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.

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.

This guide provides insight into the unlimited potential of using the BrainPad Pulse for coding robotics, games, and circuits. BrainPad works for classrooms, after-school clubs, or summer camps. The information contained within will help beginners to those already well-versed in MakeCode. It starts with the basics in a user-friendly way, allowing you to progress at your own pace and try new things as you advance your coding knowledge.

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.

Students gain an understanding of the parts of a plant, plant types and how they produce their own food from sunlight through photosynthesis. They also learn about transpiration, the process by which plants release moisture to the atmosphere. With this understanding, students test the effects of photosynthesis and transpiration by growing a plant from seed. They learn how plants play an important part in maintaining a balanced environment in which the living organisms of the Earth survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their evolving understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.

Building on their understanding of graphs, students are introduced to random processes on networks. They walk through an illustrative example to see how a random process can be used to represent the spread of an infectious disease, such as the flu, on a social network of students. This demonstrates how scientists and engineers use mathematics to model and simulate random processes on complex networks. Topics covered include random processes and modeling disease spread, specifically the SIR (susceptible, infectious, resistant) model.

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.  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.  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 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.  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.