Now is the perfect time to think about what your child, neighbor, coworker’s child, or students will be doing this summer. We encourage you to help support summer reading during summer free time.
Books can spark a new interest in computer science or build upon a budding interest in engineering. Books can introduce role models who show that talent and ideas come from every background.
Three ideas to help collectively support summer reading and along the way support the next generation of innovators.
- As a parent, ask your child’s teacher or school librarian for a list of books about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Ask your child what she is interested in and observe what she most likes to do in her spare time. Then take her to the library and look for books with a STEM angle that build upon her interest.
- If you are a classroom teacher or educator in an afterschool program, send home a list of summer readings in STEM. Even better, send every child home with a STEM book. DonorsChoose.org can help fund your book wish list.
- Organize a group of coworkers, professional members, or exercise buddies to make a donation of books to your local public school, free library, or community center like Boys and Girls Club or YMCA. As a member of the Oakland-Piedmont branch of AAUW I donated books along with other members so that every child at an elementary school in our community could start summer with a book to read.
Looking for culturally and linguistically relevant STEM books?
Edutopia STEM books include an array of subjects from marine biology to volcanology to math for girls from kindergarten to 12th grade.
National Science Teachers’ Association and the Children’s Book Council’s “Best STEM Books” celebrate analysis and creativity, persistence, and the joy of figuring things out.
Engineering is Elementary offers storybooks to accompany their engineering curriculum for classroom and afterschool. These books not only provide multicultural and gender inclusive stories, they also introduce the engineering design process with design challenges that are accessible to families.
Reading is Fundamental offers STEM-themed multicultural books.
Tumblehome Learning helps kids imagine themselves as young scientists and engineers with fiction and non-fiction books along with fun experiments.
A Mighty Girl 60 books with diverse role models are good reading for girls and boys.
It takes a village to inspire our future computer scientists, innovators of artificial intelligence, and environmental engineers. We want to make sure that every child in every community has the chance to succeed in STEM. STEM Next Opportunity Fund and the Molina Foundation highlight the importance of reading and STEM and the need for access to STEM books in underserved communities. We hope that you will step up so that every family has the chance to read about STEM this summer. Imagine the STEM dreams that can take flight this summer.