Welcome to the first episode of STEM Chat! This is a new monthly video series co-hosted by Diana Eng and me that’s focused on ideas, projects and discussion for all things STEM for kids.

Just to give you a brief introduction: I’ve been here on Adafruit blogging periodically about STEM and kids over the last few years. My background has been 25+ years in design and technology where I have written a few books on HTML and web design. (Phil Torrone and I go way back to the late 90’s when we were working in the web design/development world.) My last job was with Maker Media/Maker Faire where I was the Editor in Chief at CRAFT magazine. It was through working there that I met Diana Eng, the fashion designer who came on the scene of Project Runway season 2 (2005) and blew my mind with her amazing designs.

Diana has been one of the leading people in the maker/hacker space and is a founding member of the hacker group, NYC Resistor. (You can read one of Adafruit’s previous profiles on Diana Eng here for Ada Lovelace Day.)  We have a common love of design and tech and became fast friends. Our friendship grew even more after we had our kids and we started to keep each other up to date on interesting books, projects or toys related to STEM because good things were hard to find. All of which has now lead us to this new video series, STEM Chat. We hope it’s a helpful resource during this pandemic while all of us parents are juggling with the kids at home for remote learning or home schooling.

Our first episode of STEM Chat talks about how kids learn through play. We showcase some projects we have been doing with our kids over the summer during quarantine, from discovering new plants to rock hounding.  All the items we talk about are linked in the You Tube page for the video.

Here’s are time stamps:

0:16 Intro

2:33 Blocks

7:22 Toy Rotation

9:12 Activities at Home (origami, Blockus game, Harry Potter 3D puzzle)

11:14 Nature Walks & Journal

13:42 Rock Hounding

18:36 Favorite Things

Our next episode of STEM Chat will cover math and paper geometry.

Please feel free to leave a comment if there’s a topic of particular interest to you that you would like us to cover in future episodes or if you have made some of the projects from this first episode.