STEM | Page 6 of 6 | Daddy Mojo

Human Heart Floor Puzzle for kids from Dr. Livingston puts it together

Kids love to have fun. Kids learn in different ways. Everyone knows the first statement, but not enough people acknowledge, pivot, or have the ability to pivot when the learning process might need a different mode of entry. The human body is a naturally curious topic for upper elementary and middle school students. However, there aren’t exactly internal organs that those ages have access to for ‘hands-on’ learning and books can only go so far in motivating them. Genius Games Junior has the Doctor Livingston Jr. line of puzzles that introduces the rabbit hole of our human body that fit like a glove for fifth grade and up.

Just enough education that’s partnered with puzzle fun

Anglerfish The Seadevil of the Deep, fun STEM for one and all

Fish aren’t inherently evil or bad. However, if you were to pose the question of what’s the evilest fish of them all then the Anglerfish would surely be in that mix. If nothing else, then that glowing light that’s on the end of the fishing rod on their head would qualify them by some people’s classification. If you didn’t know what an Anglerfish was before, then that description certainly painted exactly which fish we’re talking about. Anglerfish, The Seadevil of the Deep is an illustrated book by Elaine M. Alexander with illustrations by Fiona Fogg. This is on the STEM side of illustrated books and presents this mysterious fish in a way that will entertain, make kids curious, and drop little nuggets of knowledge that they’ll gleefully share with their friends.

Anglerfish: The Seadevil of the Deep is an illustrated book that examines a mysterious creature and makes it an unlikely hero.

C’mon in, the water’s fine

Bodies, Brains & Boogers, makes human health fun for ages 8 and up

Pick a page, any page from Bodies, Brains & Boogers and it’s something that will interest or intrigue ages eight and up. And, while you may not want to tell those ages this, they’ll also learn something from every page, yes, even you older middle school readers. Do you have Demodex, how much collagen is in your brain, how fast are synapses and so many more are questions that will be posed to elementary school students. The takeaway and question for parents, educators, and that wily eight-year-old audience is this, is Bodies, Brains & Boogers a book that they’ll want to read?

Bodies, Brains & Boogers is the approachable, fun way that ages 8 and up can learn about their bodies with humor and gross, interesting facts.

Science made fun, and slightly disgusting for ages 8 and up

Neurocomic, a graphic novel on the brain for middle school and up

The other day in the podcast and over on Youtube I mentioned that I read a graphic novel and had no idea of how to accurately describe its content. It’s not that it was bad or poorly presented; it’s just that the subject matter was high level and required a second reading. Having said that, even after reading Neurocomic twice I’m still unable to tell you the details from memory, despite the fact that I enjoyed reading it both times. That is also quite ironic or appropriate, given the fact that Neurocomic is about the brain, memories, and how they’re made, or in my case, forgotten.

Neurocomic has the seemingly impossible task of making a graphic novel on the brain approachable and entertaining and nails it to the cerebellum, in a good way.

A graphic novel that makes the brain understandable? Yup.

Dragon Con is science, STEM, robotics and more for middle schoolers

It’s great to be able to attend cons again. Think of a pop culture interest and there’s a convention geared just for that. Dragon Con is a con that’s really unlike others. It’s held in Atlanta, Georgia every Labor Day weekend and every pop culture franchise that you can think of is there. Superheroes, middle earth, anime shows, television shows, and more are all represented by their fans or cast members of the shows. What about the science? The STEM, the brains behind the manufacturing of those costumes, real-world technology that goes into science-fiction, and those people who might be exploring space or the ancient history of Earth are not forgotten at Dragon Con.

A presentation on Mars at Dragon Con 2022 — Here’s a photo from Mars that you haven’t seen, unless you were at Dragon Con.

STEM, science, mars, dinosaurs, cosplay and more at Dragon Con

Footprints Across the Planet is a soft picture book on life and impact

Did you hear about the dinosaur footprints in Texas that were exposed during a drought? I love that story because A. I love all things dinosaur and B. It reminds us that there are extraordinary things that might be just beyond our eyesight. Maybe it’s something that takes a little effort or it could be the everyday things that we simply may not appreciate as much as it deserves. Footprints Across the Planet is a picture book by Jennifer Swanson. Swanson is an author who writes non-fiction books for children, with this one being on the picture end of the teeter-totter.

Footprints Across the Planet is a picture book about the impact things make, softly demonstrated by animals and metaphors.

Jump on in, the pictures are great

The Ultimate Biography of Earth is smarter than most who won’t read it

That’s a bold claim, isn’t it? Actually, any book that has ‘ultimate’ in its title is aiming high or asking for trouble. The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a graphic novel that meets that metric, as long as you’re willing to walk down a certain STEM path. And that path is 100% STEM, The Ultimate Biography of Earth is by Nick Lund with illustrations by Jason Ford and is solidly aimed at those middle elementary through middle-middle school students who want to make the history of Earth fun.

The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a STEM graphic novel that’s very smart and will satiate those ages 9 and up that want entertainment with their education.

It’s not a dare…unless you think that it is…..