Hidden Figures

Starting from week 9, we introduced space competition to the third graders, echoing our moon festival and also the launching of the Artemis Program. My partner continued with festivals around the globe, and I stuck with space competition and someone delved into social and gender injustice.


Conclusion first: this unit continued for almost an entire semester because I only have one session with the children. For the third graders, some aspects of social segregation and gender discrimination are very difficult and abstract due to their insufficiency of world knowledge. So I came to a debate of how to really introduce cultures to them: should I go for the broader topics or stick with one but go deep. Am still trying.


Week 9-13, 5 periods, 200 minutes, we watched parts of the movie Hidden Figures. We talked about how black people and women were treated in NASA back in the 1960s. With some explanation of historical background, I would say visual images are perfect to portrait that injustice. Kids could tell from the facial expressions, words and actions of the characters. They nailed it with a lot of why questions.

Week 15 and 16, I continued the time line to the Artemis program. There is obviously a progress of inclusion, when we see the gender ration, Victor Clover and Johnny Kim. I hope they can see that the change will happen in progress if people try. Still working on it.


Week 17, I am hoping to introduce some other injustice in the world and then circle back to the idea that change will happen when we try.