Blog & Activity Guides

Welcome to the STEM Family Blog and Activity Guides

We keep notes on our research, our work, and more resources here. It is for parents and teachers who want to learn more about STEM.
February 23, 2020

Recognize the Utility of Teaching Computational Thinking for Math and Computer Science Teachers

Introduce one of the computational thinking concepts which is the algorithm for high school students.
February 23, 2020

Computational Thinking Cards for Kids

Try seven computational thinking concepts and practices while utilizing unplugged activities cards.
January 11, 2020

Culturally Responsive Design Thinking with Python

Let your students explore Python while utilizing design thinking approach.
December 29, 2019

Algorithms Are the Same For All Programming Languages

Algorithms are the same for all programming languages. For example, This is the diagram to teach loops via unplugged activity, pseudocode, ScratchJr, Scratch, and Python. Learning […]
August 1, 2019

Design your own yogurt: Supplementing Python coding to foster computational thinking

Let your child enjoy learning RGB (Red, Green, Blue) while thinking computationally.
February 7, 2019

Coding is one of the key skills

  This article is from the New york Times about Hadi Partovi. He is the founder of Code.org and Hour of Code. We highly recommend parents to […]
January 21, 2019

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (April 19, 2016) Authors: Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths Are you […]
October 21, 2018

An Interview with Parents

We spoke one of the parents about their experiences in STEM Family.
January 21, 2018

What types of skills are needed to thrive in the future economy based on World Economic Forum?

what do parents want for their kids when it comes to Computer Science Education?
January 1, 2018

Future-Proofing Your Child for Success in the Coming Economy

Forbes’ contributor Tine Thygesen has a piece for parents: The One Thing You Need To Teach Your Children To Future-Proof Their Success. The world your children will […]
December 31, 2017

Learning about parents’ attitudes about STEM in the Searching for Computer Science report

what do parents want for their kids when it comes to Computer Science Education?
December 23, 2017

Little Ruby’s World: developing girls’ coding abilities and computational creativity

Coding can foster children’s ability to reason systematically, work collaboratively, and think creatively. If you have a young child, you might want to teach them how […]
December 22, 2017

Consumers versus Creators, Designers, and Makers: fostering Computational Creativity

Is your family one of consumers or of creators? This eye-opening video on Computational Creativity, from Professor Karen Brennan, explains why this difference matters so much […]
December 20, 2017

Experiment Library at Making Science Make Sense

The Bayer Project “Making Make Sense” has a wonderful online library of Science Experiments that parents can run at home with their kids. You can see cards […]
December 20, 2017

The National PTA’s At Home STEM resources

The National PTA has a page full of resources for parents and families to use — At Home: STEM. The National PTA’s page includes links to […]
December 12, 2017

Being a Design Thinking Parent

I studied design thinking intensively for the few years before I became a Mom, so I have been thinking of how to combine the two things: […]
December 4, 2017

Stanford ‘tips-by-text’ program helps boost literacy in preschoolers, study finds

One of our main inspirations is the Stanford ‘tips-by-text’ program that was designed both as a research project and a real-world intervention, to help boost literacy in […]
November 29, 2017

Parents are the ones to inspire children towards STEM

An article from the Association for Psychological Science, Want to Get Teens Interested in Math and Science? Target Their Parents presents research into how important families are to […]
November 25, 2017

Student designers in Singapore

Singapore has a group, Participate in Design, that encourages all kinds of people to become creative problem-solvers. This includes schoolchildren, whom they didn’t make just ‘recipients’ […]
November 21, 2017

Design Thinking for Educators

If you are education innovator, or if you are a parent who wants to learn from how expert teachers are learning how to facilitate their classrooms […]
November 20, 2017

Why we should be teaching kids Design Thinking

Fast Company Design has a piece profiling the importance of design in kids’ education, Teaching Kids Design Thinking, So They Can Solve The World’s Biggest Problems. […]
October 1, 2017

Parents have the biggest influence on kids’ interest in STEM

We’ve been reading through research on how kids decide to engage in STEM — and one of the big lessons is the role that parents and […]
September 19, 2017

Help your child become a computational thinker

Why should a parent care about computational thinking? It’s all about building your child’s capacity to solve problems — especially complex ones. It helps them be […]
September 18, 2017

How to build your creative confidence by Tom Kelley and David Kelley

David Kelley, founder of Stanford d.school and the leading design thinking consultancy IDEO and Tom Kelley, partner of IDEO and the author of The Ten Faces […]
September 18, 2017

Here’s why every child should learn to code

How can you get a child to be passionate about coding? One way is to show them how they can use it to express their intangible […]
September 18, 2017

Our first Concept Poster: What should STEM Family be?

As we have been planning out STEM Family, we’ve used a design process to figure out what to do, and for whom. We’ve made a lot […]
September 18, 2017

Let your little design thinkers design our future classroom

Based on this article, “Design Thinking and the Deskless Classroom”, design thinking provides authentic learning. This design approach and physical environment explored by The Third Teacher Book […]
August 8, 2017

The Official Scratch Jr. Book by Marina Umaschi Bers and Mitchel Resnick

The Official ScratchJr Book: Help Your Kids Learn to Code Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2015) Authors: Marina Umaschi Bers and Mitchel Resnick If you want […]