While I wrote my book for young children, ages 4-10, I am delighted with the warm reception my book is receiving from other audiences.

Many young women in high school are attracted to my book.  A high school counselor at an all-girl high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, added ABC’s to his career guidance booklist and we are all surprised by how many times the girls request to read and re-read ABC’s.

Adults, especially ones not related to the engineering field, as well have let me know how much they enjoy the book.  I’ve had a number of octogenarians comment that they learned something new from the book.  “I didn’t know that!” is a proclamation I hear often from adults!  And I love that!  I spent many research hours on my book and learned some very interesting things along the way.  I really wanted to include some of those interesting bits in my book and am so happy other adults are finding them interesting too!

Share with me – what surprising bit did you learn from my book?

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, Engineering the ABC’s makes a wonderful teacher or classroom gift.  And for a limited time, you can purchase personalized copies with FREE Shipping. Just click on either the title or the word “purchase” to reserve your copies today!

Some ways Engineering the ABC’s can be used in the elementary classroom are:

• Colorful, large pictures with independent blocks of text make the book a versatile read-aloud book for Preschool-3rd grade

• “Let’s Discover” math/history questions & cultural trivia bits extend the learning beyond English &Language Arts

• Math/History questions & cultural trivia bits offer text to self and text to world connections

• Wide range of topics makes ABC’s well suited for further reading and deeper research projects

• Powerful text to world/self connections when used in combination with hands-on engineering activities

Photo courtesy of Society of Women Engineers

A few weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Inkster Public Schools for their Literacy Night.  I was asked to say a few words and I ended my brief 5 minute speech with “Engineering is for Everybody and Anybody.”

After my speech, two 4th grade girls came over to see me.  They said “We liked what you said in your speech, your words were very inspiring.”

I replied enthusiastically, “you did?! I’m so happy!  Was there one part in particular that you liked the most?”

And one of the girls replied, “the part at the end where you said ‘Engineering is for everybody and anybody.’  Did you mean that?”

Deeply moved, I replied quietly, “oh yes!” and went on to show these some of the items engineers work on.

Six words – sometimes that’s all it takes to inspire a whole new path in a young person’s life.

How about you?  Were you aware that engineering is for everybody and anybody?

As I typed the title of this blog post, my heart started beating harder and my anxiety level rose – all because of a blog entry?

Yes, because of a blog entry.  I’ve been thinking about writing this post for some time, but wanted to be careful crafting my words.  I want my message to be heard and the title could cause some teachers to immediately dismiss anything more I have to say.

But this post needs to be written because teachers do have such a profound impact on their students.  And because they are such caring, nurturing humans.  And because they may actually want to hear what I have to say.  And because they may not realize the results of their subconscious actions.

I celebrate the elementary teacher who brings engineering into the elementary classroom.  However, I have observed many more elementary teachers shy away from bringing engineering into their classroom.  Why is that?  Especially when presented with a colorful book about engineering – reading the book and giving students ample opportunity to browse the book at their leisure sounds fairly easy to me.

I’ve observed many a teacher purchase armloads of children’s books – many with pink covers and cute little girls on the front or all types of animal books.  How many animal books does 1 classroom truly need?  What I did not see in these bagfuls were children’s engineering books.

Granted, there aren’t many elementary engineering books widely available, but these bags of books were being purchased at a Reading conference I attended this weekend where my children’s engineering book was available.

“Oh, just an author cranky about book sales,” you may dismiss, but for me it is about so much more than book sales.

For me, it is about creating awareness of the engineer’s impact on our everyday world.  For me, it is about starting very young creating that awareness.  For me, it is about working with elementary teachers to expand their classroom book collections – bringing the world to their students.

Bringing awareness of engineering into the elementary classroom can be achieved with fairly minimal effort, then why isn’t it happening more?

Photo from Print Artist Gold

As parents, most of us love our daughters dearly and want to see them shine throughout their lives.  As an engineer and author who has had the opportunity to recently speak with many parents and daughters, sometimes together, sometimes separate, I’m hearing and seeing a very disturbing phenomena.  I’m hearing and seeing parents – often without realizing it – hold their daughters back from their fullest potential.

Perhaps you hear yourself in this example:

One young woman, age 10 or 11 years, told me how her dad never lets her help with projects around the house even though she really wants to help.  Maybe the dad thinks he can do the job quicker without her “help” or maybe that she would be more in the way than “helping.”  I never met her dad, so I do not know.  What I do know though, is that this young woman told me her story while she voluntarily fixed my Rubik’s cube that a young boy left for broken just minutes before.  Perhaps if her dad could have seen how deftly she fixed that Rubik’s cube, he might find his home fix-ups finish quicker with his daughter’s help!

Or maybe you see yourself in this example:

MSNBC.com recently featured an article about how “Societal values, not aptitude, may be turning” girls away from the sciences.  In the article titled “Tech industry searching for girls gone geek,” reporter Eve Tahminicioglu quotes a young college woman whose mother was not happy with her choice of computer science major – “she said I’d never find a boyfriend.”  The young woman is only 22.  Societal values can still be quite shocking even in the 21^st century.

Or are you possibly in this example?:

“Oh, my son would love this book” when the daughter is the one who came to my table and started looking at the book.  I’m certain these parents mean no harm and are even doing a wonderful gesture by thinking of their son.  I just want them to think of their daughter, too.  Already in 3 months or so of book signings and presentations, I’ve seen an incredible number of young girls with disappointed looks as they walk away from my table with the book for their brother.

At the same time, I have seen many celebratory comments and actions from parents – “I definitely want you to talk to my daughter’s girl scout troop;” or inviting me into their daughter’s preschool class in honor of her birthday; or purchasing one book personalized just for their daughter and another book personalized for their son.  Engineers are not born, they are inspired.  Your daughter can be inspired too.

Parents, please share this with other parents – awareness is the first step towards change.

Look for my blog next week –“How Teachers are holding their students back”

Recently, I was invited to Pooh Corner preschool in Saline, MI for a book reading.   I had such a fun time and was amazed with how attentive the preschoolers were during my presentation.

Many teachers and parents think preschool is too young to introduce engineering concepts, but 4 and 5 years of age is the ideal time.   Engineering is so much more than a career choice, it is a field of study unto its own.   Engineering integrates reading, writing, math and science with higher order critical thinking skills and hands-on learning.   Isn’t that our idea of a perfect school curriculum?

Visit my website today to learn more!

Looking for some unique children’s books to those special young people in your lives?  Looking for a way to give back to the community by donating books to a local school or library?  Then visit Virtual Children’s Book Fair!

At the Book Fair, you can find a variety of delightful Children’s picture books as well as special giveaways for this weekend only.  Some of the giveaways include a clay pot filled with strawberry flavored gummy worms (yum!) or part of the proceeds from each book donated to a literacy non-profit.

Visit the Fair and check out these captivating picture books ideal for children ages 4-10, yet all ages are sure to enjoy!

The Tale of Eartha the Sea Turtle

Who I am Not What I am

100% Real

Engineering the ABC’s

The Little Pot

The One and Only Bernadette P. McMullen

and  Janoose the Goose

Enjoy your new treasures!

I am proud to be a part of the Premier event for the Virtual Children’s Book Fair, Feb. 26-28, 2010.   11 books, 9 authors from around the country.  All the books are children or young adult genres.

Each author is offering a special giveaway and/or special pricing and/or free shipping for this wonderful history in the making event.   Most books can be personalized too, if desired.

From the comfort of your home and computer, you can browse and purchase online by visiting the fair website at Virtual Children’s Book Fair

Share with me – what’s on your book wish list?

Wow – I’m so excited to share my very 1st book trailer video with you!  I had so much fun working on this video over the weekend, I didn’t even watch the Super Bowl :0!

I used Animoto.com – a wonderful, FREE online tool for creating 30 second videos from still images or short video clips.   I captured images from my book, pasted them into Powerpoint, added some fun text, then saved them as a jpg file.

In Animoto, I uploaded my jpg files, picked a song from their music collection and I was done.   Anna joined me in playing around with some of the editing features.   Animoto even makes it easy to share videos on Facebook, Twitter and by email or export the video to your YouTube channel.

The service is free for 30 second videos or you can pay a yearly fee for upgraded service which allows longer videos, higher video quality, and some added features.

Could be a lot of fun for class projects, especially  in the early elementary years where the editing of a 30-second video is just the right project length.  Just remember to mention in class that engineers had a part in bringing these videos to life.   From developing and writing the Ruby on Rails software base to helping grow the Artificial Intelligence community to designing the massive internet infrastructure (the only way to access Animoto), engineering played a major role.

Have you used Animoto?  What types of projects have you completed?

At a time when many local Metro Detroit schools are faced with massive budget reductions, one school received a mid-year gift.  With a generous grant from the Detroit Section of the Society of Women Engineers, I donated 44 copies of my children’s book, “Engineering the ABC’s” to Dearborn Public Schools last week.

Dearborn Public Schools was selected to receive books because they have a high rate (~35%) of English Language Learners – one of the highest percentages in the nation. The District is implementing some unique programs to enhance the learning of all their students, including integrating Arabic reading and writing into their curriculum.

I delivered books to Associate Superintendent, NormaJean Sass, who was very excited to meet the author of the donated books!  We talked for a bit about the importance of introducing engineering to children at a young age and some ways the book can be used in the classroom.  I was delighted to discover that Ms. Sass’ daughter is an engineer with Barton Mallow Construction.

Three other schools are slated to receive books over the next few months for a total of 150 donated books.  Way to go SWE-Detroit!