concepts to him. Over the next few years, Woods moved around the country working on railroads and in steel rolling mills. This experience helped to prepare him for a formal education studying engineering (surprisingly, it is unknown exactly where he attended school but it is believed it was an eastern college.)

10. Marie Curie • Marie Skłodowska-Curie (November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934), sometime prior to 1907. Curie and her husband Pierre shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Working together, she and her husband isolated Polonium. Pierre died in 1907, but Marie continued her work, namely with Radium, and received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Her death is mainly attributed to excess exposure to radiation.

11. Benjamin Franklin • An extraordinary man who started his working career as a printer. He retired at about thirty five to devote his life to improving the lives of the people around him. He was world famous as a scientist, inventor, and diplomat. The "Franklin stove" that he invented worked by improving the flow of radiation from the stove throughout the room. • Benjamin Franklin became interested in what people wore and if they were comfortable in their clothes. In his autobiography, Franklin describes an experiment using different colored pieces of cloth that he placed on top of snow in the sunlight. Franklin observed which colors penetrated into the snow more quickly than other colors. • Benjamin Franklin did not have the technology that we have today. Here are a few things he did not have: • He never travelled in a car or a bus. Everyone walked or rode a horse. • He never travelled in a train, although he did use a horse-drawn coach. • He never used an airplane or a steamship. • He did not have electric lights - or motors. • He lived before radio or television - and he did not get weather reports from TV weathermen. • He lived before people used gasoline or coal or oil - people burned wood to keep warm or to cook.

12. Your job • Choose a person who has made a significant contribution to science, math, engineering or technology, and who you are interested in learning more about. • If you want to choose another research topic please let Mrs. Fitch know. • On an index card, please write: • Your name and the date • Your STEM person • One sentence explaining why you chose this person.

13. Helpful Links and Resources http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_1_2_listing_inventor.asp?vAlpha http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/people.html http://www.women-scientists-in-history.com/historia.html http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/people.html http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/scientists.html