Read Across the Ocean -- Virtual Storytime for the Students at Kiwimbi School in Kenya

 

Carol reads EarthDance by Joanne Ryder to the students of Kiwimbi School Kenya. If you want to have a reading that shows close ups of the book, you can find it here.

Possible follow ups:

Book: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer – the true story of a boy from Malawi, who, when a drought threatened his village, used books found in a library to learn to build a windmill from scraps. Read Aloud : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieSIhow18kU

Kids can make their own pinwheels - directions You can meet him "in person" here: Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba story 6 min. interview His first TED Talk (2009) William KamKwamba: How I harnessed the wind Updated with TED Talk (2018) (after he studied engineering at Dartmouth University!!) Catching up with inventor William Kamkwamba | William Kamkwamba Interview with Chris Anderson (Also now a full-length Netflix film: "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/03/incredible-adventures-boy-who-harnessed.html – has more ideas for this title. Another innovative real-life solution to a problem of lack of power:

The Soccket, an energy-generating soccer ball that turns into a lamp

More books that celebrate African inventors:

Book: One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul tells how plastic bag trash was becoming a terrible problem in a village – even killing the goats – until a clever and enterprising woman and her friends figured out how to take this trash and make it into useful purses that could be sold for income. Reading with music available here Instructions to make them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r354rs7aYzI Related videos: Young woman is recycling plastic into building bricks: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/recycling-plastic-waste-to-make-bricks-that-are-stronger-than-concrete https://mymodernmet.com/gjenge-makers-recycled-plastic-bricks/

Book: Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams tells the story of a young child who uses scraps of wire to create his own toy. Reading Rainbow: Galimoto book starts around 2:50.

Book: Masai and I by Virginia Kroll offers a child's perspective comparing the daily lives of a child in a U.S. city and a Maasai child in Kenya. Musical reading

Book: 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy Maasai tribal members, after hearing the story of the September 11th attacks from a young Massai who was in New York on that day, decide to present the American people with fourteen sacred cows as a healing gift. Reading Author interview: My favorite follow up is Tom Chapin's beautiful song "This Pretty Planet" (with beautiful pictures) or Children doing it as a round with Tom Chapin Many more ideas -- and other books I could read -- are here: https://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/04/mothers-fathers-of-invention-if-at.html

Here are some of my favorite booklists from "What Do We Do All Day" 

INSPIRING PICTURE BOOKS:

These are picture book lists that will inspire kids to create, dream and spread kindness in their community.

• Books to Inspire Kids to Change the World 
• Books to Teach Kindness
• Books to Inspire Kids to Follow Their Dreams
• Books to Inspire Artistic Creativity
• Books to Inspire Inventors and Engineers
• Picture books about the Theater
• Books Celebrating Screen-Free Life
• Funny Picture Books
• Books about Trying New Things
• Picture Books about Peace
• Growth Mindset Picture Books
• Picture Books about Observation and Perspective
• Nature Picture Books
• Books about New Beginnings

PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT INTEGRITY & EMOTIONS:

• Picture Books that Teach Meaningful Values
• Picture Books to Support Emotional Intelligence
• Picture Books about Mindfulness and Meditation
• Books that Teach Empathy
• Books about Anger, Frustration and General Crankiness
• Books about Fear and Courage
• Picture Books about Perseverance and Determination
• Children’s Books about Happiness
• Picture Books about Lying and Honesty
• Picture Books to Teach Responsible Citizenship
• Picture Books about Friendship
• Picture Books about Communities Coming Together 
  • Picture books about global social justice
  • Picture Books about Refugees
  • 30 Days of Diverse Picture Books for K-1st Grade
  • 30 days of diverse books for 2nd and 3rd grade
  • Picture Books about Diversity and Multiculturalism
  • Read Your Way Around the World: 50 books set in different countries

School Age Storytime “Mothers of Invention”

 

A K-3 storytime emphasizing pioneering women inventors and the challenges they faced. Opened with a discussion of the phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention”

In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps it Up by Monica Kulling – the story of the 19th century “Lady Edison” (also discussed NJ’s own Thomas Edison) Knight, eventual holder of twenty patents, fought discrimination and proved that she was just as intelligent an inventor as a man.

Action: Hi, My Name is Joe & I Work in a Button Factory – Left/Right reminders, get the wiggles out!

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay & The Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul – showed the pictures and summarized this true story of a woman who had the idea of turning the mountains of discarded plastic bags plaguing her village into crocheted purses.

Imaginative Inventions by Charise Mericle Harper (poems about inventions – shared the Frisbee poem – another example of reuse, though eventually became plastic!)

Ada’s Ideas by Fiona Robinson – showed the pictures and summarized the story of the world’s first computer programmer.

Additional wonderful books featuring the women profiled above – great for “compare & contrast”:

Spic-And-Span! Lillian Gilbreth’s Wonder Kitchen by Monica Kulling --the story of the world's first female industrial engineer & efficiency expert and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

 

Closed with two books celebrating imagination, creativity & girl power (with a nod back to the paper bag we started with):

If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen – a kid imagines a truly spectacular house (I encouraged kids to design their own imaginative rooms) -- and The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch – a princess outsmarts the dragon holding her fiance prisoner then decides the shallow prince is not worth marrying.

Another wonderful empowered princess –Princess Atalanta from “Free To Be You and Me” – check  out the Youtube video HERE.

If you want to get your kids involved in inventing & constructing, you might want to do a “Cardboard Challenge” inspired by Caine’s Arcade – details at: http://cainesarcade.com,
http://cardboardchallenge.com/ and 2017: http://imagination.org/our-projects/cardboard-challenge/

Bedm 3/2017

For more women’s history programs, check out: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/03/just-bag-it-ages-5-10-well-share-story.html
http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/04/mothers-fathers-of-invention-if-at.html
http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search?q=women%27s+history

Other ideas: https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2021/12/homeschool-book-club-activities/

On Your Mark, Get Set...Engineer! What is Engineering?

What is Engineering? (Ages 7-11)

Join Civil Engineer Carrie Feuer P.E. as we explore what things around us are engineered and brainstorm/prototype our own inventions!

As kids are arriving, display non-fiction, biography, picture book & fiction books on engineering & inventions – optional read one to the early arrivals. 609s, 620s, plus Dotty Inventions (and Some Real Ones Too) – Roger McGough (J609 MCG),  Rosie Revere, Engineer - Andrea Beaty (& her Iggy Peck, Architect), The Most Magnificent Thing – Ashley Spires, If I Built a Car / House – Chris Van Dusen, Hooray for Inventors – Marcia Williams (609.22 WIL) (graphic novel), So You Want to Be an Inventor – 608 St. George, Girls Think of Everything– Catherine Thimmesh (609.2 THI),  Imaginative Inventions 609 HAR, Incredible Inventions: Poems 811.008 INC,11 Experiments that Failed – Jenny Offill, You Choose (JFic You) series.

Biographies about: Elijah McCoy (The Real McCoy, All Aboard), Edison, Jacques Cousteau, Leonardo Da Vinci, Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein, It’s a Snap: George Eastman’s First Photograph, The Man Who Made Time Travel – Lasky (JB Harrison), Earmuffs for Everyone: How Chester Greenwood became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs – Meghan McCarthy, Spic-and-Span: Lillian Gilbreath’s Wonder Kitchen – Monica Kulling,  Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World - Elizabeth Rusch,  In the Bag: Margaret Knight Wraps Its Up -- Monica Kulling, The (Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer, Ben Franklin’s Big Splash – Barb Rosenstock

Opened by asking: What is engineering?  What is an engineer?  What do engineers do? Do they know any engineers.

Carrie Feuer pulled out some manufactured objects and asked – is this engineered?     What do engineers look like? – share some non-stereotypical pictures (at bottom of this program plan).

“Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been.” --Theodore van Karman, physicist and NASA aerospace engineer

Explore the Engineering Design Process:

http://www.dowlingmagnets.com/science/magnet_kits/

 

https://girlstartblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/design-process/

Group the kids into teams (<= 4 people) – challenge: “design and build a device that will slow the descent (define) of an object”  (The original SciGirls resources used the word “parachute” but the scigirls training suggested making it a more open-ended challenge – the directions below have been modified to reflect that.)   

Before they start designing -- Ask – why would you need something like this? (SciGirls research discovered that girls particularly like to think about reasons for tech) Possible answers: people jumping out of airplanes, humanitarian delivery of food or medicine to places that a plane can’t land, escape from a tall building…

 

Parachute Parade www.pbs.org/parents/scigirls/activities/parachute-parade/

Materials

• Several items from this list: plastic wrap, tissues, paper towels, plastic bags, tissue paper, coffee filters, handkerchiefs, straws 
• 1 toy minifigure (Lego, for example)
• string or thread or yarn
• scissors
• tape
• paper and pencil
• optional: stopwatch

Directions

1. Your challenge is to make something that will slow the descent of a toy minifigure  (You can work in groups of up to 4 people). 
2. Take a few minutes to brainstorm designs before beginning.
3. Then we’ll test them and see how they work.  We’ll see which design helps our Lego guy/gal to fall the slowest (has the most drag).
4. We can make a prediction before testing. (Stand on a chair and use a stopwatch to time each descent and/or hold two at the same height and drop them at the same time – which has the most drag?)
5. Look at your results. Was your prediction correct? Why did one minifigure descend slower than another?

See More Tips in the PDF

More info at scigirlsconnect.org/

 

http://www.slideshare.net/chelseafowler399/women-in-engineering-majors

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3299632/Cyber-sexism-hits-female-engineers-Women-roles-profession-stereotypes-portraying-job-boys.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/education/stem-awards/12005798/tackling-engineering-stereotypes.html  http://girltalkhq.com/breaking-stereotypes-mona-shindy-is-australias-first-muslim-navy-captain-engineer/

https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/gettyimages-554996413.jpg?w=1024   http://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/theengineer/prod/content/uploads/2014/10/20080000/Roma_Agrawal_Shard_2-752x500.jpg

more at:  http://www.goodnet.org/articles/this-what-engineer-looks-like 

additional pictures of an unconventional mechanical engineer – Lyra Levin, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Megabots.com – building a 15ft high robot & hanging from one of its arms…

and at Burning Man 2015 building a musical Tesla coil:

More Pix at https://www.facebook.com/coupdefoudre2014

7.2016 BWL

Next time: Water Water Everywhere & Not a Drop to Drink! (Ages 7-11)

Join Civil Engineer Carrie Feuer P.E.  as we do hands-on explorations of how water goes from dirty to clean.

SRC: Unsung Community Heroes: Roads and Bridges and Playgrounds, Oh My!

Unsung Community Heroes : Roads and Bridges and Playgrounds oh my! – Come meet some of the people who design and build our buildings, bridges and roads, parks and playgrounds then help us build structures, create a Lego town, experiment with bridge construction, and draw a mural of what kids would put in a park if they had the chance!  

Music playing People in our Neighborhood 730 RONNO (as kids arrive and during activities later)

As kids arrive, they  browsed fiction and non-fiction books about roads and bridges and cities and such (list below*).
 
Read:  Roadwork by Sally Sutton (optional – sing to “Row Row Row Your Boat”) followed by  Tip, Tip, Dig, Dig by Emma Garcia (Younger group)
Read: Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty  followed by Superhero by Marc Tauss (Older group)
Movement Activity: People in our Neighborhood 730 RONNO (HIL) #5 “Community Helper Hop” for younger group only.
Introduced Carl Andreassen and Kelly Major from the Somerset County Engineering Dept. who talked about bridges and materials, showing pictures and models of different types (including one that had broken when an overloaded truck attempted to drive across.)

Engineer Carl explaining strength of materials “Who can break the wood stick?”

Using rope and kids to demonstrate a suspension bridge:


Stations:
Up close to bridges – experimenting with arch bridge models(owned by Somerset County)

Paper bridge challenge (8.5x11 paper, paper clips, ruler, masking tape (to mark 7” wide space), books to use as end towers, lots of pennies) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/act_paper_ho.html

Lego town (Tan mural paper with roads laid out, boxes of Legos) – kids designed structures: homes, stores, schools, hospital, etc.)
 
Park/Playground mural: (Green mural paper, scrap paper, markers, scissors, glue) – Kids created what they’d like to have in a park. 

Free form building using Straws and Connectors sets.

Tower Challenge (straws, paper clips, pipe cleaners, golf balls) - See how tall you can build your structure using straws, paper clips, and pipe cleaners and still be able to balance a golf ball on top. http://tryengineering.org/lessons/tower.pdf (only offered to the older session)
*Other books to display/booktalk (thanks to PUBYAC librarians for some of these suggestions!): Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson Big Red Bus by Judy Hindley (a bus that gets stuck in a pot hole blocking traffic and then the road guys show up to make the repairs so traffic can move again), Dreaming Up: a Celebration of Building by Christy Hale (I used it here:  http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/12/whats-knext.html), Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore (ducklings in a storm drain are rescued by community helpers), Beneath the bridge by Hazel Hutchins (shows the travels of a paper boat through all sorts of landscapes--rural to urban), Curious George & the Dump Truck  (dump truck is being used to byworkers to make the park better for people, but Curious George "made
the park better for ducks too."), Mirror by Jeanne Baker (parallel wordless texts show two boys and their families In Sydney, Australia, and in Morocco have a day of shopping in two wordless stories that are intended to be read one from left to right and the other from right to left --  adds a multi-cultural element), A Street in Time by Anne Millard and A City in Time  by Phillip Steele,  If You Lived Here by Giles Laroche (collage spreads of dwellings in other world regions and historical times to explain how different people live and have lived, from a village house in South Africa to a floating green house in the Netherlands.) Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus (Winners 2017)
See also: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Bridge-Building
8/4/2015