Code-Breaker and Mathematician Alan Turing (STEM Trailblazer Bios) - Softcover

Schwartz, Heather E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1541512138 ISBN 13: 9781541512139

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group, 2018

Synopsis

Have you ever wished that you could do something heroic to help your country? When Alan Turing was a boy, he was fascinated by math and science. Later, Turing's math skills would help Great Britain win World War II.

Turing's parents and teachers thought he'd be better off dropping math in favor of more gentlemanly studies, such as literature and Latin. But he stuck with it, and by the start of World War II in 1939, he was ready to take on the biggest challenge his country faced: Nazi Germany. Turing put his advanced knowledge of math to work decoding secret German messages. His ideas not only helped Great Britain turn the tide of the war―they provided the foundation upon which much of modern computing and artificial intelligence is based.

About this title

About the Author

When Heather E. Schwartz was thirteen years old, she tracked down several lead orphans from the 1983 movie "Annie" and interviewed them by phone. As an adult, she realized she could apply those same early instincts to a career as a journalist and writer. She is the author of more than 35 nonfiction children's titles, published by Lerner Publishing Group, Capstone Press, Teacher Created Materials, Lucent Books, and Tangerine Press, a Scholastic imprint. She has written articles for National Geographic Kids and Discovery Girls. In addition, she developed the content for KidsGetArthritisToo.org, the juvenile section of the Arthritis Foundation's website. Other credits in the children's market include articles for Teen, Girls' Life, and All About You magazines. Additionally, Ms. Schwartz is a former editor at Bridal Guide magazine, co-author of Bridal Guide Magazine's How to Choose the Perfect Wedding Gown (Warner, 2004), and contributor to The Takeout Cookbook (Knock Knock 2007).

Review

Prepare for ramped-up STEM engagement with the latest installment in the STEM Trailblazer Bios series. In four to five brisk, photo-filled chapters, entries showcase each innovator's early life, education, career, and groundbreaking achievements. Code-Breaker and Mathematician Alan Turing introduces the brilliant creator of the code-cracking Bombe machine. It's estimated that Turing's Bombe shaved at at least two years of WWII, saving approximately two million lives. Schwartz also addresses homophobia, the British government's 1952 condemnation of Turing, and his posthumous pardon decades later. In Environmental Activist Wangari Maathai, readers learn of the convention-shattering leader. Born in Kenya in 1940, Maathai valiantly combated countrywide deforestation through the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots tree-planting imitative. In 2004, Maathai became the first-ever African to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Google Cybersecurity Expert Parisa Tabriz spotlights the self-proclaimed "Security Princess," tracing her career from college computer-security club meetings to a post as Google's fiercest white hat. Science Educator and Advocate Bill Nye turns the lens on the beloved "science guy," an engineer who's developed suppressor tubes for Boeing, an Emmy award-winning PBS program, and two Mars-based sun dials. With boldface vocabulary words and boxed quotations throughout―as well as appended time lines, source notes, and further resources―these nimble bios are just the thing for mover and shakers in the making.

(Journal)

Edition details

• Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1541512138
• ISBN 13: 9781541512139
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32