Ada Lovelace Day for Schools + Eventing Talk and Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

We will be celebrating the 200th birthday of computer visionary, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, with a mini festival at the museum. This will include two half-day sessions for schools and an evening event for the general public.

A series of activities, including keynote presentations, workshops, coding and trails will take place throughout the day.

Interactive story-teller, Zoe Philpott, will be with us to tell Ada’s story, describing her ideas about flying machines and computer programming with punch cards. She will lead workshops and bring along an amazing LED dress, the prototype of the one that will be featured in her forthcoming tour Ada, Ada, Ada, as an inspirational talking point! Zoe will discuss the creative technology production of the LED dress, and why they chose to tell Ada’s story using wearable technology.

Professor Carron Shankland will join us in the afternoon to deliver a special presentation for older students.

Morning – Primary Schools

Interactive Presentation, Workshops, Coding, Finding Ada Trail
Age restrictions: Ages 8+; ideal KS2 students

Afternoon – Secondary Schools
Interactive Presentation and Workshop, Coding
Age restrictions: Ages 11+; ideal KS3 – KS4 students

Evening – Ages 16+

Keynote Talk – Happy Birthday, Ada Lovelace: the first computer programmer

In this talk celebrating the 200th anniversary of Ada Lovelace’s birth, Professor Carron Shankland* of the University of Stirling will explore the story of Ada Lovelace, how she got interested in computers, what computer she was programming, and her contribution to computing.

Then join us for a women in science Wikipedia edit-a-thon to celebrate women in science! Help will be on hand to start editing, so bring your laptops and a sense of curiosity about women in STEM and related fields from Cambridge and beyond. We hope to raise the visibility of inspiring women and other groups who are under-represented on Wikipedia through telling some great stories (and learning a lot along the way).

Places for this FREE event are very limited, so please email elaine@computinghistory.org.uk to reserve your seats now.

Costs are just £5 per student and the evening event is FREE

Places for these events are very limited, so bookings will be taken on a first come first served basis. Please contactelaine@computinghistory.org.uk to book or for further details 

Information
Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It’s about sharing inspirational stories to help create new role models for girls and women in these male-dominated fields.

Zoe Philpott is an interactive storyteller with fifteen years of digital experience and over twenty years of collaborating, writing, producing and directing. She ­founded “Moral Support” multimedia theatre company to “cross boundaries in storytelling” collaborating with artists, astrophysicists and computer scientists.

Zoe says: “For me, whatever I bring, it is all about inspiring these young people to be excited by – and become committed to – STEM within their lives and education. Ada Lovelace is an extremely inspiring female role model. She invented the computer program in 1843 and then got written out of history…What if children grew up not knowing who Newton, Einstein or Shakespeare were? …Let’s put the British inventor, the woman who changed the way we live today back into history: the inventor of the very first computer program, Ada Lovelace!”

Carron Shankland is a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Stirling. She is Chair of BCS Women in Computing Research Group and a member of the University of Stirling Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies.

Prof Shankland is passionate about the promotion of careers in science for women.