I’ve reviewed 39 STEM-related
books (and counting). STEM is an acronym
for science,
technology,
engineering, and mathematics. As you may have seen in the news, there is a
push to improve STEM education,
interest students in STEM fields, and grow the number of workers
in these fields. The idea is that these
will be the skills needed by workers of the future. If you’re a STEM educator or a student
considering a career in STEM fields, you might like to take a look at some of
these books.
I’ll confess that I’m not an educator, but I think most of these books
will be accessible to high school and college students, and a few to middle
school students. The list is also a
reflection of my career and interests in engineering, public
health, policy,
and history. Even with these biases, I think it is a good
list for someone looking for STEM-related books.
I was fascinated by robots as a
kid. I enjoyed reading Isaac Asimov’s
robot stories. I longed for the Omnibot
2000 in the Sears Wishbook.
If you’re interested in robotics, this is an interesting nontechnical
book. In addition, you’ll get introduced
to some freaky sci-fi. You may even get
as (somewhat) legitimate reason to use the word “Dickhead” (capitalized, it
refers to a fan of PKD, so don’t go using it on anyone).
The Interstate highway system in the
United
States is one of the most enormous structures built. Some of the prospective STEM students who
read this may actually be younger than the Intestate system, though in some
sense it is never complete because it needs constant repair and
maintenance. The Interstates were
completed in the 1990s, but the Federal-Aid
Highways go back to 1916.
Deborah
Cadbury describes seven wonders of engineering in Dreams of Iron and Steel. It covers almost a century of history, but
many of the events are concentrated in the Victorian
Era. That was a time of great
technological innovation.
Though the
book is history, many of the structures still stand. Railways, the Brooklyn
Bridge, the Suez and Panama
Canals, and Hoover
Dam stand testament to an age of big engineering.
Though the
memory of Professor Wragg’s sneer prompts me to not make this confession, part
of my interest in science and technology came from comic
books. Iron
Man was cool. Spider-Man’s web
shooters were very cool. Superhero comics are
full of fantasy, admittedly,
but the strange, unrealistic science and technology they depict have inspired
many to study STEM in reality.
Physicist John
Kakalios uses examples from comic books to explore real physics in The Physics of Supeheroes. Sometimes comics get there science
right. Even when they get it wrong, it
can be instructive. If you know what
people are talking about when they refer to the “New 52,” you may find this
book to be a great introduction to physics.
Here is
another confession: I’m not especially interested in math. I endured a lot of math classes to study
engineering. Reading David
Acheson’s 1089 and All That did not
require such endurance. For one reason,
it is a short book. For another, Acheson
doesn’t expect his readers to be mathematicians; it is enough to follow the
outline of the math he discusses.
I recommend
this book because so many people have a fear of math. 1089
can be followed by many high school students and older folks with math
phobias. Just take a deep breath, relax,
and follow along as well as you can.
You’ll see that math can be interesting, useful, and even beautiful in a
way.
Judith
St. George’s The Brooklyn Bridge is a short
history of and iconic bridge. Written for the bridge’s 100th
anniversary, it is also the story of the engineers who sacrificed life and
health to see it completed: John
Roebling and
his son Washington. John Roebling was a German immigrant who built many suspension
bridges and
owed a wire-making business. He gave his son and extraordinary education
in bridge engineering for the time, and before beginning work on the Brooklyn
Bridge he served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil
War.
Why should a
cutting-edge STEM student read about a bridge that is almost 130 years
old? It’s because we still use and rely
on very successful, centuries old technologies.
Improving and rebuilding our infrastructure will be an
important part of our economy. As recently as 2010, New
York City and the federal government committed $500 million
to repair and repaint the Brooklyn Bridge.
STEM lumps
together science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Is there a difference between science and
engineering? Is it important?
Henry
Petroski, a professor of civil
engineering and history and author of The Essential Engineer, believes
there is an important difference. At
heart, science is about increasing knowledge. Engineering is about invention. Of course, new knowledge makes new invention
possible. Just as often, though, engineering
runs ahead of science. Sometimes science
didn’t advance until someone invented the instruments to conduct new
observations and experiments. The
invention of the microscope made possible
the science of microbiology. Steam
engines were built and greatly improved before we had a modern scientific
understanding of thermodynamics. In fact, thermodynamics was to a large extent
born out of desire to understand steam engines. In this sense, it is an
engineering science (study of manmade things) as much as a natural science
(study of natural things) or branch of physics.
Petroski’s
focus in the book is the importance of engineering to policymaking, where it is
often overshadowed by science. Policy,
science, and engineering play off of each other a lot. Most of my career as an engineer has been
related to government, policy, and regulatory compliance.
The Ghost Map by science
writer Steven
Johnson is the story of the birth of epidemiology. Epidemiology is a medical science that
uses statistics to help us
understand how diseases operate in a population. Using various statistical and geographic tools, long
before we had computers and GIS, physician John
Snow demonstrated that cholera, once a
recurring plague that wiped
out hundreds of thousands of people in some outbreaks, was a waterborne
disease. This understanding, initially
met with much skepticism, allowed officials to intervene to prevent the spread
of the disease. For those who say of
their math classes, “I’ll never us this,” here is a case where math (and
science and policy) were used to make a great difference.
It is not much
publicized today that the Lewis and Clark expedition of
1804 to 1806 had a partly
scientific mission. Captains Lewis and
Clark were charges with bringing back samples of the flora, fauna, and culture of the
western territories. It was also hoped
that they would find a water passage to
the Pacific
Ocean. In Undaunted Courage,
Stephen Ambrose writes about the scientific mission as well as
the policy, diplomacy, and commercial hopes the
expedition carried.
Of course,
what attracts most people to the Lewis and Clark expedition is that it was a
great adventure. There is a place in STEM fields for thoughtful
adventurers and explorers.
A list like
this deserves something strange, creepy, and more fun than you care
to admit. Right now, thousands of very
young future STEM workers are catching bugs and snakes, breaking
their toys to see what
is inside, or staring into space with a weird expression of
vacancy and concentration.
Jan
Bondeson’s Buried Alive is not a morbid
book. It is sometimes humorous, especially in
consideration of topic. From a STEM
point of view, Bondeson shows how knowledge accumulates over time. The fears and activities of our forefathers
may seem strange to us, but they sometimes made sense in light of what they
knew. Buried Alive doesn’t simply play off our fascination with the grotesque and death, though the
book might not have been written if we lacked that fascination, I think it
reminds us to approach our ancestors with a touch of grace and humility. Maybe our progeny will show us the same courtesy.
If you’re looking
for something for a younger student, check out this post→ from Joanne
Loves Science or these
recommendations→ from STEM
Friday. By the way, I also write about
engineering, infrastructure and the environment at Infrastructure Watch.
This review of STEM books appears courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews.
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