The power of STEM magic

Reading to children means sharing time, knowledge and love. Adding the power of scientific and technological phenomena (STEM topics) to reading makes it magical. As kids are curious and enjoy experimenting they realize they can do STEM magic themselves. When words and pictures are continued in the real world with experiments made by children supervised by adults, learning is imminent and a lot of fun. This poster will illustrate an international project supported by Deutsche Telekom Stiftung and German Reading Foundation that is currently implemented in Germany, Austria, Romania and Poland. In the past three years volunteer readers have been engaged regularly in over 400 libraries, schools and day-care centers. They sparked interest in math and science of children aged 3 to 10 and improved their language and reading skills by combining reading aloud from books and apps with small experiments. Libraries in larger cities and in small rural communities can easily provide these popular events as effective low-cost learning services. Trainings, media tips and recommendations for appropriate experiments were created in several languages. For librarians that are eager to contribute to development of basic STEM and literacy skills, this poster will include illustrations and an easy-to-use guide sheet.