Forgotten Trailblazers: The History of Women in Physics and Astronomy

While female physicists and astronomers have historically made up a relatively small fraction of the community as a whole, this was not the only thing holding back women in physics. Even the most prominent women have had their achievements overlooked and diminished. As part of a Society of Physics Students internship at the American Institute of Physics' Center for History of Physics, we researched the lives and work of a range of women in physics, covering a wide span of geographical areas and eras in history. This information was compiled in to lesson plans for high school and college age students, focusing on specific women or certain overarching themes such as collaborative married couples. In this talk, I will discuss our research methods and include examples of the lesson plans and their applications.