The STEM Club Goes Exploring

"What do you want to be when grown up?", it’s the big question no child can escape.
This book by Lois Melbourne can help children to find an answer, not so much to respond to adults, as for themselves. Through full-page illustrations and clear and smooth text, it gives a glimpse of how many countless and diversified choices exist within the scientific and technological disciplines.

To find out more tips about the career world, it’s worth visiting the site: myfuturestory.com

An Accessible and Entertaining Early Introduction to STEM Careers

Back in 1961, when I was a middle grader, every kid in our school got a set of pamphlets and a paperback book about "Career Opportunities" that had been produced by and freely distributed by the New York Life Insurance Company. That was the Sputnik era and the pamphlets included - engineer, aeronautical engineer, farmer, lawyer, pharmacist, secretary, nurse, social worker, and doctor. You can make jokes about 1950's and 60's priorities, but that book was a real eye opener and kids studied it like it was the latest Sears catalogue.

Memories of that career guide came rushing back as I read this book. Now, of course, the presentation is brighter and punchier, but the message and intent are the same. There are lots of neat careers out there in the STEM world, and they all relate directly to the things you know, like, and are good at.

The pages are full color cartoon style drawings of the kids from the STEM club traveling around and interviewing preople about their careers. The text averages about half of each page and is inserted in sidebars or as narrative captions. This allows for the presentation of basic career information in a snappy and high energy style, and it illustrates the action/adventure/gizmo elements of some of the jobs. (My New York Life book was about as visually inviting as a digital camera manual.)

Some jobs get a longer treatment, (software engineer, app designer, geologist, animal scientist/researcher, marine biologist, mechanical engineer, health care provider), and some get passing treatment, (air traffic controller, city planner, zoologist), but there's certainly something for everyone.

It's never too early to dream and it's always a good idea to get kids thinking about STEM careers, and this seemed to me to be a good, timely, well-intentioned, and generally useful introductory guide. A nice choice for your budding engineer.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Great story for kids

The STEM Club goes on a field trip to various locations to explore career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The diverse group of students discuss their interests with professionals at a software company, a vet’s office, a mine, and a hospital. The students also discuss how STEM fields apply to infrastructure, travel, textiles, factories, farms and labs.

This is a very helpful and fun guide that will help children learn what they might like to do in the future and give them a wide range of possibilities to stimulate their interest in STEM and see how we use STEM in everyday life. It includes a handy glossary in the back which describes the careers discussed in the book. This book would be great for a class activity to help students learn more about STEM.

I hope to see more books like this in the future exploring other types of jobs, such as human services and the arts; or even further examples of how we use STEM in our everyday lives.