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STEM is everywhere! In this book you will learn how you are already using STEM in your everyday life, and how you can explore it in new places.
You will find your next STEM joke to keep everyone around you laughing, find inspiration from STEM affirmations, read about interesting STEM careers and role models, play fun STEM puzzles, get experiment ideas, and perform 10 amazing STEM experiments!
By the end of the book, you will learn that failure is often just the start of something new, and discover that STEM is for you!
My second book, The Amazing Book of STEM, is now available on Amazon!!! Check it out by clicking the link here (and the links throughout this post). My first book was a guided journal which included blank lined, graphing, and drawing pages, but this book is workbook with text on every page!
I am so proud of this book. I worked hard to ensure it could be the best product possible. I took lessons learned from the STEAM Activity Journal, and used them to make improvements in this book (however, don’t take that to mean there is anything wrong with the STEAM Activity Journal! I am still immensely proud of it and highly recommend it for 2nd through 6th graders). There are many all new sections (STEM Jokes, STEM Experiments, STEM Puzzles, and more), and some repeated sections with updates, improvements, and all new content. Keep reading to learn all about the can’t miss workbook for kids.
Who is it for?
The Amazing Book of STEM is designed for kids ages 9-15 to read and complete independently. However, it’s also great for doing experiments with kids 3+ with caregiver guidance, and for teachers! Here’s a brief overview followed by more information about each group:
- Curious kids who are always asking questions and want to experiment.
- Parents and caregivers who want to do STEM experiments with your kids, but need ideas for experiments; or if you are intimated and don’t know where to start with talking to your kids about STEM and performing experiments.
- Elementary, middle school, junior high, or high school kids with a science fair coming up – there are 10 STEM experiments with ideas on how to expand on each experiment.
- Teachers (homeschooling or in a classroom) – this journal will help you plan experiments and discuss all things STEM (you can impress your class with a few of the STEM jokes). 🙂
Kids in the suggested age range (3rd grade – 9th grade) will be able to read all the text, take notes, and follow the directions to complete the experiments.
You can definitely buy this book for younger kids, but they will need more guidance and help with reading the text, and completing the STEM experiments. For younger kids, you may just use the book for the instructions to do the experiments with them, and to use the glossary to answer all their STEM questions.
I really enjoy doing experiments with all three of my kids (ages 11, 9, and 4). My four year old has done most of the STEM experiments in this book with me, so that’s how I know they are fun for younger kids too. Fishing for Ice Cubes is her all-time favorite activity. My big kids love Make a Bouncy Egg the best.
Older kids, especially middle school, junior high, and high school aged kids may enjoy reading the STEM Careers and STEM Role Model pages, while younger elementary school aged kids may prefer the STEM Favorites and STEM Jokes pages, and skip the STEM Career and STEM Role Model pages for now.
Kids (and adults) of all ages will enjoy the STEM Experiments! There is something for everyone and it’s ok to use it however you like, skip some pages, expand on others.
Teachers, parents, and caretakers can use the book for planning and demonstrating classroom or homeschool experiments, for jokes to tell the class or your kids to lighten the mood, ideas on how to explain STEM and why it is important, or to give examples of STEM careers or role models to inspire and motivate kids to pursue STEM fields.
What is inside The Amazing Book of STEM?
Here is an overview of each section of The Amazing Book of STEM.
- Introduction: Learn the meaning of STEM, and that STEM is for you!
- Create your STEM Name: Ideas for kids to create a their own STEM alliteration name like Engineering Emily.
- STEM Favorites: A checklist of 20 everyday ways to use STEM. Kids have the opportunity to look at the list and think about what STEM topics interest them. They can check all 20 items, or just a few.
- STEM Favorites Word Search: A challenging word search for 12 STEM favorites.
- STEM Jokes: 20 funny STEM themed jokes, because sometimes letting loose and having fun can be just as important as serious learning in STEM. Your kids will giggle as they read the jokes and there is space for them to write their own STEM themed jokes too!
- STEM Affirmations: A list of 50 inspiring STEM themed affirmations to encourage kids to believe in themselves and their abilities. A positive state of mind can go a long way towards success in STEM.
- STEM Careers: Descriptions of 3 careers in each of the four STEM subjects. It includes a brief explanation the career, then gives several examples of job titles within this career path. It also explains internships, and most in-demand STEM college majors.
- STEM Role Models: A list of 3 well-known role models in each of the four STEM subjects. The is also an explanation of mentors and sample questions to ask a mentor.
- STEM Careers and Role Models Crossword: Use what you learned about STEM careers and role models to solve this crossword puzzle.
- STEM Experiment Ideas: Descriptions of 5 STEM Experiments in each STEM field. That’s 20 additional STEM experiment ideas on top of the 10 included STEM experiments! These description give you much of what you need to know to get started on the experiments, and you can always find the full experiment here on the blog.
- STEM Experiment Idea Generator: Kids roll a dice to help them come up with their next exciting STEM experiment idea in this fun game!
- STEM Experimentation Guide: This section explains the three main parts of STEM experimentation used in this book: Design, Test, and Analysis, with detailed explanation of each piece. This prepares kids for what to expect on the STEM experiments pages.
- 10 STEM Experiments: The experiments include a description, materials, safety, procedure, and what happened, and there is space to write a hypothesis, observations, what worked/didn’t work, and improvement idea. Below are the 10 experiments included in the workbook (you can also reference the linked blog posts for each experiment for additional details, photos, and videos):
- Continue Experimenting: 20 ideas for how to continue experimenting and thinking about STEM at home everyday.
- STEM Puzzles: Science: a matching picture to science word puzzle, Technology: unscrambling technology words puzzle, Engineering: chain reaction words puzzle, and Math: a challenging cryptogram puzzle.
- Answer Key: Answers to the word search, crossword, the experiment picture matching, and the four STEM puzzles.
- Glossary: Definitions of the STEM words found throughout the book.
- About Engineering Emily: A short introduction to me, including my career history and family life.
What is the difference between the STEM Experiment Journal and The Amazing Book of STEM?
You may be wondering what is different between my new workbook and my previous journal, and if you really need both if you already bought the journal. The short answer is: yes, they are quite different – There is many more sections and all new information in the new workbook.
I believe that the STEAM Activity Journal and The Amazing Book of STEM compliment each other really well and it’s a benefit for kids to have both!
Kids can continue to write about ideas from The Amazing Book of STEM in the STEAM Activity Journal. In fact, The Amazing Book of STEM has a page called Continue Experimenting, which has 20 STEM themed ideas for kids to write about, draw, or graph in the pages of the STEAM Activity Journal. This was one subtle way I tied the two books together.
Below is a side by side comparison of the features in the two book. I made the table below to explain each section of both books, so you can compare what is the same and different between my two books.
| What’s Included | The Amazing Book of STEM | STEAM Activity Journal |
|---|---|---|
| Table of Contents | Yes | No |
| Introduction | Yes | Yes |
| Meaning of STEM / STEAM | Yes | Yes |
| STEM Favorites / Why I like STEAM | Yes – 20 checklist items + Word Search | Yes – 14 checklist items |
| STEM Jokes | Yes – 20 | No |
| STEM Affirmations / STEAM Mantras | Yes – 50 affirmations | Yes – 11 mantras, +45 (one on each blank writing, drawing, and design page) at the end of. the book |
| STEM / STEAM Careers | Yes – 12 (3 per STEM subject), with brief description of each career + included in crossword puzzle | Yes – 54 (5+ per STEAM subject), but only job titles given |
| STEM / STEAM Role Models | Yes – 12 (3 per STEM subject), includes their job title and contributions + included in crossword puzzle | Yes – 15 (3 per STEAM subject), includes their job title and contributions |
| STEM / STEAM Experiment Ideas | Yes – 20 (5 per STEM subject), with brief description of the experiment | Yes – 27 (~5 per STEAM subject), but no experiment description is given |
| STEAM Problems to Solve | No | Yes – 15 fun ideas |
| STEM Experimentation Guide / How to Create a STEAM Activity | Yes, and a STEM Experiment Idea Generator game | Yes |
| STEAM Activity Design, Test, and Review | No | Yes – 10 sets of formatted blank pages to use during experiments |
| STEM Experiments | Yes – 10 fully guided experiments | No |
| Notes, Drawing, and Grid pages | No | Yes – 56 |
| STEM Puzzles | Yes, 4 fun and challenging puzzles | No |
| Glossary | Yes | No |
| Total pages | 88 | 110 |
| Color or Black and White interior | Full color interior | Black and white interior |
| Recommended Ages | 9-15 independently, 3+ with adult guidance | 8-14 independently, 5+ with adult guidance |
| Book Type | Workbook | Journal |
Here is more information on the differences in the topics that overlap:
- For STEM Favorites checklist / Why I like STEAM, and Affirmations / Mantras: there are a couple items that overlap and are repeated in both books, but you will still find these pages much different between the two books.
- For STEM / STEAM Careers, Role Models, and Experiment Ideas pages: these lists are all completely different between the two books. The Amazing Book of STEM has all new role models, career descriptions, and experiment ideas, so if you have both books you will be happy to see all new content!
What I like best about The Amazing Book of STEM
I am proud of the experiments in The Amazing Book of STEM. This book is different than typical experiment books because there is room for kids to take notes as they experiment. They can write a hypothesis before beginning the experiment, write and draw observations during the experiment, and write down what work/didn’t work after the experiment, and use that to think about improvements they would make for the next time they do the experiment.
I also really love the addition of the STEM Jokes page. My kids and I love jokes. Last year, my daughter kept telling me math jokes, and that sparked this idea to include them in this book. I ordered the jokes in STEM order: it starts with science jokes, moves to a technology joke, a few engineering jokes, and finally our favorite math themed jokes. We hope you love the jokes as much as we do! I’d love to hear other STEM themed jokes you think of – send me what your kids come up with on my email or social media.
The puzzles were a fun challenge for me to create. I did them all by my own head and hand. These are all puzzles thought of by me and tested by my family. My kids found them challenging, which I took as a compliment (but also prompted me to include some hints on the puzzles they found more challenging)!
I am proud of the overall look and styling of this book too. It’s fun, clean, spacious, and easy to use and follow along. You are getting an awesome workbook that has more than you’d expect!
Why you should buy The Amazing Book of STEM
This workbook gives you all the information you need to get started experimenting safely and easily at home. I chose experiments that are amazing, magical, fun, easy, and use as few materials as possible so they are accessible to a lot people. You should be able to do most of them with materials you already have at home. I give a list of ways to expand at the end of each procedure, and this is perfect for kids looking to expand these experiments into a science fair project. Kids can do the experiments multiple times, changing one factor at a time to see how it affects the results. It is a great way to learn how engineers and scientist work in the real world.
The Amazing Book of STEM is a well thought-out and designed workbook to get kids thinking about all things STEM. They check off all the fun things they play/do/see everyday that are STEM related and do a word search in the STEM Favorites section. Kids learn it’s ok to be a little silly and tell jokes in the STEM Jokes section. They get a confidence books in the STEM Affirmations section. In the STEM Careers and STEM Role Models sections, kids can start dreaming about their future and think about what roles they can envision themselves filling.
The STEM Experiments section gives kids (and adults) all the information they need to get started experimenting at home. My kids and I hand-picked 10 of our favorite experiments for this journal. They are easy to perform when following the straightforward instructions, and can be expanded on for further learning and experimenting. It’s a perfect starting place for kids looking for science fair ideas!
The puzzle pages are challenging and fun, just the way I wanted them. That’s STEM for you – challenging, but achievable with hard work, concentration, and eventually you realize you are having fun while working!
Buy your copy today!
You can buy The Amazing Book of STEM on Amazon! It is $14.99 for the paperback book.
If you enjoy your purchase, I would be grateful if you could please leave a review on Amazon. Reviews help more people find The Amazing Book of STEM and help people decide if they should purchase it on not. As a self-published author, I don’t have much advertising or promotional opportunities besides this blog, so any way you can spread the world will help me immensely!
Thank you for supporting me – and I know you and your kids will love The Amazing Book of STEM as much as we do! <3
