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Make: Geek Girl's Guide to Geek Women
This hands-on book takes a look at four brilliant women -- Ada Lovelace, Anna Atkins, Hildegard Von Bingen, and Maria Telkes -- and the world-changing innovations they created. Walk in their footsteps as you discover how these women became inventors, learn what inspired them, and then try your hand at recreating their most famous inventions -- computer programs, solar photography, codes and ciphers, and water purifiers.
56 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2017
9 people want to read
About the author
Lynn Beighley
41 books31 followersLynn Beighley is the author of dozens of tech books and even more articles. She's had lots of her short stories published in lots of places. She's an editor for Manning Publications and she's currently writing a YA novel that she hopes will encourage girls to try a bit of computer programming. She got an MFA a few years back. She's on twitter as @lynnbeighley and would enjoy hearing from you.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 11, 2024
Great resource! This could make a good weekend project for a hacker girls club, or a good badge for a scout meetup, or whatever. Probable best ages would be ~middle schoolers?
Basically:
- 4 very brief chapters, each with an intro of an illustrious woman of technology + coupled with a small-scale hands-on application of that woman's work
Naturally Ada Lovelace shows up - she is EVERYWHERE in "women in tech" world - so I appreciated that I hadn't heard of the other 3. And I especially appreciated the DEEP CUT CRAZINESS of Hildegard von Bingen, omg THAT WAS A WACKY BIO. She was locked in a cell for 30+ years with another nun cuz... cuz it was the 11th century and that seemed like a good idea???? She had visions and sent much unsolicited advice via mail to the leaders of her time????? The project for her chapter was "make up a secret language" but HAAAAHA why not "lock yourself in your room and hallucinate"?! Or actually why not "write your political representatives", hey that's a good one.
Maria Telkes was a fun one too - and after the Katalin Kariko bio, I am feeling very warm towards Hungarian women scientists. Her chapter's project was also EXCELLENT: a solar-powered desalination thingie. Since I was and am still on my eco-warrior, Ministry for the Future high, that felt very apropos (and also very doable).
Basically:
- 4 very brief chapters, each with an intro of an illustrious woman of technology + coupled with a small-scale hands-on application of that woman's work
Naturally Ada Lovelace shows up - she is EVERYWHERE in "women in tech" world - so I appreciated that I hadn't heard of the other 3. And I especially appreciated the DEEP CUT CRAZINESS of Hildegard von Bingen, omg THAT WAS A WACKY BIO. She was locked in a cell for 30+ years with another nun cuz... cuz it was the 11th century and that seemed like a good idea???? She had visions and sent much unsolicited advice via mail to the leaders of her time????? The project for her chapter was "make up a secret language" but HAAAAHA why not "lock yourself in your room and hallucinate"?! Or actually why not "write your political representatives", hey that's a good one.
Maria Telkes was a fun one too - and after the Katalin Kariko bio, I am feeling very warm towards Hungarian women scientists. Her chapter's project was also EXCELLENT: a solar-powered desalination thingie. Since I was and am still on my eco-warrior, Ministry for the Future high, that felt very apropos (and also very doable).
Displaying 1 of 1 review