Go to my saved resources

Celebrate STEM this Halloween by dressing up as a trailblazing woman scientist or engineer! We’ve created free costume guides for Marie Curie, Ellen Ochoa, Jane Goodall, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Katherine Johnson, and can’t wait for you to share their stories via costumes you create at home! 

Each guide includes:

  • a list of items to find around the house (or purchase) in order to create your outfit,
  • a custom trick-or-treat bag to paint,
  • and, in some cases, a DIY STEM project to build.

We’re also suggesting a book about each woman in STEM so you can learn about her achievements and tell everyone you meet her STEM story! We can’t wait for you to join us this year as we make Halloween STEM-tacular!

Women in STEM Costumes

Resource 1

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize. The first woman to earn a PhD in physics in France. The first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie’s list of firsts could go on and on, and her achievements changed the way we understand matter at a fundamental level. While her first Nobel Prize in physics was one awarded jointly to Curie, her husband Pierre, and Antoine Henri Becquerel for their work on radiation in 1903, her second in chemistry was entirely her own and recognized her discovery of radium and polonium (the latter named for her home country, Poland). Curie faced countless challenges – we’re all familiar with the stories that emphasize she “assisted” her husband with the work for the 1903 Nobel Prize although he repeatedly insisted that the opposite was the case – yet she persisted, working in her laboratory until her death in 1934 and paving the way for generations of women in STEM.

Here’s what you’ll need to dress up as Marie Curie for Halloween!

Marie was never far from her lab, and while radium doesn’t glow quite this green without some help from other elements, have fun with it and make your own glow-in-the-dark liquid with this awesome project from Sciencing! Put it in this Erlenmayer flask from Amazon to keep it authentic looking!

For your trick-or-treat bag, paint the symbol for radium – which Curie won a Nobel Prize for discovering – from the periodic table! You can purchase a canvas bag to paint at Amazon.

 

Can’t wait to learn even more about Marie? Check out Marie Isabel Sanchez Vegara’s illustrated biography Marie Curie (published in 2017).

Marie Curie
,
Chemistry, Medicine

Rosie Reads Marie Curie

We're reading all about chemist and physicist Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Noble Prize in 1903!

Resource 2

Dr. Ellen Ochoa didn’t always dream of becoming an astronaut. Born and raised in southern California, she excelled in multiple subjects – music, business, math, journalism, computer science – and didn’t set her sights on space until she was in graduate school. It took Ochoa multiple tries to be accepted to NASA’s astronaut training program; when she finally boarded the space shuttle Discovery in 1993, she made history as the world’s first Latina astronaut. This was just the beginning of a long career at NASA; in 2012 Ochoa became the first person of Latin American descent to serve as Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the second woman to ever hold the title. In addition to her ground-breaking career, Ochoa continued to devote herself to music – one of the most famous images of her shows her playing her flute while she was on board Discovery.

Here’s what you’ll need to dress up as Ellen Ochoa for Halloween!

If you want to save some time, you can order a NASA space suit instead of making one: Amazon Link

Ellen famously brought her flute with her on board Discovery, and played it as she flew weightlessly around the Earth. Make your very own flute using this super cool project from No Time for Flashcards!

 

For your trick-or-treat bag, paint the shuttle Discovery on a canvas bag! This is a great step-by-step guide to drawing a spaceship on YouTube, and you can purchase a canvas bag to paint at Amazon. Rather buy one pre-painted? Check this one out on Amazon.

 

Can’t wait to learn more about Ellen? Check out Julia Finley Mosca’s The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa (published in 2019)!

Ellen Ochoa Speaking with STEM program participants
Space, Engineering

Rosie Talks to Ellen Ochoa

Watch as Rosie Riveters' program participants interview Dr Ellen Ochoa, a former NASA astronaut and director of the Johnson Space Center.

Resource 3

Chien-Shiung Wu, the “First Lady of Physics,” grew up in early-twentieth century China with parents who recognized her brilliance and refused to accept societal constraints that devalued female intellect. They went so far as to open their own school so that Chien-Shiung could receive a formal education. Throughout her life, she traveled further and further distances from China to pursue her love of learning, and eventually became a pioneering physicist. Her work on radioactive uranium separation was integral to the Manhattan project and the development of the atomic bomb, she proved beta decay, and disproved the Law of Parity, all while facing gender and racial discrimination. Despite the ground-breaking nature of her work, she was passed over for the Nobel Prize three times in favor of men. This didn’t stop Wu though; as she often said, “I sincerely doubt that any open-minded person really believes in the notion that women have no intellectual capacity for science and technology.”

 

Here’s what you’ll need to dress up as Chien-Shiung Wu for Halloween!

 

To complete your costume, you’ll need to make a life-size atomic model – essentially you’ll be the nucleus surrounded by orbital paths for electrons! To make this awesome STEM project, you’ll need:

  • Two hula hoops: Amazon link (this one is a set of two!)
  • Ball pit balls: Amazon link
  • Zip ties or tape
  • Scissors

Directions

  1. Wedge one hula hoop into the center of another hula hoop so that they create an “X” shape at the top and bottom. Secure the “X”s with a zip-tie or tape. This will create the orbital path for your electrons.
  2. Cut a hole out of the top and bottom of a ball pit ball with scissors and then cut a slit along one side of the ball from the top hole to the bottom hole.
  3. Wrap the ball pit ball around each orbital path (hula hoop) and secure with tape. You can use as many balls as you like, but make sure you know which element has that number of electrons! Use the periodic table at ptable.com for reference; remember that an element’s number of protons designates its atomic number, and in general, it’s number of protons will equal that of its electrons.
  4. When you’re ready to dress up, step into the center of the hula hoops and rest one of the “X”s behind your head, and the other in front of your legs.

 

 

For your trick-or-treat bag, paint the symbol for uranium – which Wu worked to separate into isotopes with other scientists on the Manhattan project – from the periodic table! You can purchase a canvas bag to paint at Amazon.

 

 

Can’t wait to learn more about Chien-Shiung? Check out Teresa Robeson’s Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom (published in 2019)!

Rosie Reads Banner and book cover of Queen of Physics
Physics

Rosie Reads Queen of Physics

Uncover the secrets of the atom with pioneering physicist Chien-Shiung Wu!

Resource 4

Ever since she was little, Katherine Johnson longed to be a mathematician. But women’s careers were largely limited to teaching or nursing when she graduated from college in 1937. So Johnson taught math until she landed her dream job as a “computer” at the agency that would become NASA. There, her genius for math and determination in the face of rampant sexism and racism led to promotion after promotion. Astronaut John Glen trusted her calculations more than the nascent electronic computers NASA was beginning to employ, and it was her extraordinary ability to devise flight trajectories that brought Apollo 13 back to earth after an in-flight explosion in 1970. A trailblazer who co-authored 26 scientific papers throughout her career and was essential to the development of the American space program, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Here’s what you’ll need to dress up as Katherine Johnson for Halloween!

For your trick-or-treat bag, paint space art on a canvas bag! Join amazing Rosie Innovator Gitika Gorthi as she shows you how to do it while providing an awesome lesson on the objects and appearance of space in this YouTube video. You’ll need paints, brushes, and a canvas bag to paint (available here at Amazon).

 

 

Can’t wait to learn even more about Katherine? Check out Helaine Becker’s illustrated biography Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 (published in 2018).

Counting on Katherine book cover and Rosie Riveters logo
,
Space

Rosie Reads Counting on Katherine

Blast off and read about NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who saved Apollo 13!

Resource 5

Born in London in 1934 with an innate love for animals, Goodall left school at the age of 18 and began observing chimpanzees in Gombe (Tanzania) before obtaining any formal scientific training. The work she did there, observing the relationships of chimpanzees to each other, the environment, and humans, as well as her discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools, is considered to be amongst “the greatest achievements of twentieth-century scholarship”. Today she is an international advocate for conservation and a UN Messenger of Peace.

Here’s what you’ll need to dress up as Jane Goodall for Halloween!

While in Gombe, Jane always had her binoculars on hand in order to observe the chimpanzee from a distance. Make your very own pair using this super cool project from Seeking Miss Poppins!For your trick-or-treat bag, purchase a Roots & Shoots tote bag!

Roots & Shoots is Jane Goodall’s network for young people seeking to affect positive change in their communities, and kids from all over the world can join (find out more at www.rootsandshoots.org!). Made from 100% recycled polyester and reusable long after Halloween is over, your purchase supports the organization and serves as a powerful reminder that anyone can change the world!

Can’t wait to learn even more about Jane? Check out Brad Meltzer’s illustrated biography I am Jane Goodall (published in 2016).

 

Rosie Reads Banner and book cover of I am Jane Goodall
Conservation, Animals and Bugs

Rosie Reads I am Jane Goodall

We’re reading about Jane Goodall, one of the world's most famous conservationists!