View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year was East Computing disbanded?

2. How did Dorothy Vaughan reinvent her career after the Analysis and Computation Division was created?

3. What was the name of Senator Byrd's movement against integration?

4. Which group at Langley had already developed expertise in rockets when the space race began?

5. Who was the division chief of The Flight Research Division when Katherine Goble Johnson was sent to work there?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the talk that Mary Jackson and Emma Jean gave to a group of girls have such a great impact on the girls?

2. What was one major change that occurred when NACA became NASA?

3. What made the theoretical group an especially good place for women to work?

4. Why did Mary Jackson think it was important for her son to participate in the soap box derby?

5. Why was there a push toward space for Americans after Russia launched Sputnik?

6. Why did Dorothy Lee regret agreeing with a reporter when she said that women had to act like ladies in the workplace?

7. How did black families handle the closing of schools in Prince Edward due to defunding by segregationists?

8. Why was there confusion about which room to place Katherine Goble Johnson's mother in when she was in the hospital?

9. Why was the U.S. Army called to a school in Little Rock, Arkansas?

10. Why did NASA move the space program to Houston?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Women working at Langley were subjected to gender stereotypes that influenced the way that the men they worked with treated them. Write an essay discussing the gender stereotypes that were in play at the time and how those stereotypes affected the women who worked at Langley. How did their male coworkers feel about the work the women did? How did the stereotypes affect women’s possibilities for advancing in their careers?

Essay Topic 2

Shetterly periodically introduces a new individual in the book, which helps to move the story forward into the future. Write an essay describing the way in which Shetterly introduces individuals and how that keeps the timeline of the book moving forward. Why does Shetterly introduce individuals in the way she does? How does her introduction of new individuals show the way in which the work one woman did helped the next woman to succeed?

Essay Topic 3

Mary Jackson’s humanitarian work outside of Langley informed the direction of her career. Write an essay describing the work that Mary did outside and inside of Langley and how the two were interconnected. Why did Mary make the move to Human Resources and how did her humanitarian work influence the work she did in that department?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 951 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample