STEM | Page 3 of 7 | Daddy Mojo

Fungi Grow, balances poetry, naturalistic STEM and entertainment

Fungi Grow is a smart illustrated book that operates like Chutes and Ladders, if it were laid over an MC Escher drawing with everything still making sense. This is the world of mushrooms. If you ever thought that it would be impossible to make a lyrical illustrated book that dances between poetry, educating kids about fungi and entertaining young readers all to the same degree, then this is just the sort of book that’ll grow on you. The fact that it’s an oversized book provides younger readers more opportunities to fill in the book at their own pace, hopefully letting them know that it’s normal to love to read. Will a cute rabbit and dozens of multi-colored mushrooms on the cover yield a new generation of mycologists?

Fungi Grow sounds like a rallying cry for a dude to get larger in the garden. In reality, it’s a STEM based poetry book that melds lyricism, nature and entertainment.

You don’t have to be a mycologist or stem-kid to love this book

The Great Mathemachicken 2 Have a Slice Day, giddy puns for young readers

Puns are an effective and short route to an emerging reader’s heart. Dog Man has been plowing that field for almost a decade and other children’s book series were most certainly doing the same thing prior to that. It’s also quite magical when a child understands a pun for the first time. The Great Mathemachicken 2: Have a Slice Day is an early reader chapter book that’s fun and educational, without being too much of the latter.

The Great Mathematchicken 2: Have a Slice Day deals with fun and math, both in equal measure so as to keep ages 5-8 engaged.

Ages 5-8 looking for a go-to, smart. early chapter book will dig it

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence, silly + science adds up to fun

I’m currently teaching AP Literature and English. It’s fascinating because it looks at things from an entirely different angle, in addition to things that I never knew to things that I might be overthinking. For example, in my notes, there were several activities titled “MC practice”. I assumed that it was some AP or higher lever in dissecting text. In researching it I learned that there’s a musical group on Soundcloud by the same name and several consulting firms that probably help you practice things. In addition to remembering our basic abbreviations, I’m teaching lots of classes on perspective and how altering it will wildly change how the story is understood or enjoyed. This is relevant because I just read Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence. It’s an illustrated book that could’ve easily fallen into a trap of mediocrity but avoids that due to its perspective.

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence is non-fiction illustrated book that adds elements of silly without watering down the power of her real life.

This is far from your typical illustrated book on Marie Curie

It’s Tough to be Tiny, big STEM fun for a wide age range

Treat children as smart as you want them to be. I wish I had the opportunity to dig into books like It’s Tough to be Tiny when I was in elementary school. When I was that age I was always curious about nature, specifically the tiny things that exist in certain biomes. It’s not that I’m implying books of this sort would’ve turned me into a scientist, but their fun, STEM-centered nature might’ve thwarted at least one or two seasons of my wasting time watching Rock of Love. So, let us look at a fun STEM book that provides something for audiences from elementary through middle school.

It’s Tough to be Tiny is a STEM illustrated look at small critters that make up various biomes that’ll interest kids 7-14.

Jump on in, the STEM water is fine

How Was That Built, beautiful, architect, STEM food for ages eight and up

A friend of ours is a nuclear scientist. Illustrated books are for children and present simple content or fairy tales for young readers. One of those statements is false.

Intelligent illustrated books are an excellent way to teach. They can present advanced content on a level that’s not intimidating to younger audiences, and maybe, just maybe, inspire someone to change the world.* How Was That Built?: The Stories Behind Awesome Structures is an illustrated book that wears its intelligence on its sleeve and is the sort of book that’ll answer questions, inspire curiosity, and plant architectural seeds that’ll bloom in two or three decades.

How Was That Built? is a brilliant illustrated book on the construction, science and engineering behind bridges and buildings around the world.

You want your children to be more intelligent than you…,don’t you?

The Brilliant Calculator, STEM illustrated magic on leveling up the power grid

The Clarke Calculator is something that I’ve never seen, touched or used, yet its application is demonstrated everywhere I go. It’s not a regular calculator. Heck, it’s not even a scientific calculator. The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America follows Edith Clarke’s lifelong passion for numbers and her specific invention that helped electric power wires handle to juice needed for a growing America.

The Brilliant Calculator is an unlikely and empowering STEM illustrated story about Edith Clarke, a woman who invented something that few of us will use, but all of us take advantage of.

Stories like these are what make kids think outside of the box

Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine, cleans up on a little known inventor

Any teacher that has had to read umpteen hundred essays on the same inventors knows my pain. It’s the exercise in rolling your eyes when the student says that their essay will be on the same inventor, who invented that thing that seems to be a go-to for elementary school kids. There’s a void of books aimed at that audience who need to know about more people that history might have forgotten. Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine is an illustrated book that joyously plugs that hole.

Josephine and Her Dishwashing Machine is an illustrated book that examines the inventor of an appliance most of us use daily, but know nothing about its origin.

Hello history, it’s great to meet you

Her Eyes on the Stars, great story, but it’s been done better before

The story of Maria Mitchell is a fabulous one for many reasons. It’s about a young woman who has always loved studying the night sky and the objects that occupy its space. In the mid-1850s she was living in Nantucket and she’s noticing something amiss in the darkened sky. It’s a blur, a cottonball blur of a thing that’s set against crystal clear objects that are perfectly in focus. Her Eyes on the Stars: Maria Mitchell, Astronomer is the story about her childhood fascination with the sky; and her young adult life when she sees what just might be the first comet discovered by an American.

Her Eyes on the Stars: Maria Mitchell, Astronomer is an illustrated book with an awesome story worth seeking out, but this version could’ve used a softer touch.

Deja vu, except, not as good as the first time