With our book recommendations, we want to help you spark a conversation that leads children to discover STEM in their everyday lives. Have the courage to go beyond the obvious STEM connections and embrace all questions that may come out of your discussion with the children.
Baby Business invites the reader to a smoking ceremony that connects a newborn to Country. In the story, the baby’s totem is the bee, and you could explore other common totems in Indigenous cultures, such as sea eagles, pelicans, reptiles, sharks, crocodiles or fish.
Last week, we celebrated CBCA Book Week 2020 by posting our most popular STEM literacy links. Join us now for a very special book reading demonstrating how you can use books in your service to spot the STEM in the everyday.
A perfect book to spy with your little eyes! Rich in illustrations and full of wonder, it takes the children from fairy tale to fairy tale and invites them to spot nursery rhyme characters…
There are suggestions that the 2020 magpie swooping season may be more stressful for both magpies and humans in Victoria as the birds struggle to recognise people wearing face masks! How can technology help humans and animals to live together?
Whist dealing with problems is an important topic in general, it is also a central topic in technology education. While designing a production process, building a vehicle or setting up an exciting obstacle course, many problems must be identified and tackled. Seeing each of these as an opportunity is a good mindset for the young engineers in your care…
Go beyond the obvious STEM-relevant counting backwards from ten. There is a wealth of discussion points in this story, such as different weather phenomena and dangerous animals at sea. You can look into cause and venture into the world of acoustics by creating some of the sound effects from the story…
The story is a wonderful demonstration of cause and effect and the relationship between events. It is also a great starting point to explore the fundamental method of problem-solving – trial and error…
This is the colourful story of Mr Seahorse, who takes good care of the eggs that Mrs Seahorse has laid in his pouch. The children may find parallels not only with their parents’ love and guidance but also with the support they receive from their educators and the trust in their abilities that the children experience in their daily lives.
The baby in this story grows ridiculously strong from eating avocados, so much so that he can fight off burglars and move furniture around. Discuss some of the topics touched on by the story. What makes you strong? What can and can’t babies do? Do certain types of food make you strong?…
Celebrating difference and reminding us that we are happiest in our own skin, this story can help strengthen children’s confidence and acceptance of differences and is also a great starting point to discuss the role of colour and camouflage in the animal world.