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Autumn STEM Guide

Welcome to the Autumn 2022 edition of our seasonal STEM guides! It contains:

  • STEM related autumn events and themed days/weeks
  • Quick, easy website and activity suggestions for how to get involved (click on the pictures to find out more)
  • Autumnal STEM resource recommendations

Diaries at the ready! The events listed below are a really good way to help theme your STEM activities and help children to make real-world links. From mild weather to frosty starts, from darker evenings to colourful trees, Autumn has it all! Make the most of this time of transition with these STEM events.

National Coding Week (19-23rd September)

National Coding Week aims to build people’s confidence and digital skills through fun, engaging coding events. You can take part by learning to code. There are lots of great coding activities and games online to help you with this. Visit their website to get involved: https://codingweek.org/

How to get involved…

National Recycling Week (17-23rd October)

National Recycling Week to bring a national focus to the environmental benefits of recycling. Each year Recycle Week attempts to change people’s recycling behaviours while gaining positive publicity. It’s a great chance to raise awareness of the importance of recycling to children.

How to get involved…

Biology Week (1-9th October)

Biology Week showcases the important and amazing world of the biosciences, getting everyone from children to professional biologists involved in fun and interesting life science activities.

How to get involved…

World Space Week (4-10th October 2021)

World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. World Space Week consists of space education and outreach events held by space agencies, aerospace companies, schools, planetariums, museums, and astronomy clubs around the world. Visit their website to find out more: https://www.worldspaceweek.org/

How to get involved…

International Archaeology Day (16th October)

International Archaeology Day (IAD) is a celebration of archaeology and its contributions to society. Every October the AIA and archaeological organisations around the world present archaeological programs and activities for people of all ages and interests. 

How to get involved…

Chemistry Week (16-22nd October)

National Chemistry Week (NCW) is a public awareness campaign that promotes the value of chemistry in everyday life. This years theme is ‘Sticking with Chemistry’. Visit their website for educational resources linked to this theme.

How to get involved…

Nuclear Science Week (17-21st October)

Nuclear Science Week is an international, broadly observed week-long celebration to focus local, www.ph-pdi.com/phentermine-weight-lose/ regional and international interest on all aspects of nuclear science. Nuclear Science week explores what it means to “Think Clean. Think Solutions. Think Nuclear.” Click here to view lesson plans and resources on their website.

How to get involved…

Big Wild Walk (24-30th October)

It’s time to walk for wildlife and show you care about the nature and climate crisis with The Wildlife Trusts’ Big Wild Walk, 25 October to 31 October. The Wildlife Trusts are asking nature-lovers to fundraise to help raise vital money for their 30 by 30 projects that will restore 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. Get fit, have fun and raise money for wildlife! Invite the family to join in, set up a remote relay with friends or take the challenge yourself. Visit their website to find out more: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/events/big-wild-walk-2021

Bonfire Night (5th November)

Try a bonfire night-themed STEM activity such as ‘Frozen Fireworks’. This activity explores the question ‘what happens when we mix fluids of different densities’. For full instructions click here.

Autumn STEM Resource Recommendations

Here are a few of our ‘must have’ Autumn STEM resources. We think you’ll come back to them year after year with your children! Click on each picture to view it on Amazon.

Have we missed off an autumn STEM event or a ‘must have’ autumn STEM resource? If so then add it to the comments below. (note: this is a UK based website so some events have a UK focus).

Our top 10 rocks & soils books

rocks and soils

We don’t know about you but right now we’re really digging all things rocks and soils (see what we did there?!) Our book recommendations link perfectly to the UK science curriculum unit on rocks, as well as to topics about evolution, dinosaurs, archaeology and paleontology. Here’s our countdown, starting at number 10…

10. Lets Go Rock Collecting

SUGGESTED AGE: EYFS, KS1 & lower KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Holly Keller has created vivacious new paintings for this favourite Reading Rainbow title about geology. Readers follow two enthusiastic rock hounds around the globe as they add to their collection. Along the way they will learn how sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks are formed. From the Egyptian pyramids to Roman roads, from the diamond ring on your finger to the pebbles under your feet, rocks are everywhere!

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this and then have a go at our salt dough dinosaur fossils activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here                             For Amazon.com click here

9. If Rocks Could Sing

SUGGESTED AGE: EYFS, KS1 & lower KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Amazing rocks, found on a stretch of beach near the author’s home, comprise this unique alphabet book. A is for Addition, and there are rocks in the shape of real numbers, too. B is for Bird, and there is a bird rock on a nest with an egg. G is for Ghosts, and there is a host of rocks that look like ghosts! Children and adults alike will pore over these fascinating rocks, and will be inspired collect their own.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then have a go at our chocolate rock cycle activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here                     For Amazon.com click here

8. Archaeology Dig For Clues

SUGGESTED AGE: KS1 & lower KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Archaeologists on a dig work very much like detectives at a crime scene. Every chipped rock, charred seed, or fossilized bone could be a clue to how people lived in the past. In this information-packed Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science book, Kate Duke explains what scientists are looking for, how they find it, and what their finds reveal.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this and then have a go at our Cookie Excavation activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here                  For Amazon.com click here

7. Digging Up Dinosaurs

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Long ago, dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Then, suddenly, they died out. For thousands of years, no one knew these giant creatures had ever existed. Then people began finding fossils — bones and teeth and footprints that had turned to stone. Today, teams of experts work together to dig dinosaur fossils out of the ground, bone by fragile bone. Then they put the skeletons together again inside museums, to look just like the dinosaurs of millions of years ago.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then have a go at our ‘Digs & Dinos’ Dinosaur Footprint Measuring activity.

SUGGESTED AGE: KS1 & lower KS2

For Amazon.co.uk click here            For Amazon.com click here

6. A Rock Can Be

SUGGESTED AGE: EYFS, KS1 & lower KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Rocks may seem like boring, static objects–until you discover that a rock can spark a fire, glow in the dark, and provide shelters of all shapes and sizes. Laura Purdie Salas’s lyrical rhyming text and Violeta Dabija’s glowing illustrations show how rocks decorate and strengthen the world around them.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then go on a rock walk around the school grounds.

For Amazon.co.uk click here                 For Amazon.com click here

5. Stone Girl, Bone Girl

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Mary Anning is probably the world’s best-known fossil-hunter. As a little girl, she found a fossilised sea monster, the most important prehistoric discovery of its time. Best-selling author Laurence Anholt turns Mary’s fascinating life into a beautiful story, ideal for reading aloud. Sheila Moxley’s luscious pictures vividly evoke the coastal setting and the real-life dramas of this spectacular tale.

SUGGESTED AGE: KS1 & KS2

IDEAS FOR USE: Read our profile about Mary Anning here and use this as a basis for further research.

For Amazon.co.uk click here             For Amazon.com click here

4. A Rock is Lively

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: From the creators of the award-winning An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, A Butterfly Is Patient and A Nest Is Noisy comes this gorgeous and informative introduction to the fascinating world of rocks. From dazzling blue Lapis Lazuli to volcanic Snowflake Obsidian, an incredible variety of rocks are showcased in all their splendour. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, this book introduces an array of facts, making it equally perfect for classroom sharing and family reading.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then have a go at our salt dough dinosaur fossils activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here              For Amazon.com click here

3. Girls Who Looked Under Rocks

SUGGESTED AGE: KS1 & KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: Profiles the lives and influences of six female naturalists: Maria Sibylla Merian, Anna Botsford Comstock, Frances Hamerstrom, Rachel Carson, Miriam Rothschild, and Jane Goodall.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read our profiles about some of these women, using them as a basis for further research.

For Amazon.co.uk click here               For Amazon.com click here

2. What’s Under The Bed?

SUGGESTED AGE: EYFS, KS1 & KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: What’s Under the Bed? travels to the mysterious world that is just beneath our feet. Follow the underground adventures of two children and their cat to explore secret caves, fossils and even silver, gold and diamonds before eventually discovering what really is under the bed.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then have a go at our Cookie Excavation activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here                  For Amazon.com click here

1. The Rock Factory

SUGGESTED AGE: KS1 & KS2

DESCRIPTION FROM THE PUBLISHER: This series uses cartoon-style illustrations and humorous narrative text to make key topics in Science and Geography accessible and engaging. This approach encourages children to read about and understand complex ideas. This is the story of how a special sort of stone formed deep inside the Earth, and came to the surface thousands of millions of years later. The Rock Factory looks at how minerals turn into rock crystals, how the Earth is structured and how volcanoes happen. This book also contains an experiment, useful websites and an index.

IDEAS FOR USE: Read this book and then have a go at our chocolate rock cycle activity.

For Amazon.co.uk click here             For Amazon.com click here