In honor of Mother’s Day on Sunday, this week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series features the ultimate scientists and engineers, MOMS! You might not have a fancy degree or work for a big biotechnology company, but you are more of an inventor than you think.
We know that our kids watch and learn from us everyday, but have you stopped to think how you teach them STEM activities? Baking chocolate chip cookies together…well that’s chemistry. Building the perfect pillow fort…now you’re a civil engineer. Flying paper airplanes…that’s aerospace engineering. Putting together that perfect toy or LEGO set they just had to have…hello mechanical engineering.
Many parents who aren’t formally trained in STEM fields feel unequipped to teach their daughters about science and engineering. This is especially true for moms. But by tying basic science and engineering ideas into everyday activities, you can build your daughter’s confidence and interest in STEM. This starts by having confidence in your own abilities! Next time you bake cookies together, talk about how the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) reacts with the acidic ingredients like brown sugar or cocoa powder in the batter to create pockets of air. This makes your cookies puff up while they bake. See – you’re a chemist!
So on this Mother’s Day, we celebrate the engineer and scientist in all of us. We believe that ALL MOMS can STEM Like a Girl!