Hi, my name is Raye Jean Montague. I am a scientist from the modern era. I was an American naval engineer, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 21, 1935. I was born to Rayford Jordan and Flossie Graves Jordan. In my early life, I was inspired to pursue naval engineering when I saw a German submarine that had been captured by America and put on tour across the country. I attended St. Bartholomew school before moving to Merrill high school in Pine Bluff, graduating in 1952. I  attended the Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College — now known as the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff because I wanted to study engineering. I graduated in 1956 with a bachelor of science in business. 

 

In 1956 I joined the U.S. Navy in Washington D.C. as a clerk typist. At work, I sat by a 1950s UNIVAC 1 computer. By watching,  listening and practicing after hours I taught myself how to use it. 

 

When I was interested to learn how to use the computer, I asked the operator if he would teach me. He declined, saying, “if I did then you would have my job!” When I had mostly figured out how the computer worked just by watching, I looked for a chance to try my hand at it. When I first tried the computer, my boss said, “Raye, I didn’t know that you knew how to work the computer.” “I don’t”, I replied, “but I know how to work it enough to do my job.” After that, he reluctantly said, “well you know more than any of the rest of us, so from now on, this is your job.”

 

In 1971, president Nixon ordered a new ship to be designed. Yet, instead of giving us two years to complete a rough draft, as had been the history of the Navy, he wanted it done in a mere 2 months. The admirals gave me one month to do it, but, through the use of computer-aided design, I was able to produce the draft in only 18 hours and 26 minutes. This was the first computer-generated rough draft in the history of the Navy. After this feat, my career took off and I became the U.S. Navy’s first female program manager of ships and held a civilian rank equivalent to that of a captain. 

 

I was married three times, in 1955, 1965 and 1973. While I was married to David H Montague I had one child, David R Montague. He’s a tenured professor of criminal justice at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. David and I are very close. I’ve gotten him through a lot. We are very similar in our ideas, our mindset our determination and our smile. 

 

“My mom certainly made me believe I could do anything I wanted as long as I had the skill sets and the determination,” my son said. “I saw her having to fight and fight, and I had to deal with a lot of that myself.”

Sadly, I died because of congestive heart failure on October 10, 2018, I was eighty-three years old. But I died proudly. I created a computer designing program that helped people make new designs for ships. Through watching my interviews you can see that I was funny and kind and smart! I revolutionized a big part of the Navy. I think that I would ask myself; Did I do a good job on the first design?  Who was my biggest inspiration? Did I teach many other people?      

 

List of awards:

• Meritorious Civilian Service Award (US Navy, 1972)

• Society of Manufacturing Engineers Achievement Award (1978)
• National Computer Graphics Association Award for the Advancement of Computer Graphics (1988)
• Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame (2018)

   

 

Paleo means “older or ancient, especially relating to the geological past.” The Paleo diet is eating foods that are wholesome and nutritious. The foods that the paleo diet is based on are the foods that we would have eaten during the Paleolithic era. Which dates from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. This diet typically consists of lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. This diet limits the consumption of foods that became common in farming during the past 10,000 years. This diet was created in the 1970s by a gastroenterologist named Walter Voegtlin. Walter was the pioneer of this diet.

People who are on the paleo diet can enjoy weight loss, lowering blood pressure, and controlling blood sugar in the short term. But experts caution that in the long run, this diet may lead to nutrient deficiencies and other health risks.

1. How many people are on the Paleo diet versus in the 1970s?
2. How dangerous is the Paleo diet?
3. Can you die from the Paleo diet?

Last week we went on a journey through the Pathfinder campus. We were going on a snowshoeing adventure! We walked down the driveway and honked when the signs said to. Then we walked down the second driveway, the dirt one, and kept going. we ended up at the boathouse and we checked for the cat. Audrey and the other staff kids go after school and put food and water down there for him/her. He/ she usually eats the food. We were wondering if he/she uses the little comfy bed that they put out for him/her. The little makeshift bed is a cardboard box with a fleece blanket inside to keep him/her warm and cozy. They cut a hole in the front so that he/she can crawl inside when it’s cold.

That wasn’t what it looked like by the way.

We kept moving. We went out on the dock, and then the ice. The ice was quite thick so there were no problems until Lars cracked it a little… Then I stepped right where he had stepped a moment before. Luckily nothing happened, at least that could kill us. Later we were walking down the birch trail Audrey started yelling for us stragglers to “Hurry up! You NEED to see this!” So I started to walk a little bit faster. But when I got there I was amazed by what I was seeing! There was what seemed to be a murder scene. (Obviously not human). It looked like an animal had full-on attacked a bunny or something of that size. It was right in the middle of the trail, too! A little off of the trail there was more blood and fur. The whole scene smelled like urine too.

• Is it really a cat who is eating the food?
• Where does the animal go?
• How long will the staff kids still look for the animal and try to catch it?

https://gusb95.wixsite.com/alpine

The Renaissance was an artistic time period when people started to be happy again. They had to get happy again because it was the time after the dark ages (The middle ages) and during that time period there was a lot of disease and sadness. people during that time period weren’t very open to new ideas and then the Renaissance happened and there was happiness again. The Renaissance was a time of new cultural development and life again. There was a lot of art in a certain style during the Renaissance. Music too, the music started to get happier and not as sad and lonely. As a whole this time period started to get a lot less depressing.

We did a unit on The Renaissance in all of our classes for two weeks. As I am writing this it’s coming to an end. The Renaissance unit was very interesting because the teachers split us into “virtual grades” with the 5-8 grades mixed together. We had a lot of fun in our “virtual grades”! In math we built castle and it was really fun to see how they would have mapped them out. In LASS we painted a Renaissance style painting and we wrote sonnets, soliloquys and haikus! In science we made Gutenberg presses and it was super interesting to make our own! The two weeks were very fun! Thank you to all of the teachers for making them amazing!

1. Why did the teachers choose the Renaissance?
2. How many people lived and died during the Renaissance?
3. Did they believe in sirens during the Renaissance?

The winter concert is an annual performance. The performance is put on by the fourth graders and is an annual Christmas concert. The fourth through eighth-graders have been working for this performance for about 2 months. We have worked very hard for this and it was awesome. It was really fun and I believe that almost everyone enjoyed it. Everyone came and it was a fun time! It was super exciting!

All of the classes had at least two songs. All of them were very unique. Showing off all of the unique people at Pathfinder. Our class did a song called “Flying” by Cody Fry. Flying is a very beautiful song. Three of our class members sang, one person did the keyboard, one person did the piano, and I danced along to it. We also did a song called ”Cradle Hymn.” Cradle Hymn is an Orff piece that is kind of like a creepy lullaby.

1. How long has the Winter Concert been going on for?
2. How long is the Winter Concert?
3. How many songs are in the Winter Concert?

 

This week we continued our focus on biomes. A biome is a large area of a certain climate and topography. I have been learning about the Alpine biome. In class this week, I continued on my WIX website. WIX is a website where we are each compiling our research about separate biomes. Audrey has the Temperate Forest, Lizzie has the Desert, Lars has the Rainforest, Aidan has the Tiaga, and Alisha has the Tundra. All of these biomes are very different.

Having different biomes is very important on our planet so that more species can survive. If we didn’t have so many biomes than we would have a lot fewer species. Our species on earth are all very different and they all need very different things to live and thrive. For example, the Polar Bear needs very different things than the Red Panda in climate, in food, and in many more ways too. If we didn’t have all of our species than our planet would be empty. Lonely. Our species and climate are what defines our biomes.

1. How many biomes are there?
2. Where does the Red Panda
3. How many Red Pandas are there in the world?

Hi!

This week in science we were learning about biomes. A biome is a naturally occurring habitat/ community with a special climate and it has a pattern of topography unique to itself. The Alpine biome is no exception. Its mountains and valleys are some of the coldest places on earth. The mountains stretch and manage to cover roughly 16% of the world. These magnificent mountains are also home to many beautiful animals too. These animals are designed for cold weather. Or they’ve adapted!

The alpine biome is great and all but it’s only one of the amazing biomes out there. It has many family members and they’re all different. They all are unique. They have their own little bubble all to themselves with all of the animals that live there. My point is that every biome is unique and different and each separate biome has its own separate place for different animals. Like in the alpine biome there is a separate climate and different animals. And in the tropical rainforest, there are different animals and it rains 50 to 260 inches of rain annually. And there aren’t just one of these biomes, there are many spread across the world.

This is what and Alpine biome looks like!

 

 

1. I wonder how many Alpine biomes there are in the world?
2. I wonder how many different kinds of biomes there are in the world?
3. I want to know how much rainfalls in the Alps annually?

This week in science we did a silly skit. It was about a fungus who was on trial for the murder of a tree named Jeremiah Sicamore. But the fungus on trial argued that it wasn’t his fault that he died because he was only just doing his job. He had a valid point because fungi do only grow on sick or dying plants/ animals. so he didn’t kill the Sycamore. He was already dying before the fungus landed on him. the fungus’ name was Freddie. I played Freddie, Lizzie played The Judge, Aidan was the announcer, Lars was Widow Sicamore, Audrey was Vera Violet and Alisha was Woody Woodpecker. All of the characters that aren’t obvious from reading the names are the witnesses in court.

 

We performed this play for fourth grade and they seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Our teacher, Shane said that she loved it too. It was pretty funny. (Especially Widow Sicamore). this play was important because we are learning about decomposers, producers, etc. so it was a fun way to teach the fourth graders about this topic too. and in a funny way. The costumes were great too.

 

1. How do decomposers decompose stuff?
2. Why is fungus so common?
3. How many plants are there in the world? (INSERT BIG NUMBER HERE)

This week we had a guest at Pathfinder. He was a very kind man from Uganda. He makes bike frames for a living and brought an example of his work to share with us. He specializes in making bike frames out of bamboo. He talked about how he makes his bikes and the benefits of bamboo as a renewable resource. A  renewable resource is something that can easily regrow and replenish itself. He also used the bark of a Mutuba tree to join the pieces together.

He is planning on using these bicycles to help the people in hospitals in his city in Uganda. This is extremely important for the hospitals in Uganda because when someone is in the hospital, their general health is taken into the hands of a loved one. If the patient doesn’t have any family then the nurses take care of them. The care from the nurses, however, is not as thorough as care from most loved ones. Most of the time the loved ones have to feed and clean them etc. However, often times, the loved ones don’t know how to or unable to do this. To counteract this truoble, he is sending people from the city with supplies and valuable information on how to care for their loved one. They will give lessons to the care takers and the hospitals.

This is a map of Uganda. 1. I wonder what the population of Uganda is?

2. I wonder how many people are in hospitals annually in Uganda.

3. How much is the max weight capacity on a bamboo bike?