Future City is an engaging engineering competition for middle school students. It's one of the most affordable STEM team competitions around and has a low barrier to entry. I attended the Future City finals in Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago to provide social media coverage. I was impressed by what I learned and the people I met--students, teachers and engineers. It's a powerful STEM learning opportunity, especially this year! Yes, the ... [ Read More ]
Meet Sarah Mihm for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
On behalf of DiscoverE, sponsor of this post, I’m delighted to introduce you to Sarah Mihm, an engineering student at the University of Iowa. Sarah is spending this Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (Girl Day) on a boat-she’s studying abroad doing the Semester at Sea program. If she were on land, surely she’d once again spend it giving back to a program that helped inspire her course of study. DiscoverE's Introduce a Girl to Engineering ... [ Read More ]
Marbleocity DIY Roller Coaster Kit by Tinkineer
I wasn't able to attend the World Maker Faire in New York City, but at I did get to try one of the hot products that debuted there, Marbleocity. The folks at Tinkineer reached out the me to review their Mini Coaster (currently selling for $30 on Kickstarter). They had me at DIY marble roller coaster. My boys are teens now, but they when they were young, my little engineers loved making marble roller coasters and watching them in ... [ Read More ]
Candy Construction Challenge
The Candy Construction Challenge is what one of my friends refers to as a snacktivity. Snacktivities combine the best of all worlds: playing, learning, and eating. The Candy Construction Challenge is super easy and provides many ways to learn and play. And it's a fun way to prevent the summer slide. The idea is to have kids explore math and engineering concepts with toothpicks and candy. I'll share a few of my favorite ways to play. ... [ Read More ]
Inspiring Young Engineers: June #STEMchat Summary
Last week's #STEMchat on Inspiring the Engineer in Every Child was a rousing success. STEMchatters shared so many helpful insights, ideas and resources. I'll recap some of the highlights below. First I want to thank our sponsor, ThinkFun and our crack panel of makers and engineers. And I want to remind you that there's still time to enter the #KidsMakeIt Challenge sponsored by ThinkFun and MakerBot! Entries will be accepted through July 14, ... [ Read More ]
June #STEMchat on Engineering with ThinkFun
A few weeks ago, I told you that ThinkFun was doing something exciting and disruptive in the toy industry and today's the big day- the designs for their Maker Studio Construction Sets are now available for free on MakerBot's Thingiverse. Thingiverse is the world's largest 3D design community, offering digital designs for real-world objects. Thinkfun is celebrating with a #STEMchat on unleashing and inspiring the engineer in every ... [ Read More ]
Engineers Week Fun in Chicago
Engineers Week 2015 runs February 22-28. I already shared great ideas for celebrating at home, now I want to let local readers in on Engineers Week Chicago. We've got two big engineer fests in the area and because the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) is hosting their event on two different weekends, you can hit up both fests, providing your family with two STEM Saturdays in a row. Way to make it a year of wonder, right? In fact, help your ... [ Read More ]