My 10 y/o son is showing a very healthy interest in engineering, mechanics, coding and generally ‘how stuff works’.

As an airy-fairy humanities graduate married to an arts graduate, our understanding of the more practical side of things (maths! Oh god, maths!) could probably be better.

So, to help foster his curiosity can anyone recommend a book along the lines of Adam Kay’s Kay’s Anatomy but relating to STEM subjects?

So an irreverent look at the subjects but based on sound principles and a good introduction?

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by the XKCD comics guy Randall Monroe is superb.

What would happen if you were to gather a mole of moles in one place?

What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close as possible and jumped, landing on the ground at the same instant?

That sort of thing.

Thanks – looks good, but perhaps a touch advanced for now – may get for me though!

What If is really interesting, but if you like the idea and need a more accessible version, he also does the Thing Explainer

Thing Explainer

It only uses the 1000 most common words to explain a bunch of things. I’d have loved it as a kid.

https://us.macmillan.com/series/sciencecomics/

We have a couple of these for sweajnr. They say ~10years but some of the stuff is definitely a bit higher level than that. (Graduate Geologist who learnt a few new things in the rocks and minerals one)

What would happen if you were to gather a mole of moles in one place?

avocados number

The mole one is actually online to give you a flavour:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/

Great stuff.

Second/third Thing Explainer and What-If

‘What would happen if you assemble the Periodic Table from bricks made from the elements’

The thing explainer is epic. I have it, ice given it as a birthday present more than once too. It’d be good for age 10.

What if is great too, but not for that age

Youtube. These days youtube has scientific content almost past undergrad level

My 12yo loved What If. Several bits where I had to explain further but I consider that solid bonding time!

The Dara Ó Briain books about space are aimed at about 10yo and I can heartily endorse those too.

You have a 10-year old that reads books? Well done.

I have the XKCD ‘what if’ book, but I’ve just moved house. IF you remind me via PM in a couple of days and IF I can actually find it again after my partner has spent the last two weeks randomly shoving random shit randomly in cupboards randomly, I’ll send it to you for the grand price of free (hopefully along with all the other shit I’ve promised people over the last couple of months).

Other than that, sign up to the Humble Bundle mailing list. It’s the sort of thing that crops up occasionally.

Oh wait. A book for him, or for you?

Thanks all for the suggestions, and thanks Cougar – for him, not me! Not to worry, I’ll pick the books up (it’s to add a bit of education to what would otherwise probably be a sea of injected plastic tat).

There is a children’s magazine that i see regularly advertised in Private Eye that appears good for inquisitive children of that age. It is called Aquila.

I’ve never read a copy, but I think that 10 year old me would have loved it.

Might be worth a look.

There is a children’s magazine that i see regularly advertised in Private Eye that appears good for inquisitive children of that age. It is called Aquila.

Thanks, yes, we did try Aquila (grandparents bought it) but he was ‘meh’ about it – this was a few years back though, so may be time to try again…

I’m a STEM ambassador through work, and this STEM resource website is full of absolutely fantastic stuff. We use it all the time. Have a search around here, and you’re son can too.

https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/curated-collections/primary-0

Thanks Dazzydw.

Random thought,

Raspberry Pi, breadboard and a catering pack of LEDs, switches and sensors? As a proto-geek I’d have killed for that. Start with a cheaper one for when he inevitably blows the GPIO. (-:

Got any specific links for leds/switches/sensors? I’m new to this but I think my kids might be ready for raspberry pi

Slightly OT, this book about the elements is excellent. DK The Periodic table book

We are slowly collecting as many of the elements (or things containing the elements) as possible; i think we are up to 28 now.

A moped engine to take to bits and rebuild and my dad’s Practical Wireless magazines from 1942-1946 got me started.

Books are great but hands on is too – would he be interested in something like building RC race cars? Easy to get into, you can go as deep as you like and will end up breaking and researching things. Looking for fixes may be more YouTube than books now but that’s just because it’s a better medium for practical knowledge transfer.

micro:bit may be an easier starter than a Rasp Pi.

Either way Pimoroni are a good Sheffield-based small business to buy from.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/micro-bit-complete-starter-kit

Depending on how advanced his reading skills are, Longitude by Dana Sobel.

Raspberry Pi, breadboard and a catering pack of LEDs, switches and sensors?

Thanks, we have a Pi – used as a retro games console ATM but will repurpose.

would he be interested in something like building RC race cars?

Currently building up a rock crawler from the Revell RC Advent calendar – not the same, I know, but I am definitely going to be encouraging him down that line.

micro:bit may be an easier starter than a Rasp Pi.

That’s a great shout actually, yes.

Got any specific links for leds/switches/sensors? I’m new to this but I think my kids might be ready for raspberry pi

Not specifically but there’s loads.

Have a look here. Back issues are free from the website. https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/

Ooh, just thought. This needs to be on your radars.

https://www.turingtumble.com/

Thanks!

My STEM-curious 12 year old really likes the Kurzgesagt in a nutshell YouTube channel. The videos are great! Not sure if they do any physical books.