The Christmas holidays provide a great opportunity to incorporate STEM learning into fun family traditions. What better way to inspire your children to develop their STEM skills but to combine it with a fun and festive activity. Our STEM quest challenge today involves designing, building and testing your own unique Christmas houses that can stand on their own. This quest involves developing STEM skills of sequencing and experimentation (trial and error).
Why is sequencing and experimentation (trial and error) important for children to learn about?
Sequencing is one of the fundamentals of coding where big problems can be solved by a series of consecutive steps and actions which are organized in the right order for execution. In addition to this, the trial-and-error approach is another very much needed fundamental of coding and experimentation. Trial-and-error is a key component in the approach of coding where a solution (series of steps) may need adjustment and several trials before success.
These two STEM fundamentals help develop critical thinking and encourage children to be curious and questioning their thoughts and actions. In a not-so-distant future, the fourth industrial revolution will change how we work and use automation of traditional manufacturing processes and industrial practises. Coding and critical thinking are essential and much required skills for automation.
To start our STEM quest, parents can begin by asking their child how to approach the mission of building a Christmas house that can stand on its own. What do they think they need to do as a first step and why? Depending on their age they may need additional prompting. You can mention the steps below, in no specific order, as a hint.
Once you’ve agreed on the steps with your child and the sequence of the steps, it’s time to get started!
Step 1: Draw a model of the Christmas house
This is a fun step where you will brainstorm with your child on the design of the Christmas house. It’s a chance to get creative both in terms of the design of the house structure but also in terms of the decorations. Children love to dream about adding all of their favourite candies, chocolates, cereals, etc. to make a beautiful creation.
Step 2: Decide on the materials
Brainstorm with your child about the different edible material options that could be used to build the structure of the house and to stick (glue) the structure together. Start by thinking very broadly in terms of materials and ask which materials they think would work best or not work at all, and why. Some materials which you can use as prompts for the discussion on the different material for the structure could be waffles, graham crackers, lasagne pasta, pancakes, bread, chocolate, waffle biscuits, ladyfingers, etc. and for the mortar ‘edible glue’ it could be royal icing, cream cheese, peanut butter, melted candies/sugar, etc.
Once you have discussed and agreed on the materials for the construction, it’s time to decide on the decorations (e.g. candies, marshmallows, candy canes, pretzels, cereal, sprinkles, etc.).
Step 3: Build the house with selected materials
In this step you’ll be busy building your house according to the drawing and materials selected in the previous steps. This is a fun part where your child will get to see first-hand what is working and not working with the design and/or materials selected. It may require making some amendments on the spot or you may decide to complete the step and then evaluate and adjust. A design build that doesn’t go as planned is a great way for children to start learning how to learn from mistakes and dealing with failure. From there, they can work on improving the first design, in an iterative way and experimenting via trial and error, both which are key in STEM learning. In this stage depending on the ‘glue’ selected you may need to take some time for your house to fully set and harden before moving to the testing phase.
Step 4: Test the structure of your house
At this point you have managed to make a first attempt at building a Christmas house. Congratulations!
If your house is able to stand on its own, it’s now time to reflect on what is working well, what do you like best about your house and also what could be improved. For example, your house might be able to stand on its own, but can it withstand the weight of adding candies and other decorations to it? Do you need to change anything before decorating? You may want to experiment and test the structure by adding some candies on top or by rolling a marble towards it to see if it can withstand the weight from the marble. This a great and fun way for the child to experiment the boundaries and understanding the limitations of the house.
If your house is not able to stand yet on its own don’t worry! This is all part of the learning process. It’s time to evaluate whether you need to change or add some materials. Or maybe you may need to change the design and materials and make a second or even third attempt. Remember to let your child know that not getting it right should be seen as an opportunity to learn and improve, which is all part of the engineering process.
Step 5: Improve and rebuild the house using a new design or different materials (optional)
This is an optional step depending on the outcome of the tests run in the previous step. If you found the need to improve and rebuild, you’ll be looking at trying out new materials and maybe even a new design for the house.
Step 6: Decorate
Congratulations on designing and building a Christmas house that is sturdy enough to stand on its own! This means you’re now ready to complete the final step where you and your child can let your creative juices flow. The sky is the limit in terms of creative possibilities!
This activity can be adapted and simplified as needed depending on the age and development level of your child. Children will feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when they complete the quest and will enjoy sharing their Christmas house or pictures of it with family and friends over the holidays!
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Addressing young children also allows us to harness their natural curiosity. This magical state helps to accelerate learning including STEM learning. Children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
We’ll be sharing some more of our favourite STEM educational quests for parents to try out with their kids at home or for teachers to try in the classroom. Stay tuned!
]]>
Sheona is an Early Years Specialist Language Consultant for global children’s products and services and is passionate about education, language learning through play, and mindset.
Having worked at the British Council for over 20 years she is also an expert at developing engaging animated content for young children that is accessible to additional language speakers.
We wanted to gain Sheona’s unique perspective on SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory book and accompanying Teacher’s Guide, because she sees cross-curricular potential that will develop the whole child.
This blog is for teachers or homeschooling parents who might be considering investing in classroom resources to teach STEM and cross-curricular activities and are looking for something engaging that will hook children’s interest.
Cross-curricular potential
With the SuperQuesters series and Teacher’s Guide I see so much potential for learning, not just in STEM areas but so much more e.g. Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, and Literacy.
Learning through stories
The SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory story is really engaging and immediately draws the children in by using the theme of superheroes, having characters children can relate to and setting a challenge.
Authors Dr Thomas Bernard and Lisa Moss clearly understand children and how to inspire them; the story immediately hooks you in with good and bad, and saving everyone from evil!
The characters also show that the authors really understand what children like, and the story is very in touch with children of today e.g. the love of unicorns.
From an EDI perspective, the characters are diverse and inclusive and have names which are fun and appealing. Children will clearly love them, e.g. Lillicorn.
It’s good to see more resources and support online in the Activity Packs so the children can get to know the characters and their special powers. Again, this supports their Social and Emotional Development.
Teacher’s Guide
There is so much support and additional hands-on, practical, fun ideas, games and resources in the Teacher’s Guide.
I really like the activities for getting children up and moving about too.
I think the idea of using stories to teach STEM is fantastic, and there are so many more prime and specific areas being developed.
Using stories also covers the communication and language area of the EYFS and K1 national curriculum. Lots of the additional resources cover many areas… if I’m honest, I think there’s potential to exploit the skills development even more.
Best for Y2 and Y3
I feel the age is somewhat broad, considering that what a 4 year old can manage is different to an 8 year old and then each child is different within their age group.
I think full independent use would be for the older children in the target age range rather than the younger ones. I see the main audience for independent use as 7–8-year-olds.
As a school resource, I would be confident the teacher has lots of help to be able to scaffold the activities with all the different age groups and differentiation with those age groups. Clear signage indicating three levels of difficulty is also provided across the resources provided in the SuperQuesters Teacher’s Guide.
Keeping everyone motivated with stickers and a growth mindset!
I love the fact that the stickers are reusable. This is good for supporting the younger learners to have a go, and if the answer isn’t correct, to try again.
The stickers for the Reward Chart are more motivational. If we are to encourage a growth mindset, the best approach is to encourage them to embrace a challenge because they are curious and the solution is the reward in itself… but I do understand how much the children love a fun sticker!
Children love it!
Having read the case studies too I see that the children seem to love the lessons which is the best feedback ever!
SuperQuesters books are available to purchase in all good book shops and schools suppliers and accompanying Teacher’s Guides for each book can be purchased here.
Sheona Mackenzie Gilmour has over 20 years’ experience in a wide range of educational projects. She is the educational consultant behind various award-winning programmes, like Learning Time with Timmy series on Netflix and YouTube, Let’s Go Pocoyo and the Massive Open Online course, English in Early Childhood.
Sheona is passionate about early childhood development, learning through play and Mindsets. For more information go to LinkedIn Sheona Mackenzie Gilmour or animated-learning.
]]>The SuperQuesters Best STEM Star will receive the first two books in the SuperQuesters series, and more.
When Lilli and her best friends Leo and Bea unite to solve a challenging science problem they turn into SUPERHEROES Lillicorn, Leo Zoom and Bea Bumble and journey to a magical world full of adventure and quests. And now they need YOUR help in their mission to find the SuperQuesters Best STEM Star!
The Challenge
STEM skills are used in many of our daily activities such as baking, assembling Lego creations, coding, science experiments and much more.
So the SuperQuesters are challenging children to put their everyday STEM skills into action and share their creations for their chance to become SuperQuesters Best STEM Star!
How it works
Please send all entries by 23.59 CET on 30th April 2023 . Designs will be judged by Questfriendz.
Prizes
The SuperQuesters Best STEM Star will win a book bundle that includes:
SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun
SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory
Poster and bookmark
The School with the highest number of entries will win:
SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun
SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory
Poster and bookmarks
SuperQuesters Digital Teacher’s Guide
The winners will have their STEM activity displayed on QuestFriendz and partner websites and social media.
Competition Rules
Terms and conditions
The winner will be contacted by QuestFriendz at the email address supplied in order to request your mailing address to send the prize. By taking part, you’re giving consent for QuestFriendz to contact you.
By submitting your entry via email, you acknowledge that QuestFriendz may send you newsletters and promotional offers that we consider relevant to you. Please see our privacy policy for details of why and how we use personal data and your rights (including your right to object and to stop receiving marketing communications from us). To stop receiving marketing communications from us, please click on the unsubscribe link in the relevant email received from us or send an email to hello@questfriendz.com
At the end of the competition, we'd love to be able to share the children's creative ideas with our audiences via QuestFriendz and partner websites, social media channels, in print and online. By submitting an entry, you are deemed to have given permission for it to be shared by QuestFriendz and partners in this way.
If you do not wish for this data to be shared you should make this explicit on the entry form. Entry into the competition will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.
]]>
STEM careers in 2023 come in many different forms and relate to a wide range of innovations. The individuals that fill these roles can also come in different forms - from different genders, different races, different religions, different ages - and here at QuestFriendz, we feel it is important for this to be known by children as early as possible.
We believe passionately in the need to increase representation of people from diverse backgrounds in STEM, particularly women, and we strive to achieve this by making STEM learning accessible for all children through interactive adventure stories.
So when we got to meet the WISE Young Professionals’ Board, a group of diverse and exceptional professionals who lead initiatives to inspire, engage and advocate for the next generation of STEM, we were very excited.
QuestFriendz and the WISE Young Professionals’ Board share a common mission: we want to stop the formation of stereotypes that can prevent children from pursuing opportunities in STEM. Such stereotypes, particularly those gender-related, can be shaped from a young age and often create barriers to children following their interests and reaching their potential. Our discussions with the WISE Young Professionals’ Board have highlighted the need to nurture STEM skills and create opportunities for these skills to be developed as early as possible.
The WISE Young Professionals’ Board are fantastic role models to the next generation because they demonstrate how their natural strengths and interests guided them to have successful careers in STEM, encouraging children to keep an open mind about what they want to become in the future.
We hope their stories will inspire teachers and parents to think differently around how the next generation can develop their STEM superpowers.
First let’s meet Kirsty who works as a Software Developer.
What does it mean to be a Software Developer?
It means being a problem solver! The problem can be really big or really small! Imagine you are getting dressed in the morning and you suddenly decided to put on your shoes before your socks! Now there would be nowhere for the socks to go and your shoes would make your feet hurt. That’s one way to solve the problem but it’s not the best way. That’s part of my job… finding the best way to solve a problem.
The problems I deal with can be anything from making a shopping list to handling a lot of complicated information, but it can all be broken down into a list of simple instructions, such as: 1) Put socks on 2) Put shoes on 3) Tie shoe laces.
What subjects and/or topics did you enjoy at school?
At school I enjoyed creative subjects such as Art and Graphics, but I also loved subjects where I could theorise things such as physics.
Computer Science was my favourite as I could be creative through my code.
What is your STEM superpower?
Helping people make sense of lots of complicated data.
Who was your role model in the world of STEM while you were growing up?
I come from a very STEM-orientated family so I was always encouraged to pursue a career in STEM. Whilst studying Computing at GCSE I learnt about famous mathematician Ada Lovelace and how she was the first computer programmer! She was a huge inspiration to me which alongside the support of my family has motivated me to be where I am today.
Now let’s meet Beth who works as a Software Engineer.
What does it mean to be a Software Engineer?
As a Software Engineer, I help to design, write and test code that helps other systems operate safely. There is code inside much more than computers and smartphones. I've helped write code that works inside trains and even satellites in space!
What subjects and/or topics did you enjoy at school?
My favourite subjects were Maths, Physics and Media Studies.
I actually never got a GCSE or A-Level in Computing, and learned to code for the first time when I was 22. Your interests can change over time, and lots of the skills and knowledge I gained from my favourite school subjects have helped me in my job as a Software Engineer - even Media Studies! I think it's really important to develop your creative thinking skills because it makes you a better problem solver.
What is your STEM superpower?
My STEM superpower is alchemy. But rather than turning things into gold, I can turn complicated information into simple ideas! This makes me a good communicator, and means everyone understands our goals.
Who was your role model in the world of STEM while you were growing up?
Growing up, I was always inspired by Astronauts. I wanted to be an astronaut for most of my childhood! I looked up to Helen Sharman, who was the first ever British astronaut and the first woman in space. I admired her determination and bravery, as going up to space is no small feat!
Now let’s meet Joanne who works as a Data Analyst. She is a friend of the WISE Young Professionals’ Board.
What does it mean to be a Data Analyst?
Being a Data Analyst means turning tables of numbers into graphs by using coding. The information the graphs tell us then help the business to make decisions.
To help solve specific business problems I examine data. This requires writing code to gather, join and clean data, then analysing it to reach a conclusion.
These findings are then relayed to the company’s decision makers for them to agree upon the next steps to take.
What subjects and/or topics did you enjoy at school?
My favourite subjects were Maths and History!
What is your STEM superpower?
Predicting the future using machine learning tools. This means that I use the computer to look for patterns in what has happened in the past; the computer then uses this information to make a prediction on what might happen in the future. It checks how accurate its prediction was and repeats these steps until the future has been predicted accurately!"
Who was your role model in the world of STEM while you were growing up?
The person who made STEM interesting to me was one of my secondary school Maths teachers; they made learning really fun!
In the SuperQuesters series, our science-challenge-solving superheroes - Lillicorn, Bea Bumble and Leo Zoom - are two girls and a boy from diverse backgrounds. In SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory, the trio venture to Questland and use STEM skills to solve robotics and coding challenges.
Like Kirsty, Beth and Joanne, they are STEM role models. They help children understand that anything is possible and that they too can help solve science challenges and develop various STEM skills along the way.
As Kirsty, Beth and Joanne show, at the heart of many successful STEM careers lie skills such as sequencing, critical thinking and problem-solving; skills that children develop every day at school across the curriculum and at home too.
So when we help children develop these skills, build their confidence and an awareness of their strengths, their career choices will be driven by their natural interests, curiosity and what they know they’re good at. At QuestFriendz, we want to prevent the formation of stereotypes in the world of STEM and to show all children that their dreams and talents have no bounds.
SuperQuesters: The Case of the Missing Memory
After Lilli, Leo and Bea install a new dance software on B-bot, he stops working. The friends set out to discover the cause. They travel to Questland in search of help.
Everyone is confused as the evil Lord Grumble has stolen all memories with his new Memory Machine. How will the trio restore normality?
The second instalment in the SuperQuesters series is published on 16th March 2023, buy it now: https://www.questfriendz.com/en-gb/pages/the-case-of-the-missing-memory
About WISE
Founded in 1984, WISE is a community interest company (CIC) that delivers women-centred equality, diversity and inclusion solutions for the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sectors. Its mission is to support members and the wider STEM ecosystem to achieve gender parity and to benefit from the better productivity, innovation and business performance that a diverse workforce brings. The organisation's work involves diagnostics and interventions, benchmarking, training, research and thought leadership, analysis of statistics, convening and networking and through their mission they:
About WISE Young Professionals’ Board
The WISE Young Professionals’ Board is a group of diverse and exceptional young role models working at a variety of WISE member companies in the UK. They represent a wide range of backgrounds, educational routes and industries, which allows them to authentically champion, engage with, support and represent the 1 million strong UK workforce of women in STEM.
WISE is a community interest company (CIC) that delivers women-centred equality, diversity and inclusion solutions for the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sectors. The organisation’s work includes diagnostics and interventions, benchmarking, training, research and thought leadership, analysis of statistics, convening and networking.
Calling parents, guardians and teachers: we’ve teamed up with the charity, Tech She Can to run a Christmas competition for children, encouraging them to think creatively about technology and put their STEM skills into action! The winning entry will receive a copy of our book, SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun.
Bringing together our SuperQuesters’ character B-Bot and Tech We Can character, Tex we’ve put together the following challenge for children to complete:
The challenge
Santa’s elves have asked B-bot and Tex to create a brand new techy toy for Christmas this year.
But they’re struggling to come up with ideas by themselves. They think the best people to help them are the children who might play with these toys.
Tex: “Can you help us with ideas for a new techy toy? To help the elves build it, please can you label your designs, explaining the toy’s techy features, how someone could play with it and how it’s different from toys you can buy today.”
B-bot: “I can’t wait to see what you come up with! And as a thank-you for helping us out, our favourite design will win a copy of the book, SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun”
How it works
The competition is open to all children in the UK and Ireland. To take part, children need to design a techy toy. This can be in any format - whether that’s a computer-generated image, a paper sketch or a physical model.
For inspiration, you might find it useful to show your pupils or children the ‘Tech for Toys’ lesson from Tech She Can. Children will explore how technology is being used to design and create toys and highlight some of the exciting careers in this area.
Please submit your children’s creations, or photos of them, to both: hello@questfriendz.com and info@techshecan.org by 23.59 on Tuesday 13th December 2022. Designs will be judged by Questfriendz and Tech She Can, with the winners announced on both of our social media channels on Friday 16th December 2022.
About the characters
B-bot
B-bot is a robot and the investigative sidekick of SuperQuester Bea Bumble, characters in our SuperQuesters book series aimed at children aged 4-8. You can meet the SuperQuesters characters here.
The SuperQuesters book series is published by QuestFriendz, a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) educational children’s book publisher. Founders Dr Thomas Bernard and Lisa Moss are passionate advocates of sparking children’s interest in STEM from a young age. They believe that the best way to do this is through interactive storytelling – using books which feature educational challenges, or ‘quests’ within an engaging story, enabling children to use their 21st-century learning skills to find solutions.
Tex
Tex is a robotic dog who features in Tech She Can's series of Tech She Can animated lessons for primary-age children. The animations are designed to educate and excite children about technology, and the people who develop it, from an early age. Each animation covers a different area of tech and gives children a simplified understanding of how it works and how it’s used.
Terms and conditions
The winner will be contacted by QuestFriendz at the email address supplied in order to request your mailing address to send the book. By taking part, you’re giving consent for Tech She Can and QuestFriendz to contact you.
At the end of the competition, we'd love to be able to share the children's creative ideas with our audiences via our social media channels, in print and online. By submitting an entry, you are deemed to have given permission for it to be shared by Tech She Can and QuestFriendz in this way.
QuestFriendz
By submitting your entry via email, you acknowledge that QuestFriendz may send you newsletters and promotional offers that we consider relevant to you. Please see our privacy policy for details of why and how we use personal data and your rights (including your right to object and to stop receiving marketing communications from us). To stop receiving marketing communications from us, please click on the unsubscribe link in the relevant email received from us or send an email to hello@questfriendz.com
Tech She Can
By submitting your entry via email, you acknowledge that Tech She Can may send you related insights that they consider relevant to you. Please see their privacy policy for details of why and how they use personal data and your rights (including your right to object and to stop receiving marketing communications from them). To stop receiving marketing communications from Tech She Can, please click on the unsubscribe link in the relevant email received from us or send an email to info@techshecan.org.
]]>
… in SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun, the hot air balloon rises when the air is heated?
Try this exclusive activity from Dr Jo Science, created especially for the SuperQuesters, to see if you can work out why the hot air balloon rises when the air is heated.
What you need: See through plastic cup or glass, a few raisins, clear fizzy drink like lemonade
Activity: Fill the clear glass with the fizzy drink. What happens to the bubbles? What do you notice? Where are they? What are they doing? What happens when the bubbles reach the surface? Now drop a raisin in the fizzy drink. What do you think will happen? Watch what happens – does the raisin float or sink? What do the bubbles do? What happens next? What do you think is happening, and why?
Dr Jo Science says…
… in SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun the hot air balloon rises because heating the air in the hot air balloon makes the particles (minute portions of matter) less dense (more spaced apart), or comparatively lighter, than the surrounding air, so the balloon floats.
For more fun STEM activities from Dr Jo Science head to: https://drjosciencesolutions.co.uk/workshops-2/lockdown-learning/
]]>As a STEM children’s book publisher, we love talking to other STEM writers and hearing about the inspiration for their books. So, we are beyond excited to be interviewing STEM sensation Pip Jones, author of the hugely successful Izzy Gizmo picture books. Over to you Pip…
You’ve written a number of brilliant children’s books, including the hilarious series, Squishy McFluff. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey and how you first got published?
I’ve been writing my whole life (it was a hobby when I was a kid and then I worked in newspapers and magazines), but I came into children’s books in a slightly unusual way. Back in 2012, I had a parenting column and I’d written a post about my elder daughter Ava (then a toddler) who had an imaginary kitten – a very funny but challenging family experience! I decided to re-write that column as a children’s story, which I enjoyed, so I wrote a couple more with the same characters, Squishy McFluff and Ava. I never actually submitted those stories to agents, as is the usual route into book publishing. Before even considering doing that, I just happened to come across an advert for the Greenhouse Funny Prize writing competition – so I entered them into that and, a few weeks later, I heard I’d won. My prize was representation by my agent Julia Churchill, and she secured a four-book deal with Faber and Faber a couple of months after that. The ninth Squishy McFluff book is currently being illustrated, and I’ve written lots more besides, including the Ruby Roo picture book series, the Piggy Handsome series and two Izzy Gizmo books.
What inspired you to write the Izzy Gizmo books? Were you thinking about the growing importance of STEM in today’s curriculum when you wrote it?
In all honesty, I wasn’t thinking about STEM when I wrote the first draft, I was just thinking this will be a great character with a great story, all in the context of her funny machines and with the themes of perseverance and empathy. I always come to story ideas from the starting place of ‘what will kids love?’ much more than ‘what does the market or the curriculum need or lack’? But once the first book was complete, I could of course see it could be an important book in that respect. There is much more now but, when I wrote the first draft at the end of October 2014 (picture books can take a long time to make!), there was surprisingly little in the way of STEM fiction for children, which would inspire them in that mindset.
Lillicorn, one of the main characters in our new SuperQuesters children’s book series publishing 3rd May is similar to Izzy in that she’s always asking questions and trying to solve problems. Is the character Izzy Gizmo based on anyone? Did you deliberately choose a female role model?
Yes, I did deliberately decide the character should be female. I always say that Izzy Gizmo is a little bit me (based on my childhood spent in the garage with my grandfather while he tinkered and invented things, as well as my own silly ideas for bonkers machines), and a little bit my daughters too. I suppose what I really mean is, Izzy is a little bit most girls, she’s very normal; all children are curious and girls, just as much as boys, might like fixing and mending and building and bashing things with hammers. What’s more, girls may enjoy and be brilliant at all those things whether or not they like to wear pink tutus!
In Izzy Gizmo and the Invention Convention, Izzy experiences failure but, together with her friend Fixer, learns from her mistakes. Why do you think it’s important that children are exposed to failure?
Because it’s how everyone grows and learns to do things better – and that doesn’t stop once you reach adulthood! When I take Izzy Gizmo into schools, I like to tell the children about famous inventors who, of course, never got their inventions bang on the first time. Or how some inventions which we rely on every day are the result of contributions by many different people – the light bulb for example. Sometimes I even admit how many versions of Izzy Gizmo there were before the story was good enough to be a book! I think it’s important for kids to understand that trial and error, failure before success, is a human thing, not a child thing. Knowing that adults have to ‘try and try again’ sometimes too encourages perseverance (even if it is preceded by natural frustration).
Were you a little inventor as a child? What do you think makes a good invention?
I spent lots of time at weekends with my grandad when I was little. He showed my sister and I how to hold things in a vice, how to use a saw safely, how to hammer nails in and check if electrical circuits were working. He’d make little gadgets to use round the house. He actually made and installed his own burglar alarm! So, I did all that and I loved it but I wouldn’t say I was an inventor as a child – I was a writer! When we weren’t in the garage, I’d sit at my grandad’s desk and write stories and poems. I own that desk now. In reality, the ‘inventor’ part of me is actually the creative side of me which likes to think up magnificent machines for Izzy and Fixer! I’m so happy, though, if Izzy Gizmo encourages children to look at the world around them and think ‘how does that work?’ or ‘how could that be done better?’. I guess a good invention is one which genuinely helps in some way – I do think we humans have an awful lot of stuff which is actually superfluous to our needs! In schools, I really enjoy showing the children some super bad inventions to make them laugh (and take them back to ‘not everything works out’). The Dynasphere, for example, invented by J.A. Purves in 1930 was absolutely bonkers, should you wish to look it up!
Why do you think it’s important for children to develop an interest in STEM from a young age?
Young children are particularly inquisitive, so it’s the perfect time to give them challenges which promote critical thinking, problem solving, working collaboratively and so on. I think capturing their imaginations during this really formative stage gives children a ‘buzz’ for the sense of achievement they get from persevering to a successful outcome, too – that buzz and those skills will stay with them, and help them in many areas of their lives. As well as all that, we live in a highly technological world – and one which is in a bit of a pickle. Izzy Gizmo and the Invention Convention has messages of reduce/reuse/recycle, anti-greed and harnessing renewable energy and, while Izzy’s ‘Tool-Fix-Recycle-o-Matic’ won’t save the world, we’re going to need bright young minds to continue coming up with highly creative and complex solutions to the greatest problems the human race has ever faced. No pressure, kids!
What are your five favourite STEM children’s books?
An Engineer Like Me, by Dr Shini Somara (ill. Nadja Sarell), is a picture book about a girl whose curiosity about the world drives her to delve deeper and discover how things actually work.
Mariella, Queen of the Skies, by Eoin Colfer (ill. Katy Halford), is a sweet early reader about a girl who uses her inventing skills to avoid bedtime!
Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky, features female trailblazers throughout history. It’s inspiring for boys and girls alike.
Counting on Katherine, by Helaine Becker (ill. Dow Phumiruk), tells the amazing true story of mathematical genius Katherine Johnson, whose calculations saved the Apollo 13 mission, bringing the spacecraft and astronauts safely back to Earth.
Stephen Hawking (a Life Story), by Nikki Sheehan (ill. Mike Phillips), is a super lively (and illustrated, which is lovely to see in a book for 9-11 year olds) re-telling of the late physicist’s life and work.
I’ve just realised most of my picks feature females! It’s great there are lots out there and it’s always worth saying that STEM fiction or non-fiction about girls and women are always brilliant for boys, too.
Thank you so much for talking to us Pip. We can’t wait for your next book!
SuperQuesters is a brand-new book series published by QuestFriendz for super problem-solvers and curious creators aged 4-8. The first instalment, SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun by Lisa Moss and Dr Thomas Bernard is out on 3 May and available to pre-order at www.questfriendz.com/books
]]>
How to Code a Rollercoaster by Josh Funk
Pearl and her trusty robot, Pascal, have a day out at the amusement park. Spinning teacups, ice cream, and of course: rollercoasters! But what Pearl and Pascal know, is that using code, they can keep track of their ride tokens and calculate when the queue is short enough to get a seat on the biggest ride of them all–the Python Coaster. Variables, sequences, and a hunt for a secret hidden code make this a fun day out with a difference that will show young readers the benefits of code.
Look Up! By Nathan Bryon & Dapo Adeola
Let science-mad chatterbox Rocket launch into your hearts in this inspiring picture book. Rocket's going to be the greatest astronaut, star-catcher, space-traveller that has ever lived! But...First, she needs to convince her big brother Jamal to stop looking down at his phone and start LOOKING UP at the stars.
Bursting with energy and passion about space and the natural world, this heart-warming picture book will reignite your desire to turn off those screens and switch on to the outside world.
My First Coding Book by Kiki Prottsman
A fun and engaging introduction to programming and coding, covering a wide range of concepts including algorithms, debugging, sequencing, pattern recognition and loop patterns. Children learn how to become super coders as they are taken through problem-solving step-by-step. Colourful and engaging pages invite them to get involved and solve problems, and complex computer terms are explained in an accessible way, with interactive examples.
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
A warm and funny picture book from the powerhouse author/illustrator team behind Ada Twist, Scientist, about pursuing your passion. Rosie is a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets who dreams of becoming a great engineer. When her great-great-aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) mentions that her one unfinished goal is to fly, Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her dream come true. But when her contraption doesn't fly, is it a failure – or a raging success?
Leonora Bolt: Secret Inventor by Lucy Brandt, illustrated by Gladys Jose
Violet Baudelaire meets Peanut Jones in an epic STEM-themed adventure about believing in your brainpower – and yourself!
Leonora Bolt spends creates incredible inventions in her TOP SECRET laboratory, under the watchful eye of her terrifying uncle. When a strange boy reveals that Uncle Luther has, in fact, been stealing her inventions and selling them, Leonora must leave Crabby Island for the first time, to embark on an unforgettable journey that will test her brainpower to its limits. Can Leonora dream up an invention that will defeat her evil uncle once and for all?
An Adventurer's Guide to Outer Space by Isabel Thomas, Yas Imamura & Lucy Hawking
Wannabe astronauts: grab your spacesuit and join adventurer Mia as she blasts off for an unforgettable trip around the universe. Space enthusiasts will spot out-of-this-world constellations, new asteroids, and distant galaxies in this wonderful book. With breathtaking facts and interactive space activities, this captivating book will excite and inspire the adventurers of the future.
Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories by Kate Pankhurst
A celebration of women who made some of the world's most important scientific breakthroughs by Kate Pankhurst, descendent of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
Did you know, women have been responsible for many of the world's most groundbreaking scientific discoveries? Read the true and inspiring stories of the incredible female scientists whose hard work and persistence changed our understanding of science, and transformed people's ideas of what women can do.
Including comic strips, family trees, maps and more, Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories features Mae Jemison, Marie Curie, Elizabeth Blackwell, Janaki Ammal, Caroline Herschel, Katia Krafft, Tu Youyou and Rosalind Franklin.
Ada Lace is on the Case by Emily Calandrelli
Ada Lace is an eight-year-old girl with a knack for science, maths and solving mysteries with technology...
Ada Lace--third-grade scientist and inventor extraordinaire has discovered that her neighbour's beloved Yorkie has been dognapped!
With the help of Nina (who is convinced the dog was stolen by aliens!) and her ever-growing collection of gadgets, Ada sets out to find the wrongdoer. As their investigation becomes more and more mysterious, Ada and Nina grow closer, proving that opposites do, in fact, attract.
Cookie and the Most Annoying Boy in the World written & illustrated by Konnie Huq (Piccadilly Press)
Konnie Huq’s award-winning series, starring science-mad Cookie, blends fiction, facts and fun in a completely original way, highlighting ultra-relevant themes such as STEM, saving the planet and coding, as well as chaotic family life and madcap school science projects! Konnie’s own cartoon illustrations add layers of humour and each book includes 20 pages of fun activities.
Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard, illustrated by Julia Sardà
The first book in M.G. Leonard's acclaimed trilogy features exotic beetles, a daring quest, brilliant characters and a truly venomous villain. Darkus can't believe his eyes when a huge insect drops out of the trouser leg of his horrible new neighbour. It's a giant beetle – and it seems to want to communicate. But how can a boy be friends with a beetle? And what does a beetle have to do with the disappearance of his dad? And who is Lucretia Cutter, with her taste for creepy jewellery? A brilliant read and perfect introduction to sorting and classifying invertebrates based on their similarities and differences.
Super problem-solvers and curious creators will love the brand new SuperQuesters series, which inspires a love of STEM learning through interactive play and stories. SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun is out on 3 May, Pre-order, published by new children’s publisher, QuestFriendz.
]]>
Developing STEM skills, including computational and critical thinking, and gaining a certain level of confidence in these areas, is critical from a young age. Research shows that exposure to and building confidence in these disciplines, can often be a predictor to following a career in STEM fields.
Learning to learn has become more important than ever, to help children to:
The good news is, that inspiring children’s interest in STEM activities from a young age is possible with imaginative and active hands-on play. Young children’s natural curiosity is a magical state of mind that supercharges learning. Introducing problem-solving skills and learning to fail from a young age, children are better equipped to face a fast-paced, changing world and provides a memorable experience to harness children’s natural curiosity.
The key is to connect children’s imagination and curiosity to the world they live in with simple challenges (we call them quests), where problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity are the keys to finding solutions.
Here are three simple and practical STEM ideas that will engage and develop transferable critical and computational thinking skills for children aged 4-8 (covering some of the essential KS1 objectives for the computing national curriculum).
Tip: Lego is a great learning tool!
Flying high
Building challenge
Engineer a bridge
Parents and teachers can invent and create more quests to further encourage children and trigger their interest in STEM education.
The brand new SuperQuesters series provides fun quests and interactive learning to develop STEM skills in children aged 4-8. The first book: SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun is out on May 3rd, 2022.
For more fun, educational STEM activity sheets and educational resources, visit www.QuestFriendz.com
]]>Today your children are on a very important mission. As avionics engineers their challenge is to design and create a plane that glides the farthest. Just like avionics engineers, they will work on designing, building, testing, and controlling machines (paper planes) that fly (glide). This is going to exercise their trial and error and solution evaluation skills which are part of structured problem solving.
For this STEM quest, Children are free to use any materials that they find around the classroom or at home and are encouraged to be as creative as possible.
Step 1: Decide on which type of plane to make and complete a sketch
A great way to start is by asking the children to sketch out some ideas on a piece of paper. Sketches can be simple or complex depending on their age. Starting with a very simple sketch helps to start from a basic and solid basis which is going to be their reference point. Later on, the sketch can be improved and made more complex, for example, with the addition of wingtips. Wingtips are upward folds at the end of the wings, which can help your plane to achieve a smoother and straighter flight path.
Step 2: Explore and decide on materials to use
Think about materials to use in making their planes. Get them thinking about different types of materials and how this might impact the design and performance of their planes. For example, they can use cardboard, parchment paper, aluminium foil, or glitter paper. You can ask the children what they think the result might be if they use a heavier paper (e.g. cardboard) versus a light paper (e.g. parchment paper). You can also ask where it is important to fold the material to have a more solid plane. For example, adding folds to the plane strengthens the structure of the plane.
Step 3: Collect all the materials needed
Search out all the materials needed to build the planes with what you have available at home or in the classroom. Let the children determine what can be used and should not be used and why. It is important to let them fail, for example using tissue paper, as it is part of the learning experience. In case of failure, ask them why it failed, what they think about it and what they could do different for the next attempt.
Step 4: Create first prototypes.
Prototypes are original forms of a design idea and are often used for testing and further design improvements. Prototypes vary from the shape of the plane, where to fold, how many times to fold, etc. The idea is that children create several different prototypes out of diverse materials (e.g. paper of diverse weights and textures like white printer paper vs. construction paper vs parchment paper or carton or foil, etc.) and designs. During this phase children use trial and error to determine which materials, designs and sizes seem to work best.
Step 5: Competition time!
All planes are tested in a mini competition and distances are measured and recorded by the official panel (parents and siblings or teachers at school).
The winner is the plane that has flown the furthest. Bonus points can be awarded for creativity and design.
This quest can be simplified or made more complex depending on the age and development level. The quest focuses on predicting behaviour via experimentation and developing a continuous improvement mindset via testing and improving over and over to their plane design, in order to achieve better results. These are all skills that will help your children to develop a scientific mindset and better problem-solving skills.
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Addressing young children also allows us to harness their natural curiosity. This magical state helps to accelerate learning including STEM learning. Children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
We’ll be sharing some more of our favourite STEM educational quests for parents to try out with their kids at home or for teachers to try in the classroom. Stay tuned!
Ada Lovelace
One of the better-known engineering heroes, Ada Lovelace was basically the very first computer programmer, more than 100 years before the invention of the computer. This was a huge milestone in the history of computers, as she went on to develop a way for computers to go beyond simply calculating numbers. It is believed that the combination of both her creative mind and her mathematical knowledge resulted in her great success. Pretty impressive, right?!
Edith Clarke
Edith Clarke has numerous “first female” badges to wear honourably, but the one she is most famous for is being the very first female engineer and the inventor of the Clarke calculator, used to graph out electrical properties. Up until this point, people were solving calculations manually, so her invention saved them a lot of time and effort!
Clarke was also the first female to graduate with a master’s in electrical engineering from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and much later, at the age of 64, the first female professor of electrical engineering in America. Despite facing a lot of struggles in the engineering world on account of being a woman, Edith never gave up – a true engineering hero!
Credits Image ©Genevieve Womack
Hedy Lamarr
A QuestFriendz favourite, Hedy Lamarr was both an incredible actress and a brilliant female inventor, proving that women can turn their hand to anything. When she wasn’t busy playing the part of a femme fatale besides Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, she devised a method of encrypting signals to prevent enemy spies from listening to sensitive pieces of information, the underlying method of how we use WiFi today. Without her, there would be no wireless communication in our modern world. In fact, her invention was so important that in 1997 she was recognized with an award from the North American government and is today considered the “mother of the cell phone.”
©Portrait character design of Hedy Lamarr from the classic film "Ziegfeld Girl"
Emily Warren Roebling
Emily Warren Roebling is one of the most famous female engineers of her time despite receiving no formal education. Her husband, Washington Roebling, was the son of John Roebling – the engineer responsible for designing the Brooklyn Bridge. After John suddenly died, Washington was appointed chief engineer and Emily took a huge interest in the project. When Washington sadly became ill, Emily cared for him and dedicated herself to the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the largest engineering projects in American history. She was also the first woman to head the American Society of Civil Engineers. Hats off to Emily, we say!
Credits Image ©Rosie Riveters, Brittany Greer & Casey Huerta
Mary Jackson
You may recognise the name Mary Jackson from the 2016 film Hidden Figures which celebrates Jackson’s ground-breaking contributions to NASA, where she became the first Black female engineer. She was one of a small group of African American women who worked as aeronautical engineers, called “human computers” at NASA during the Space Age. Along with serving a vital role in the development of the space program, she helped other women and minorities advance their careers, advising them to study and take extra courses to increase their chances for promotion.
In June 2020, NASA renamed its DC Headquarters to The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters to honour her trailblazing achievements.
Credits Image © Tracie Ching
We hope you enjoyed reading about these five female engineering heroes. Our personal goal at QuestFriendz is to show every young child that STEM is for them regardless of gender, ethnicity and abilities. Through our interactive stories, educational resources and free STEM activities we aim to help equip the future leaders of tomorrow, resulting in more engineering heroes like these five remarkable women. If you’d like to try out some of our fun STEM quests, just click here and let the fun begin!
]]>
During my time as a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, I was surprised at the limited or, in some cases, non-existent female representation in the Master’s and Bachelor computer science and engineering classes I was teaching. This continued to be the case when I made the transition to industry where, as an innovation and technology leader, I was constantly confronted with the challenge of finding the right talent, with limited diversity.
This is a world-wide issue and although it is beginning to be addressed, there is a lot of work to be done to encourage girls to embrace STEM education and to enter STEM careers. Research suggests a number of reasons for the lack of women in STEM roles, including:
Inspiring an interest in STEM learning from a young age and presenting girls with strong female role models are therefore key if we want to address the STEM skills gap. We also need to educate parents as they are the gatekeepers to toys and books which, from an early age, direct girls’ and boys’ interests and nurture stereotypes.
Our children’s book publishing company, QuestFriendz, was born shortly after the birth of our twin daughters when we realised more than ever that young children need to see STEM as something for them regardless of gender, ethnicity or abilities. We believe that children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age. Young children are naturally curious, and this magical state helps to accelerate learning, particularly in the area of STEM.
Our new interactive SuperQuesters children’s book series is launching 3 May, and we really hope it encourages more girls to pursue STEM subjects. Think Ada Twist, Scientist meets PJ Masks with a questing, STEM learning twist for 4-8 year olds!
To further spark children’s imagination and curiosity about the world they live in, we’ve also developed some educational ‘quests’ – simple challenges that enable young children to find solutions by activating their problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and creative skills. Check these fun, free activities out here: https://bit.ly/STEMQuestsForKids
Super problem-solvers and curious creators will love the brand new SuperQuesters series, which inspires a love of STEM learning through interactive play and stories. SuperQuesters: The Case of the Stolen Sun is out on 3 May, Pre-order, published by new children’s publisher, QuestFriendz.
]]>Did you know that today (26th May) is National Paper Airplane Day? It’s celebrated every year to commemorate the simple aeronautical toy (the paper plane) that’s been fascinating children and adults across the globe for generations. We at Team QuestFriendz love this special day as it’s an opportunity to ditch the screens for some fun and fresh air, whilst developing our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) skills.
So, today your children are on a very important mission. They are avionics engineers and their challenge is to design and create a plane that glides as far as possible. Just like avionics engineers, they will work on designing, building, testing, and controlling machines (paper planes) that fly (glide). This is going to exercise their trial and error and solution evaluation skills which are part of structured problem solving.
For this STEAM quest, children are free to use any materials that they find around the classroom or at home and are encouraged to be as creative as possible. If you’ve never made a paper plane before and need some inspiration, watch this helpful video here: http://bit.ly/MakePaperPlane
Step 1: Complete a sketch of the plane you’d like to create
A great way to start is by asking the children to sketch out some ideas for their plane on a piece of paper. Sketches can be simple or complex depending on their age. Starting with a very simple sketch helps to start from a basic and solid basis which is going to be their reference point. Later, the sketch can be improved and made more complex, for example, with the addition of wingtips. Wingtips are upward folds at the end of the wings, which can help your plane to achieve a smoother and straighter flight path.
Step 2: Explore and decide on your materials
Ask the children to think about the materials they’ll need to use for their planes. Get them thinking about different types of materials and how this might impact the design and performance of their planes. For example, they can use cardboard, parchment paper, aluminium foil, or glitter paper. You can ask the children what they think the result might be if they use a heavier paper (e.g. cardboard) versus a light paper (e.g. parchment paper). You can also ask where it is important to fold the material to have a more solid plane. For example, adding folds to the plane strengthens the structure of the plane. Thomas – can you be more specific? Where should the folds be added to strengthen the structure of the plane? TB: Let’s keep this open.
Step 3: Collect all the materials needed
Search out all the materials needed to build the planes with what you have available at home or in the classroom. Let the children determine what can be used and should not be used and why. It is important to let them fail (e.g. by using tissue paper) as it is part of the learning experience. In case of failure, ask them why it failed, what they think about it and what they could do differently for the next attempt.
Step 4: Create first prototypes
Prototypes are original forms of a design idea and are often used for testing and further design improvements. Prototypes vary from the shape of the plane, where to fold, how many times to fold, etc. The idea is that children create several different prototypes out of diverse materials (e.g. paper of diverse weights and textures like white printer paper vs. construction paper vs. parchment paper or carton or foil, etc.) and designs. During this phase children use trial and error to determine which materials, designs and sizes seem to work best.
Step 5: Competition time!
This is the fun bit! The children can now test their planes in a mini competition which can be judged by parents and siblings at home, or teachers and classmates at school – the official panel – who will record how far each plane has flown.
The winner is the child that’s plane that has flown the furthest. Bonus points can be awarded for creativity and design!
This challenge can be simplified or made more complex depending on the age of the child and their development level. The quest focuses on predicting behaviour via experimentation and developing a growth mindset via testing and improving the plane over and over to achieve better results. These are all skills that will help your children to develop a scientific mindset and better problem-solving skills whilst having lots of fun in the process!
At QuestFriendz we believe that starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. If you’d like to try out some more of our fun STEM quests, just click here and let the fun begin!
]]>Together with our six-year-old twin daughters, Emilie and Rebecca, we’ve picked our Top Ten books to share with you for this special occasion and have written a little review for each. You’ll notice that they’re all STEAM books which means they ignite an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – much like our own upcoming series of books – think PJ Masks meets Ada Twist, Scientist with a questing, STEAM-learning twist for 4-8-year-olds!
Izzy Gizmo and the Invention Convention – written by Pip Jones, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie (reviewed by 6-year-old Rebecca)
I loved all the interesting and clever inventions at the invention convention, especially Izzy’s Tool-Fix-Recycle-O-Matic because you can fix lots of broken tools instead of throwing them away. Izzy is really lucky to have a clever helper like Fixer, who helps her to solve the problem and win first prize.
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst (reviewed by Lisa)
This is an inspiring non-fiction book that takes both children and adults on a series of mini stories and adventures, highlighting the achievements of thirteen of the most important and courageous women in history, true trailblazers. I loved that this book triggered so many questions from my daughters and gave me a great opportunity to cover a diverse set of topics with them ranging from fashion, art, science, palaeontology, aviation to politics, human rights, war, and even secret agents. I believe it really opened my daughters’ eyes up to the fact that it took many courageous women before us to reach where we are today.
The beautiful and colourful illustrations help children to follow along step-by-step on each adventure, keeping them engaged and curious to find out more. What I love most of all is that it exposes children to a set of diverse role models and helps them to see that if you follow your dreams and dare to be courageous, you really can change the world!
Ada Twist, Scientist – written by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts (reviewed by 6-year-old Emilie)
I LOVE Ada Twist, Scientist. My favourite part is when Ada makes a colourful, fizzy, fun science experiment at school and surprises Miss Greer! The teacher and her friends all think Ada is very smart! I think she’s smart too; she has lots of ideas, asks lots of questions and works hard to find solutions.
My First Coding Book by Kiki Prottsman (reviewed by Thomas)
This is a great book which I used to introduce programming, or ‘coding’, to my daughters. It focuses on the different parts involved in coding like breaking problems down into smaller parts (tasks) which helps to make the problems easier to solve. It covers a range of coding concepts including algorithms, debugging, sequencing, pattern recognition, loop patterns, etc. The overall tone is funny and engaging for children and puts them in the role of learning how to become super coders. I personally really love how the book covers problem solving in a step-by-step and interactive way, while weaving in diverse coding-related topics. Each book spread is colourful and engaging and focuses on a theme – like bug hunting and storing data – where the children use the flaps to solve problems. The book articulates complex computer terms to children in a simplified way and at the same time uses relatable and engaging interactive examples. This approach really helped to keep both of my daughters interested and engaged. For example, they loved learning how to debug by finding the ‘bugs’ in the cake machine. Helping the safari monkey to make his way safely through the jungle and learning about sequencing was another favourite!
Ara the Star Engineer – written by Komal Singh and illustrated by Ipek Konak (reviewed by 6-year-old Rebecca)
Ara visits a really cool place called the Innovation Plex with her robot DeeDee. I love that there are so many awesome things to learn about like experiments, how your brain works, dinosaur skeletons and inventions. The experiments are my favourite!
Counting on Katherine – written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk (reviewed by Lisa)
This is a fascinating biography of a woman who, despite challenges throughout her life, persevered to achieve great things. The book really draws you in and takes readers on a journey of Katherine Johnson’s life, from her early days as a young girl in school with a love for learning to her heroic accomplishments as a prominent mathematician at NASA. The book covers many surprises like the fact that Katherine was so bright she skipped three grades but initially couldn’t attend high school due to segregation. This was very eye-opening to both Emilie and Rebecca and gave us the opportunity to cover these important topics.
Katherine faced many challenges along the way due to her ethnicity and gender, however her perseverance, passion and hard work helped her to overcome each obstacle. Her work at NASA, including how she helped Apollo 11 to land safely on the moon and brought the damaged Apollo 13 safely back to Earth on the Apollo missions, made her a hero and a true role model.
Hello Ruby: Expedition to the Internet by Linda Liukas (reviewed by 6-year-old Emilie)
I love it when Ruby and her friends build the snow internet! It looks like a magical world inside a computer full of lots of friends having fun. I especially love the robot serving ice cream, the rainbow unicorn and the snow leopard.
Lift-the-flap Computers and Coding by Rosie Dickins (reviewed by Thomas)
As per the My First Coding book, this one uses flaps to emphasize the hands-on and interactive learning approach. This is a really great way to stimulate young children to learn with both their hands and minds at the same time. This book covers more on computers, their role, how they think and work, what’s inside them from a discovery and sensory aspect and the languages they use. Children also get to build an understanding of how computers work and interact with us in our society through the internet and how this has evolved over time. There are several hands-on activities throughout the book which my daughters found really interesting and helped to bring the concepts to life. For example, they loved learning about binary numbers and how old they are according to computers. At six years old there was definitely some excitement seeing their much larger looking binary number (110). Decoding the names of the robots (and their own names) using a unicode letter guide was also a lot of fun. They especially liked helping the pirate to find the treasure chest by following a set of instructions combined with learning how to use a compass. The interactive learning examples at different points throughout the book help to develop computational thinking, which is important to nurture from a young age, so it becomes second nature. Both Emilie and Rebecca really love this book as it answers visually a lot of their questions about computers: What is inside the computer and under the keyboard? How do they work? What is the internet?
Hello Ruby: Journey Inside the Computer by Linda Liukas (reviewed by 6-year-old Emilie and Rebecca)
It’s a lot of fun to see how Ruby and the white mouse can make themselves tiny enough to fit through the ‘mouse hole’ and into the computer! We wish we could do this too! It’s really interesting to see how a computer works inside. Our favourite part of the computer is the GPU (graphic processing unit). We love all the beautiful colours, it’s like having a little painter inside your computer!
Little Leaders: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison (reviewed by Lisa)
This is such a great resource for children and adults of all ages, full of inspiring women from all walks of life around the world. I really enjoy that it covers both well-known and lesser-known women, all with their own unique stories to be told. This is a great way to expose your child to a lot of diverse and fascinating topics. Each mini story fuelled a wide assortment of questions from my six-year-old daughters. Each question was a great opportunity to extend the educational experience. We covered a few mini stories at a time each night, making it a much-anticipated bedtime favourite.
We hope you enjoyed our recommendations. At QuestFriendz we believe that starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines which is why we feel these books are so important. If you’d like to try out some of our fun STEM quests, just click here and let the fun begin!
]]>
In celebration of International Dance Day, we have a super fun challenge for you and your family. AND it’s educational as it encourages little ones to develop a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) mindset. So, what are you waiting for? It’s time for you and the kids to put on your dancing shoes and get ready to dance!
In this STEM quest your children will get to take the lead as they adopt the role of disco dance instructor(s). It’s a great way to help children develop STEM skills like coding and sequencing, whilst building their confidence and initial leadership skills.
The challenge for your child/children in this STEM quest is to make up a dance routine with lots of fun moves that the family must follow. The crazier the moves, the louder the laughter! Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Your child gets to pick their favourite song – it can be as funny and as crazy as they like as they are the disco dance instructor!
Step 2: The dance instructor should think of a series of dance moves they would like to use when dancing to their favourite song, e.g. side shuffle, jump, spin, moonwalk, etc.
Step 3: The dance instructor gets to decide on objects or pictures to represent each different dance move. For example, red paper or a red piece of Lego could indicate a ‘side shuffle’ whilst yellow paper or a yellow piece of Lego could signal a ‘jump’. Alternatively, they could draw the dance move symbols or names of the moves on pieces of paper. The sky is the limit in terms of creative options!
Step 4: The dance instructor should place the objects or pictures in a specific order which provides the instructions (or programme) they need to follow to complete the dance routine.
Step 5: Let the disco dancing fun begin!
You can either turn the quest into a dance contest, with participants dressing up in costumes and taking turns, or try out the dance routine as a group. To make it even more challenging, the dance instructor could let other participants (e.g. Nan and Grandad) add a new move to the routine until it gets too difficult and you’re all rolling around the floor laughing!
This is a lot of fun for parents (or teachers) and children of different ages to do together. The great thing is that the quest can be adapted to suit the age and development level of the child/children. Children find their energy by feeling useful, having a purpose, and helping others so this should have them feeling VERY energetic! This energy gives them confidence and a sense of purpose. What are you waiting for?!
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Research also shows that children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
Click here for more fun STEM quests!
So, what is a robot? To put it simply, a robot is a machine that moves, or has moving parts, and makes decisions while it interacts with the world. You may not realise it, but robots play a HUGE role in our lives. Car manufacturers have been using them for years to make cars safer, faster and better; operational companies use them to carry the heavy loads that humans couldn’t physically bear themselves; farmers use them to help harvest more efficiently; nurses, paramedics and doctors use robot patients to help their student health workers practice diagnosis and treatment of various conditions before they go near real patients…the list is endless! Robots are therefore pretty amazing things – they help save lives, advance society and improve our world.
This is why robotics (the study of robots) is so exciting and will change our future. Robots need a lot of smart humans to build them and to develop their AI (Artificial Intelligence) and these people – called ‘roboticists’ – require expertise in maths, physics, design, computing, and mechanical engineering to name but a few. We believe that the earlier children are exposed to these STEM skills in a fun and interactive way, the more chance they have of developing an interest in areas like robotics. It’s especially important that young girls are helped to view robotics and other STEM fields as something they can be a part of and excel in – we need to break the stereotype that careers like robotics are “only for men”.
In fact, if you have young girls, you may want to tell them about Dr Merritt Moore – a ballerina AND physicist! This remarkable woman openly campaigns for more females to enter STEM fields and for subjects like robotics to be taught in a more interesting way. We love the fact that this “quantum ballerina” hasn’t had to make a choice between the arts and science – showcasing that girls CAN do both.
So, to get your little innovators excited about robots, we’ve created some free activity sheets which will help them to develop their STEM skills in a fun, interactive way.
In this stylish activity, children aged 4 – 5 will need to use their pattern matching skills to draw a line between each matching bow tie and magnifying glass.
These fun activities help children aged 4 - 8 to develop their STEM problem-solving skills.
Children of all ages will enjoy this drawing activity in which they’ll need to design a friend for B-bot. We’d love to see your designs so please Tweet them to @QuestFriendz using the hashtag #BBotActivity!
This is a really fun game that you can play with a friend or a family member. One of you can pretend to be Detective B-bot who is searching for hidden treasure and the other can program him to find the treasure using simple instructions. It’s a great way to get children interested in coding from a young age!
This is a slightly harder (but still super fun!) challenge for children aged 6-9 to try to crack. To repair our beloved B-bot they’ll need to use their STEM problem-solving skills.
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Addressing young children also allows us to harness their natural curiosity. This magical state helps to accelerate learning including STEM learning. Children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
We’ll be sharing some more of our favourite STEM educational quests for parents to try out with their kids at home or for teachers to try in the classroom. Stay tuned!
We’ve also created our very own Easter STEM activities which you can download and print from here or by clicking directly on the challenges below:
Can you crack B-Bot’s egg-citing Coding Challenges? These activities help develop STEM skills like coding and sequencing. Opt for the ‘Beginner Level’ to build your confidence and then see if you can tackle the ‘Smarty-pants Level’! HINT – For the ‘Beginner Level’ it takes 11 steps to reach the end, and for the ‘Smarty Pants Level’ it takes 19 steps. There are, in fact, two correct routes within 19 steps for the ‘Smarty Pants Level’ to reach the end – bonus points if you can find BOTH paths!
This is a fun activity for children aged 7+ to practice programming. It’s a chance for them to discover Python, one of the most used programming languages, in a fun and unplugged way.
Practice your logic skills with this fun counting exercise.
We hope (or should we say ‘hop’!) you have an egg-cellent Easter and your little scientists enjoy cracking these STEM challenges!
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Addressing young children also allows us to harness their natural curiosity. This magical state helps to accelerate learning including STEM learning. Children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
We’ll be sharing some more of our favourite STEM educational quests for parents to try out with their kids at home or for teachers to try in the classroom. Stay tuned!
]]>
Many of us have heard a lot of talk in the media about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) but as a parent it can be daunting to know when our children should start learning about STEM and how best to nurture their interest and abilities in this area.
Until recently the education system focused on learning per discipline (e.g Mathematics) but we’ve come to recognise the importance of ‘STEM learning’ – an integrated approach to learning across STEM disciplines. Not only is this integrated approach more useful – helping children to develop important skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, pattern recognition and sequencing – but it’s also a lot more fun!
In the past we would have learnt to memorize chemistry or physics formulas, whereas with today’s STEM learning approach children can learn across multiple disciplines through engaging, practical activities that develop their capacity for innovation, invention and creative problem solving.
At QuestFriendz we believe that children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced at a young age. Young children are naturally curious and this magical state helps to accelerate learning, particularly in the area of STEM.
To spark children’s imagination and curiosity about the world they live in, we’ve developed some educational ‘quests’ – simple challenges that enable young children to find solutions by activating their problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and creative skills.
We’d love you to try out some of these STEM quests with your children and hope they ignite a love for STEM learning. Plus, join us over on Twitter @QuestFriendz where we’ll be sharing lots more fun STEM activities and games for your little engineers, inventors and computer scientists! ENJOY! 😊
]]>
For parents who would like to spark their children’s interest in STEM learning and to develop a STEM learning mindset, we have some hands-on and practical off-screen activities to try out at home with your little ones. We call these bite-sized STEM learning activities, STEM quests.
Did you know that baking is a great way to introduce children of all ages to some core STEM skills? Even the littlest ones can help out with baking which can already help to shape a learning and growth mindset. Baking is a great way to learn abstraction but also other STEM skills like sequencing, measuring quantities, understanding chemical reactions, problem solving (trial and error), algorithm basics and creativity just to name a few.
In this activity, your child gets to pick their favourite cookies recipe and the quest is to create a shopping list for the ingredients needed to make the cookies. With this quest your child will get to practice and develop the STEM skills of abstraction.
The reward at the end is their favourite freshly baked cookies for the whole family to enjoy!
Challenge 1: You child can only look at the recipe instructions but not the ingredients list. Your child will need to use their STEM skill of abstraction to pick out the most important details from the recipe instructions in order to make a grocery list. For younger children, you will need to read the instructions for them and ask them to identify and help to note down the ingredients along the way.
Challenge 2 (for STEM superheros): You will need to abstract the equipment needed for baking. From all the kitchen utensils, the child has to select what is needed to bake her delicious recipe.
Additional challenge (for older children): You can start by giving your child a budget for their baking quest and then asking your child to select from their favourite recipes, one recipe that is based on ingredients that can be purchased within a certain budget set by the parent. This will require your child to exercise their problem-solving skills, by identifying which ingredients are needed and in which quantities based on the recipe they select. They will then need to assess if any of the ingredients are available at home and deduce which ones need to be purchased from the grocery store and in which quantities. They may need to adjust their recipe selection, ingredients and/or quantity based on their assessment. This is all part of a structured problem-solving approach.
Why is abstraction important? Abstraction is a key skill to learn for children. It helps to filter out the noisy details from the most relevant ones so that they can focus on solving a problem with the right information.
At QuestFriendz we believe that imaginative and hands-on purposeful play, when combined with problem-solving through play, are key to providing young children with an engaging and memorable experience. Starting STEM at an early age helps children to make important connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. Addressing young children also allows us to harness their natural curiosity. This magical state helps to accelerate learning including STEM learning. Children become better equipped to face a fast-paced and evolving world, when problem-solving skills and learning to fail are introduced from a young age.
We’ll be sharing some more of our favourite STEM educational quests for parents to try out with their kids at home or for teachers to try in the classroom. Stay tuned!
Would you like to learn to code and develop core STEM skills?
Our books help children learn to code and develop core STEM skills in an interactive, inclusive and engaging way! Children solve a series of hands-on STEM quests (educational puzzles) individually or in small groups within an engaging story. Our books are perfect for use at home, in school or on the move. We also have lesson plan guides available including activity sheets, games and other learning activities, to extend your STEM learning fun!