STEM: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING

10/28/2013

3 Comments

 

WHEELS OF CHANGE :How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way)

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Sue Macy.
National Geographic.  (Middle grade/young adult; ages 10 and up)
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling,” Susan B. Anthony said in 1896. “I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” She did an awesome job sharing the interrelated stories of women’s rights and women’s cycling, The illustrations in this book are actual photographs and cycling posters from the 1800's. “Wheels”is an account of another way women fought to express their rights in our society. When teaching about women s rights in history or sparking interest in the hidden science facts of bicycling, teachers can use this book to get young girls and boys to understand how bicycling changed lives. 
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Sue Macy is a lifelong baseball fan and has been a writer and editor for children and young adults for more than fifteen years.  A member of Princeton's first women's softball team as an undergraduate, she is now an editorial director in the magazine division of Scholastic Inc.  She lives in Englewood, New Jersey.

After Sharing this book as an opening to a science or engineering project on bikes, teachers can introduce this next book as a tool for students to explore how bikes were made. This scientific book gives students a step by step guide to bike maintenance and to the complex construction of their bikes.

The Haynes Bicycle Book: The Haynes Repair Manual for Maintaining and Repairing Your Bike (Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series)
By, Bob Henderson and John Stevenson
  • Series: Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series
  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Thomson Delmar Learning; 2 edition (July 1, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1563924285
  • ISBN-13: 978-1563924286
3 Comments
Lisa Loepker
11/13/2013 09:28:38 am

Sounds like a very interesting read. I like the idea of a nonfiction title like this teaching young girls about women's struggles and women's rights. It always amazes me when I think about how far we have come as women--working, achieving, etc--but how far we have to go to be considered equal in this world in terms of pay.

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Sarah Leide
11/27/2013 02:18:43 am

This sounds like a deeply interesting book and definitely something that I need to add to my (admittedly very long) list of things to buy/read eventually. I like how your companion book is about the science of bikes and how you tie into the bicycle aspect of the first book instead of the historical and/or women's rights aspect. I feel like, for books like this, that is where the majority focus tends to fall when, in reality, a book like this has a lot to offer on many different topics and by forcing it into that single pigeon hole a reader/teacher/librarian can greatly reduce the effectiveness and awesomeness of materials they have.

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Jennifer Troemner
11/30/2013 03:15:51 pm

This is a really interesting subject, and it delves into an area that's too often neglected-- namely science and engineering aimed at girls. It's also got a kooky cover and title, which invites readers who might be otherwise reluctant to touch a book on science or the history of the feminist movement.

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