Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day

I can’t really figure out why, but the second Tuesday in October is celebrated annually as Ada Lovelace Day, a day to recognize the accomplishments of women in STEM and encourage women and girls to explore STEM careers. (It’s definitely a worthy day I just don’t know why it is this particular day. She was born Dec. 10, 1815 and died Nov. 27, 1852, so the day had no clear connection to her.)

It’s a great day to celebrate the legacy of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the poet Lord Byron (though he was not involved in her life and her education was directed by her mother) who was a pioneer in early computing. She worked with Charles Babbage on his proposed Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computer that was never built. She recognized that the computer could be used as more than just a calculator, and she wrote the first algorithm for a computer to follow, making her the world’s first computer programmer.

Science Sparks has a good printable fact file on her that you can use to get started learning about her and her accomplishments. Kids Konnect has fact sheets and printables you can use in the classroom or at home to talk about her life and work.

Get a free set of printable punch card numbers to use for number recognition with an early-computing twist from Playground Parkbench.

Teach Starter has a basic coding activity using pattern recognition that little kids can do. Any activity involving coding without a computer would be a great thing to do to celebrate this day. Or use scratch to build a poetry generator, with this project from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Check out a BrainPop video on Ada Lovelace below.

If you need more resources, there are tons of printables related to Ada Lovelace on Teachers Pay Teachers, including reading passages, coding projects and other STEM activities and more.

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Learning about Women in STEM

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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