Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies — and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Your community has many different areas to explore - it might be a park, a grocery store, a forest, or an alley. For some people, it might be difficult to explore these areas because they may have differing abilities. Select one area in your community, and come up with a plan to build a way for it to be more accessible to everyone.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Richard grew up in Kenya as a Maasai boy, herding his family’s cattle, which represented their wealth and livelihood. Richard’s challenge was to protect their cattle from the lions who prowled the night just outside the barrier of acacia branches that surrounded the farm’s boma, or stockade. Though not well-educated, 12-year-old Richard loved tinkering with electronics. Using salvaged components, spending $10, he surrounded the boma with blinking lights, and the system works; it keeps lions away. His invention, Lion Lights, is now used in Africa, Asia, and South America to protect farm animals from predators. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Your challenge is to use broken or old technology and other available resources to create a prototype that can be used to protect your home. This could involve tinkering, hacking, or redesigning the components of the technology to meet your needs.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

In this project, students work in pairs to write a short poem that demonstrates understanding of figurative language. They then design, engineer and build a gear mechanism that illustrates the meaning, theme, or concept of their poem. This engineering and language arts project was developed by Allen Distinguished Educator, Scott Swaaley.

The true story of how Momofuko Ando was inspired to create one of the world’s most popular foods after seeing long lines of hungry people waiting for a simple bowl of ramen following World War II. He dreamed about making a new kind of ramen noodle soup that was quick, convenient, and tasty for the hungry people because he believed that peace follows from a hungry stomach. With persistence, creativity, and a little inspiration, Ando succeeded. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Develop a food product (a new food, tool, or invention, et al) to help increase access to food in your community.

Tells the story of how the Slinky, the most popular toy in American history, was invented. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Develop a commercial about the Slinky.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

A young girl has a wonderful idea to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! But making her magnificent thing is anything but easy, and the girl repeatedly tries and fails. Eventually, she quits, but a walk with her dog and time to think, she comes back to her project with renewed enthusiasm and manages to get it just right. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Create small groups. Pass out one of the challenges listed in the lesson plan/book card to each group for them to come up with an invention that will solve the problem at hand.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Isatou Ceesay observed a growing problem in her community where people increasingly disposed of unwanted plastic bags, which accumulated into ugly heaps of trash. She found a way to be the agent of change by recycling the bags and transforming her community. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Use plastic bags to develop a new product (i.e. jump rope).

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

With encouragement and ideas from his family, Papa, based on the real-life inventor Lodner Phillips, builds a working submarine that takes his family on a ride to the bottom of Lake Michigan. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Students will use materials on hand to design a solution to a problem they see in their school or at home. The invention should meet the needs of fellow students, teachers, bus drivers, principals, siblings, friends, or even parents.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education. If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and less

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education. If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and less

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education. If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and lessons. 

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students.  If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and lessons! These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Danielle Humphrey, Peter Milne, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education.

These materials help educators use literature to get students excited about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by actively involving them in the design thinking process. Each book shares a story where something was built or invented by designing, planning, gathering materials, and creating. There is a book card/lesson plan for each title that includes a maker-STEM connection; pre, during, and post questions; and a design challenge.

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Danielle Humphrey, Peter Milne, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education.If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and lessons!

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students.  If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and lessons! These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Danielle Humphrey, Peter Milne, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education.

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Danielle Humphrey, Peter Milne, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education.If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and less

Welcome to Promoting STEM Through Literature by the MiSTEM Network of the Northwestern Lower Michigan Region.  We are excited to build from the great work of Judy Bowling and Kerry Guiliano to bring you more STEM challenges, SEL discussion prompts, and career connections that you can use with your students. These lessons were created in collaboration by Danelle Brostrom, Sam Walters, Drea Weiner, and Shelly VanderMeulen with funds from a MiSTEM grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education. If you are interested in learning more about the original project, please visit their website at https://www.stemandlit.com/Share your feedback and comments with us as we continue to add more books and less  

This wiki page documents the activities, articles, links, and resources used, as well as the teacher created Open Educational Resources (OER) during the SLANT Institute.On July 19-23, 2010 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Museum, 826 Valencia, KQED, ISKME, and the Exploratorium launched the Science, Literacy, Arts iNtegration in the Twenty-first century (SLANT) Summer Institute for Pre-k through 8th Grade Teachers to explore and investigate science and art integration. Participants received resources to use in the classroom and on field trips as they plan lessons with grade level colleagues.

New York City in the 1860s was a mess: crowded, disgusting, filled with garbage. You see, way back in 1860, there were no subways, just cobblestone streets. That is, until Alfred Ely Beach had the idea for a fan-powered train that would travel underground. On February 26, 1870, after fifty-eight days of drilling and painting and plastering, Beach unveiled his masterpiece—and throngs of visitors took turns swooshing down the track. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Think about the way most people in your community travel. Invent a new way of traveling around your community that takes into account the following: helpful to the community, economical to those who use it, convenient for users. What would your new travel system look like? Sketch a new design, and then create a physical prototype of the new design to scale. Keep in mind: Where the system travels, how it is powered, why it is helpful to the community, and any features that make it special.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

As students are becoming more exposed to computers/laptops and beginning to learn proper finger placement on the keys a cardboard replica is a great way to reinforce this information when students are away from the real item.