When we talk about Black History Month with children, certain themes understandably appear again and again: Slavery, Colonialism, Racism, Civil rights, Migration. These are important histories. Children should learn about them in age-appropriate ways, and we should not shy away from difficult parts of the past. But there is a problem if these become the only contexts in which children encounter Black people in their learning. Black history is also the history of science, medicine, mathematics, engineering, invention, exploration and discovery.
Black scientists have studied the stars. Black mathematicians have helped send humans into space. Black doctors have transformed medicine. Black engineers have developed technologies used around the world. Black explorers have travelled to some of the most extreme environments on Earth. And Black scientists are working on questions that will shape our future right now. So for Black History Month, I wanted to move beyond the history curriculum.
Here are scientists, inventors, mathematicians, engineers and explorers whose stories can become starting points for much bigger learning. The aim isn't simply for children to memorise another list of famous names. Choose somebody who interests them. Then investigate what they actually did. Because the person can be the doorway. The science is where the learning begins.
1. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock — Looking Into the Universe
Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a British space scientist and science communicator. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she has spoken openly about having dyslexia and experiencing numerous school changes during childhood before going on to study physics and complete a doctorate in mechanical engineering. Her career has included developing scientific instruments and working on technology connected with astronomy and space science. She has also become familiar to many British families through her work communicating astronomy, including presenting the BBC's The Sky at Night. For children, her story offers several routes into learning.
Explore the science
Instead of stopping at "Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist", investigate:
How does a telescope work?
Why do scientists put telescopes in space?
What kinds of light can telescopes detect?
How can we know what a star is made from when we cannot travel to it?
What does a space scientist actually do?
This also creates a lovely crossover between Black History Month and World Space Week, both of which take place during October.
2. Katherine Johnson — The Mathematics That Helped Humans Reach Space
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations contributed to some of NASA's most significant early human spaceflight missions. Born in West Virginia in 1918, Johnson demonstrated exceptional mathematical ability from childhood. She eventually worked at NASA and its predecessor, NACA, calculating flight trajectories. Her work contributed to missions including Alan Shepard's first American human spaceflight and John Glenn's orbital mission. Before Glenn's 1962 orbital flight, he famously requested that Johnson personally verify computer-generated calculations.
Later, her work also contributed to the Apollo programme. Her story provides an extraordinary opportunity to show children something that can sometimes become lost in the excitement of rockets: space exploration depends on mathematics.
Explore the maths
For younger children: Investigate distance, speed and time.
For older children: Explore coordinates, angles, trajectories, orbits and why spacecraft cannot simply travel in a straight line to wherever they want to go.
Ask: How do you work out where something moving at thousands of kilometres per hour will be in the future?
That's a much more interesting maths problem than a page of disconnected calculations.
3. Mae Jemison — Doctor, Engineer and Astronaut
Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel into space in 1992. But astronaut is only one part of her story. Jemison trained as a doctor and also studied engineering. She worked as a medical officer in the Peace Corps before being selected by NASA as an astronaut. She travelled aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-47.
I particularly like introducing children to people whose careers don't fit into one neat box. Doctor. Engineer. Astronaut. Dancer. Science communicator. Children are sometimes asked surprisingly early to imagine choosing the one thing they will "be". People like Mae Jemison demonstrate that a life can contain many interests.
Explore the science
Ask:
What happens to the human body in microgravity?
Why do astronauts exercise in space?
How do astronauts sleep?
What happens to bones and muscles during long space missions?
Suddenly an astronaut biography has become human biology.
4. Dr Patricia Bath — Changing the Treatment of Cataracts
Patricia Bath was an American ophthalmologist, researcher and inventor whose work focused on preventing blindness. She developed the Laserphaco Probe, a device and technique associated with cataract surgery. Bath was also a pioneer in the concept of community ophthalmology, recognising that access to eye care and preventable blindness were public-health issues as well as medical ones. Her work provides children with a fantastic route into the science of sight.
Explore the science
How does the human eye work?
What does the lens do?
What is a cataract?
How does light travel through the eye?
Why do some people need glasses?
Create a labelled diagram of the eye. For older children, investigate how lasers can be used in medicine. Now the biography has become biology + physics + medicine.
5. Garrett Morgan — Inventing Solutions to Problems
Garrett Morgan was an American inventor and entrepreneur born in Kentucky in 1877. Among his inventions was an early safety hood, designed to help protect people from smoke and harmful gases. Morgan and others famously used safety hoods during a rescue following an explosion in a tunnel beneath Lake Erie in 1916. He also patented an improved three-position traffic signal. His story gives children a wonderful introduction to what invention actually is.
Inventors don't necessarily sit down and think: "I want to invent something."
They often begin with: "There is a problem. How could I solve it?"
Try it
Ask your child to identify five small problems they experience during an ordinary day. A pencil constantly rolls off the table. Their water bottle falls over. Their headphones become tangled. They can't reach something. Something takes too long to organise. Choose one. Can they design a solution? That's engineering.
6. Lewis Latimer — Engineering the Electric Age
Lewis Howard Latimer was an American inventor, draftsman and engineer born in 1848. His technical work intersected with some of the major technological developments of the nineteenth century. Latimer worked with electrical-lighting technology and received patents for inventions of his own. He also produced important technical drawings and later worked with Thomas Edison's organisation. His work on carbon filaments and electric lighting systems contributed to the development and practical use of electric illumination. His story is also a useful opportunity to correct the way invention is sometimes taught.
Technologies rarely emerge fully formed from one genius having one idea. They develop through the work of many people: scientists, engineers, designers, manufacturers, technicians, and earlier inventors.
Investigate
Rather than asking: Who invented the light bulb?
Try: How did electric lighting develop?
That question produces a much more interesting and accurate history of technology.
7. Dr Charles Drew — Blood, Medicine and Transfusions
Charles R. Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher whose work helped improve the collection, processing and storage of blood plasma. His research became particularly significant as large-scale systems for collecting and distributing blood products developed around the Second World War. His work offers a natural entry point into human biology.
Explore the science
What is blood made from?
Children can investigate: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma
What does each component do?
Why can losing too much blood be dangerous?
What is a blood transfusion?
Older children can investigate blood groups and compatibility. One scientist's story becomes an entire biology topic.
8. George Washington Carver — Plants, Soil and Agricultural Science
George Washington Carver became a prominent American agricultural scientist and educator. Carver studied plants and soils and promoted agricultural methods designed to improve depleted farmland. He encouraged farmers to diversify crops rather than repeatedly growing cotton and explored uses for crops including peanuts and sweet potatoes. There are many exaggerated internet claims about Carver "inventing hundreds of things", so his story is also a useful reminder to check historical claims carefully. His real scientific contribution is interesting enough without mythology.
Explore the science
Try growing plants under different conditions. Change one variable: amount of water, amount of light, soil type, or temperature.
Keep everything else the same. Measure the plants over several weeks. Now children are learning about: variables, measurement, fair testing, plant biology and data collection.
9. Dr Percy Julian — Chemistry That Changed Medicine
Percy Lavon Julian was an American chemist whose work in organic chemistry contributed to the synthesis and large-scale production of important chemical compounds. His research included work involving plant-derived compounds and steroid chemistry, with implications for medicines. His career is particularly useful for older children because chemistry can sometimes feel abstract. Atoms. Molecules. Bonds. Compounds.
But chemistry sits behind: medicines, plastics, food, cleaning products, cosmetics, fuels, and almost every material around us.
Investigate
Choose an everyday medicine. Don't investigate how to make it. Instead ask:
What does its active ingredient do?
How do scientists test whether medicines work?
Why does dosage matter?
What is the difference between a substance and a medicine containing that substance?
10. Dr Daniel Hale Williams — A Pioneer of Surgery
Daniel Hale Williams was an American surgeon who became known for pioneering surgical work during the late nineteenth century. In 1893, he performed a successful operation on a patient with a serious wound near the heart, at a time when surgery was dramatically more dangerous than it is today. Williams also founded Provident Hospital in Chicago, which provided opportunities for Black medical professionals at a time of widespread racial discrimination. His story creates an excellent opportunity to investigate how medicine has changed.
Compare
Imagine an operating theatre in: 1850, 1900, 1950 today
What changed? Anaesthesia. Understanding of germs. Antiseptics. Antibiotics. Imaging. Blood transfusions. Monitoring equipment. Surgical techniques. Children begin seeing scientific progress as something that develops over time.
11. Dr Gladys West — Mathematics Behind GPS
Gladys West is an American mathematician whose work contributed to the mathematical modelling of the Earth's shape. Her calculations and computer programming helped improve models used in satellite geodesy—work that contributed to technologies underlying modern GPS. Think about how often we now use GPS without noticing. Phones. Cars. Planes. Ships. Delivery services. Emergency services. Mapping. Running watches. The technology feels ordinary because it is everywhere. But making it work requires extraordinary mathematics.
Try this
Give your child a map. Ask:
How does your phone know where you are?
Then investigate satellites and triangulation/trilateration. For older children, explore coordinates: latitude and longitude. Find your town. Then find somewhere on the opposite side of the world.
12. Dr Mark Richards — Studying the Earth Beneath Our Feet
For a British example outside space science, children can discover contemporary Black scientists working across many disciplines. Mark Richards is a British geoscientist whose career provides a route into earth science and engineering. Geoscience is a field children may rarely hear about as a career despite interacting with its subject every day. Rocks. Soil. Water. Earthquakes. Natural resources. The structure beneath our feet.
Explore
Collect several rocks. Compare: colour, texture, hardness, grain size, weight.
Can your child classify them?
Then investigate the three broad rock groups: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic
A scientist's career can introduce a field a child didn't know existed.
13. Matthew Henson — Arctic Exploration
Matthew Henson was an American explorer who participated in numerous Arctic expeditions with Robert Peary. Henson became highly experienced in Arctic travel, learning skills from Inuit communities, including aspects of dog-sled travel and survival. He was part of the controversial 1909 expedition that claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole. The exact claim remains historically disputed, which actually makes Henson's story more interesting educationally, not less. Children can learn that historical claims are sometimes debated.
Explore the geography
What's the difference between: the North Pole and the South Pole?
Is there land beneath both?
What animals live in each region?
Why are there no wild polar bears in Antarctica?
How do humans survive extreme cold?
Exploration becomes geography and environmental science.
14. Barbara Hillary — Exploring Both Poles Later in Life
Barbara Hillary had a very different exploration story. She became the first Black woman known to reach the North Pole and later travelled to the South Pole. And here's the detail I particularly love: She reached the North Pole in her seventies. Children are often presented with achievement stories involving prodigies or people who discovered their passion incredibly young. Hillary's story offers another message. There isn't one correct age to begin an adventure.
Investigate
Compare conditions at the North and South Poles. Temperature. Wildlife. Landscape. Daylight. Sea ice. Continental ice. Then ask: Which expedition would you rather attempt and why?
15. Dr George Carruthers — Seeing Space in Ultraviolet
George Robert Carruthers was an American physicist and inventor whose work involved ultraviolet astronomy. He developed scientific instruments capable of detecting ultraviolet radiation from space. One of his ultraviolet cameras was used during the Apollo 16 mission on the Moon in 1972. This gives children an opportunity to discover something extraordinary: There is light we cannot see. Human eyes detect only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Explore
Investigate: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays. Then ask: If our eyes can't see ultraviolet light, how can scientists detect it?
16. Lonnie Johnson — From NASA Engineer to the Super Soaker
Lonnie Johnson may produce one of the biggest reactions from children. Johnson is an engineer and inventor who worked on projects connected with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also the inventor behind the Super Soaker water gun. Yes. Space engineering and water fights can belong in the same biography. Johnson developed the idea while experimenting with a system involving pressurised water. His story is a fantastic demonstration that inventions can emerge from experimentation, accidents and curiosity.
Design challenge
Give children the challenge: Move water from A to B without carrying the container. Let them design something. Tubes? Gravity? Pressure? A pump? A siphon?
Don't give them the answer first. Let them experiment.
17. Dr Aprille Ericsson — Engineering for Space
Aprille Ericsson is an American aerospace engineer who has worked extensively in space science and engineering, including at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Her career offers another useful reminder that astronauts are only a tiny proportion of the people involved in space exploration. Behind every spacecraft are huge teams. Engineers. Programmers. Physicists. Mathematicians. Technicians. Materials scientists. Mission planners. Medical professionals.
Investigate
Choose a space mission. Then ask:
How many different jobs were required to make this happen?
Create a "space mission team". A child who doesn't dream of becoming an astronaut might discover that they would love to design the spacecraft instead.
18. Dr Jane C. Wright — Cancer Research and Medicine
Jane C. Wright was an American physician and cancer researcher whose work contributed to the development and evaluation of chemotherapy treatments. Her research helped advance approaches to using drugs against cancer and understanding how different treatments affected tumours. For older children studying biology, her work can become a doorway into one of the most fundamental ideas in life science: cells.
Explore the biology
What is a cell?
Why do cells divide?
What controls cell division?
What happens when cell growth becomes uncontrolled?
How can medicines target rapidly dividing cells?
This is a topic to approach according to a child's age and experiences, but for older learners it provides a powerful example of biology being applied to medicine.
Don't Just Learn Their Names
There is a temptation with awareness months to create another list: Scientist → achievement → date → next person.
Instead, use each person as an entry point.
If your child chooses Katherine Johnson: do some maths.
If they choose Maggie Aderin-Pocock: look through a telescope.
If they choose Patricia Bath: investigate the eye.
If they choose Charles Drew: learn about blood.
If they choose George Washington Carver: grow something.
If they choose Gladys West: use coordinates and maps.
If they choose Matthew Henson: investigate polar environments.
If they choose Lonnie Johnson: build something.
The biography provides context. The investigation creates the learning.
Black Scientists Shouldn't Only Appear in October
This connects with something I've said throughout this Black History Month series. When October ends, these people shouldn't disappear.
If you're studying space in March, Katherine Johnson and Maggie Aderin-Pocock belong there.
Studying the human body? Patricia Bath and Charles Drew belong there.
Studying plants? George Washington Carver belongs there.
Studying electricity and invention? Lewis Latimer belongs there.
Studying GPS, satellites or coordinates? Gladys West belongs there.
Studying the polar regions? Matthew Henson belongs there.
That is how representation becomes part of education rather than an annual event.
Don't Turn Every Story Into a Story About Racism
We also need balance. Many of these scientists experienced discrimination because of their race and, for many women on this list, their sex too. We shouldn't erase them from their biographies. Children need to understand that opportunities were not distributed equally and that remarkable people sometimes succeeded despite systems actively restricting them.
But I also don't want: Katherine Johnson = racism. She was a mathematician. Teach the mathematics.
Patricia Bath = discrimination. She was an ophthalmologist and inventor. Teach the eye.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock = representation. She is a space scientist. Teach space.
Black scientists deserve to be remembered for their science, not simply for the barriers they encountered while doing it.
Try a Black History Month STEM Challenge
For home-educating families, choose four people this month.
Week 1 — Space
Discover Maggie Aderin-Pocock or Katherine Johnson. Activity: Investigate telescopes, trajectories or the Solar System.
Week 2 — Medicine
Discover Patricia Bath or Charles Drew. Activity: Explore the eye, blood or the circulatory system.
Week 3 — Invention
Discover Garrett Morgan, Lewis Latimer or Lonnie Johnson. Activity: Identify a problem and design an invention to solve it.
Week 4 — Earth & Exploration
Discover Gladys West, Matthew Henson or Barbara Hillary. Activity: Explore coordinates, maps, polar environments or climate.
No worksheets required.
Science Is Still Being Made
There is a reason I want contemporary scientists alongside historical figures. History can accidentally give children the impression that important discoveries have already happened.
Newton discovered gravity.
Darwin studied evolution.
Marie Curie researched radioactivity.
Einstein changed physics.
Finished. Except science isn't finished. Scientists today are investigating: climate change, artificial intelligence, new medicines, renewable energy, quantum computing, space exploration, genetics, robotics, ocean ecosystems, materials, and questions we haven't even thought to ask yet.
Some of the children learning about these scientists today may eventually contribute to those discoveries themselves.
