Code-Breaker and Mathematician Alan Turing

From the Series STEM Trailblazer Bios

  • Interest Level: Grade 2 - Grade 5
  • Reading Level: Grade 4

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.

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978-1-5415-2261-9
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Interest Level Grade 2 - Grade 5
Reading Level Grade 4
Genre Science
Category 5 Kinds of Nonfiction, 5KN: Narrative Nonfiction, STEM, STEM: Interdisciplinary
Copyright 2018
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Lerner Publications ™
Language English
Number of Pages 32
Publication Date 2018-01-01
Reading Counts! Level 5.7
Text Type Narrative Nonfiction
BISACS JNF007090, JNF035000, JNF012040
Dewey 510.92 [B]
Graphics Full-color illustrations
Dimensions 7 x 9
Lexile 890
Guided Reading Level Y
ATOS Reading Level 5.9
Accelerated Reader® Quiz 195399
Accelerated Reader® Points 0.5
Features Author/Illustrator biography, Bibliography/further reading, Glossary, Glossary words bolded within text, Index, Reviewed, Sidebars, Source notes, Table of contents, Teaching Guides, Timeline, and eSource

Lerner eSource™ offers free digital teaching and learning resources, including Common Core State Standards (CCSS) teaching guides. These guides, created by classroom teachers, offer short lessons and writing exercises that give students specific instruction and practice using Common Core skills and strategies. Lerner eSource also provides additional resources including online activities, downloadable/printable graphic organizers, and additional educational materials that would also support Common Core instruction. Download, share, pin, print, and save as many of these free resources as you like!

STEM Trailblazer Bios

Read about the life stories and significant contributions of some of today’s most accomplished figures in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. Narrative nonfiction text explores key details from each person’s life, often… View available downloads →

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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.