The #InspirationSTEM was launched in 2021 on the International Day of the Girl Child, to celebrate girls and science. This campaign is designed to celebrate and support young girls to pursue S.T.E.M. education and careers — including those focused on aviation and space.
Why the Sky? We want to inspire, encourage the imagination, and ignite the curiosity of young women to use S.T.E.M. to realize they are unbounded by the gravity of normal expectations and to be able to soar to wherever their dreams will take them.
This collection of material highlights existing content (e.g, books, graphics) on girls interested in aviation and space, as well as features role models and other activities. We invite others who have other ideas and resources to share (e.g, content, financial, technical) for #InspirationSTEM to contact us at medalliance@meducationalliance.org.
Featured #InspirationSTEM Highlights
Imagine
Check-out these fun space and aviation themed books below.
Do you have a new site and/or title to add to the collection below? Maybe you’ve created your own title using software such as Bloom Library’s Reader app. If you do have a space or aviation themed book, please let us know and we may feature it on this page.
Luciana, Braving the Deep
Luciana is over the moon: she is going to astronaut training camp! Her first mission is to grow hydroponic vegetables with a partner. But when she gets paired up with Claire, who seems to think she is the center of the universe, Luci is not so sure their project will take root. Can Luciana find a way to work with Claire? If wants to be the first astronaut on Mars someday, she will have to learn to be a good team player here on Earth.
Read by: Serena Auñón-Chancellor
Story Time from Space is a project of the Global Space Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education foundation that sends children’s books to the International Space Station. While in space, astronauts videotape themselves reading these books to the children of Earth. These videos are then edited and placed on this Story Time From Space website for anyone to access.
We are Not Alone
This story is about a young girl named Sara who is flying through space, but a close collision with another rocket leaves her confused on what direction is home. She lands on what she thinks her home planet only to discover she has landed on Earth. She meets another young girl who helps devise a plan to get Sara home. You can find the Arabic version HERE on 3Asafeer.
McLeod Tastes the Clouds
McLeod is determined to soar like the birds and ingeniously uses their electric wheelchair to take flight! This book demonstrates that aviation and reaching the sky is not beyond anyone’s reach.
3Asafeer is a platform that relies on the latest research and studies in the field of Arabic language education to combine the distinguished creative content of children with useful resources for teachers to help all their students succeed in developing their education. The diversity of content and the multiplicity of levels of books, accompanied by an adequate amount of activities and worksheets, opens a horizon for every teacher who seeks to raise a generation of distinguished readers and writers. Content from 3Asafeer in other languages other than Arabic can be found on the Global Digital Library.
Gul in Space
What would you like to do on your birthday? How about taking a walk in OUTER SPACE! Here is a story that will make you jump with joy… and if there is no gravity under you, you might just stay exactly where you are! Get ready to explore the space with Astronaut Gul.
Mangalyaan: A Journey to Mars
Hop aboard the spaceship called Mangalyaan. Our destination is Mars. We will fly past the Moon and journey to the other side of the Sun. Let’s go.
Star’s Dream
Easy reader about a Mayan girl who is interested in space and wants to become an astronaut. This book is available in both Spanish and Q’eqchi’ and can be contributed to the work of Juarez & Associates and the Ministry of Education in Guatemala. For more information checkout this blog post and can find more read materials on this bookshelf or in this “Inspiring Guatemalan Women” series.
SIL International’s Bloom Library holds over 5000 books that these language communities can download to translate into their own languages. Bloom is software that facilitates translating the book into their own language, recording an audio reading of the book and then publishing the books in various print and digital forms. Bloom Reader is a smartphone app that allows language communities to download the talking books that Bloom creates and it highlights the text as the reader listens to facilitate learning to read.
Grace in Space
Grace is a young girl with a disability who is fascinated by space. She ends up traveling with her uncle to space and returns years later. This story is written by Syrian poet and children’s author Obai Al-Alloush and illustrated by Sara Wafeeq.
Grace in Space has received additional attention in an article from All Children Reading and a press release from USAID.
The Global Digital Library (GDL) was developed to increase the availability of high-quality reading resources—reading instruction books and storybooks for leisure reading—in languages children use and understand. It is an open-source library for schools and school systems, donor agencies and their partners, publishers, digital distributors and content providers, parents, and children
The Expeditions of Tiwi and Boni
Tiwi and her dog, Boni, are in a hurry to find Boni’s favorite planet. Join them on their expedition as they launch their own spaceship, fight off a giant monster, and search through space to find the missing planet.
The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read initiative nurtures reading habits that enable children to reach important developmental milestones, families to share stories that affirm their culture, and communities to flourish and grow inclusively.
The Magic of Mangroves – New Book Trailer and Crowdfunding Campaign
From birds to kites and airplanes, kids have always marveled at all that flies. They’ll also marvel at Ariel, a small but sturdy flying robot who connects her flying friends with diverse local communities to solve real-world problems. These connections take Ariel on new adventures across the globe, where real, local experts are working on real social good projects with actual flying robots.
We Robotics is a non-profit that looks to make technology accessible and address the pressing challenges affecting various populations’ livelihoods. Their Flying Labs have become more actively engaged in Youth Robotics activities, one of them being this new book. The Magic of Mangroves is their first book is based on a real project led by Panama Flying Labs. You can learn more about the book on their Kickstarter page and on the Flying Labs website. There you’ll also learn about the next 2 books in the series, which are based on projects led by Nepal Flying Labs and Senegal Flying Labs.
About the Author: Ken Wilson-Max is an award-winning author, illustrator, and publisher of children’s books. He was born in Zimbabwe and lives in London. You can learn more about him and his work HERE.
The stars are the limit for a little girl who acts out her wish to be an astronaut — inspired by a very special person.
Astrid has loved the stars and space for as long as she can remember. “I want to be an astronaut!” she says to everyone who will listen. While her mama is away, Astrid and her papa have fun acting out the challenges an astronaut faces on a space mission — like being in zero gravity (“I can do that all day long!” she says), eating food from a kind of tube, and doing science experiments with the help of cookie sheets. When at last it’s time to meet Mama at the air base, Astrid wears her favorite space T-shirt to greet her. But where exactly has Mama been? Channeling a sense of childlike delight, Ken Wilson-Max brings space travel up close for young readers and offers an inspiring ending.
Inspire
Interviews and features with thought-leaders and role models.
Interview with NASA Space Station Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir
Astronaut Jessica Meir is now set to fly to the International Space Station for the first time in September, and Christina Koch, who is currently in space, has her stay onboard extended to an expected record-setting flight of 328 days. The two astronauts, who trained together as part of the same class, shared thoughts on the news during a conversation between the space station and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Source: NASA
Million Girls Moonshot: Meeting the Artemis Generation
The STEM Next Opportunity Fund, Million Girls Moonshot and NASA are collaborating with the Afterschool Alliance to provide afterschool youth with an out-of-this-world Lights On Afterschool celebration. As a part of that launch in 2020, they hosted an interview with Jasmin Moghbeli who answered questions sent in by afterschool students and talking about the Artemis program. (Video starts at 23:21)
Source: NASA
Trailblazing Women in the African Drone Industry – Chat with Anne Nderitu
Anne Nderitu is the Chief Operating Officer, Kenya Flying Labs and a Top Level 2 certified drone operator. She is the first female fixed-wing drone pilot in Kenya who has worked on various drone projects. In this interview she is asked a variety of questions, including about opportunities for girls and women in the field.
Source: Women and Drones – Africa Chapter
And checkout the work that Women and Drones is doing in STEM to inspire the next generation of drone operators! You can find a variety of activities HERE.
Inspiring the next generation of space enthusiasts in Zimbabwe
Ruvimbo Samanga never thought her passion for law and love of space could combine into one career. Now, she’s using her experience to inspire kids in Zimbabwe to reach for the stars. You can find the video interview HERE.
Source: CNN
See our inaugural interview with Dr. Anita Antwiwaa, Head of Department for Electronics and Communication Engineering at the All Nations University Ghana and the Head of Operations for All Nations University Space Systems Technology Laboratory-Ghana. Read the full interview HERE.
Want to support the #InspirationSTEM campaign?
We welcome content, technical, and financial contributions from other collaborators. Please contact us at medalliance@
And be sure to check out our other Signature Activities, particularly Math Power! and Literacy League. Partners from both these activities are assisting with the #InspirationSTEM Campaign and we could not do it without them!
