Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía was born in Washington, DC, where her father worked as a Mexican diplomat. When she was 3, her parents separated, her father returned to Mexico, and she, her mother, and six half-siblings moved around until settling down in Maryland. At 17, after completing her studies, she intended to join a convent but eventually moved to Mexico to supervise her father’s ranch, which she took over after he died. In 1897, at 27, Mexía married her first husband. After he died in 1904, she operated a pet and poultry stock-raising business and remarried. After her second husband bankrupted her company, she divorced him in 1906. Following a mental and physical breakdown, 39 years old Mexía left Mexico to receive medical treatment in San Francisco. There, she became active in the early environmental movement in California and joined the Sierra Club and Save the Redwoods League. She began hiking, went camping, and became interested in nature, specifically plants. In 1921, at 51, Mexía enrolled at UC Berkeley to study botany and began to collect and categorize plants. Four years later, she went on her first plant-collecting expedition to Mexico. Soon, she realized she preferred to work alone and broke off from her group, collecting 500 specimens in two months. During the next 13 years, Mexía traveled the Americas, collecting plants from Tierra del Fuego on the border of Chile and Argentina to the northern regions of Alaska. Mexía stood out not only by the number of expeditions she had or the mileage she covered but also by being an older woman who traveled alone on horseback, wearing trousers, and camping outdoors. Mexía regularly published the documentation of her adventures in the Audubon Society of the Pacific’s newsletter. While not on one of her expeditions, she lectured about them at various scientific organizations. In 1938, Mexía got sick during her expedition in Mexico. She had to cut the trip short and go back to the US. She died from lung cancer the following month at 68. In only 13 years of her career, Mexía collected over 145,000 plant specimens, discovering 500 new species. Read more...

Sally Ride was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She was an athletic child who also loved science, but her passion for tennis began when she was nine, while on a year-long family trip in Europe. In addition to practicing tennis professionally, she also focused on her studies, graduating high school with the aspiration to become an astrophysicist. Ride got accepted to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania on a full scholarship, winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Women’s Singles championship in 1968 and 1969. After three semesters, she transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, aiming to become a professional tennis player. Soon, she realized she didn’t have what it took to be the best and decided to focus on her studies. Ride moved to Stanford University and graduated in 1978 with a Ph.D. in physics and astrophysics. In 1977, Ride came across an advertisement in the students’ newspaper that NASA was recruiting scientists for the Space Shuttle program. She applied and got accepted into NASA Astronaut Group 8, one of 35 out of 8000 applicants. While in training, she started a relationship with Steven Hawley, also a member of Group 8. They got married in 1982 (divorced five years later). On June 18th, 1983, Ride took off on the Space Shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman in space and the third woman in history. She returned to space for her second and last mission in 1984. Ride left NASA in 1987 to pursue an academic career. Two years later, she was appointed a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and director of the California Space Institute, retiring from Cal Space in 1996 and UCSD in 2007. Her passion for space and longtime desire to encourage youngsters, especially girls, to study science and technology led her to participate in several educational programs, including the EarthKam and GRAIL MoonKAM projects in collaboration with NASA. These projects have enabled people to view, request and use pictures of the Earth and moon from space. She also co-established “Sally Ride Science” (2001), which promotes and educates teachers and students in STEM. She died from cancer in 2012.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Sally Ride with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...

Born in Decatur, Alabama, and moved to Chicago at the age of 3. From a young age, she had an interest both in science and in dancing, but at college, she had to decide which goal to pursue, and after her mother told her “You can always dance if you’re a doctor, but you can’t doctor if you’re a dancer,” Jemison chose science. At 21, she graduated from Stanford University and got her M.D degree from Cornell Medical College when she turned 25. Afterward, she joined the Peace Corps and served for two years as a Medical Officer. When she was 31 years old, Jemison got accepted into NASA’s Astronaut Program, becoming the first African-American woman to be admitted into the program. In her only space mission, she conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness on herself and her fellow crew members. At 37, she resigned from NASA and founded her own company for research, develop, and market science and technology for daily life. Jemison published six books and is using her public platforms to advocate for the quality of healthcare in the USA and the Third World.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Mae Carol Jemison with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...

Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India. When she was only 20 years old, after getting a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering, she moved to the US. There she earned a double master’s degree and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. At 26, she started working at NSA as a researcher of computational fluid dynamics, and then as a vice president and research scientist specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. Two years later, Chawla joined the NASA Astronaut Corps, and at age 36, she made her first air mission, making history as the first Indian origin woman and the second Indian person to fly in space. In her second mission to space, in 2003, Chawla died along with six other crew members when the space shuttle, Columbia, broke apart while reentering the atmosphere of earth, an event known as the ‘Columbia Disaster.’ She was 41 years old.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Kalpana Chawla with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...

Born as Mary Winston in Hampton, Virginia, graduated high school with high honors and earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton University. After college, Jackson taught mathematics, worked as a bookkeeper and a clerk, until at the age of 30, she began working at NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) as a research mathematician, also known as a ‘human computer.’ Before incorporating into NASA, the organization had a segregation policy, and Jackson and her colleagues had to use separate bathrooms and dining facilities. Three years later, she accepted an offer to work in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel and took graduate-level courses to become an engineer. Jackson worked as an engineer in several divisions, and after 34 years at NASA, she achieved the most senior title within the engineering department. Then, she took a demotion so she could serve as the Federal Women’s Program Manager and as the Affirmative Action Program Manager in NASA’s Equal Opportunity Specialist field, where she worked to promote women and other minorities and advance their careers at NASA.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Mary Jackson with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...

Born and raised in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897. From a young age she broke gender conventions: climbing trees which was seen as boyish behavior and collecting articles about female pioneers in male-dominated fields. She left college to work as a nurse in a military hospital during World War I and later worked as a social worker. After a $10 ride in an airplane at the age of 23, she found her calling within aviation. Earhart took classes with a female instructor, and six months later bought her first plane, painted yellow and nicknamed “The Canary.” She was active in the movement for equal rights for women and was determined to use aviation to make a point that women can do anything they want. Her breakthrough was initiated by publicist George Putnam, whom she later married. He presented her with the opportunity to be the first female to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, which won her worldwide recognition, a New York parade, and a reception at the White House. Fond of “first” achievements and aware of their publicity value, Earhart set and broke several records of destination, speed, and altitude. She wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world, and in her attempt, she vanished with her navigator in 1937. Despite a $4 Million search, the most extensive one in naval history, no clear trace of her was ever found. Amelia Earhart was around the age of 40 at the time of the accident, and in 1939, the pioneering pilot declared dead. This turned her into a mystery that occupies generations, with a wide range of theories and speculations as to her fate.   Dive deeper into the inspiring story of Amelia Earhart with our fun and engaging printable worksheet! Available now on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. Read more...