Famous Women in STEM for Kids

A bigger number of our advances in science have actually come from famous women in STEM! Use some of these projects or critical thinking processes to introduce kids to women in STEM fields so they can help celebrate their achievements and inspire them to do anything they set their minds to!

WOMEN IN STEM FOR KIDS

WHO ARE SOME FAMOUS WOMEN IN STEM?

We can almost guarantee that there are more famous women in STEM than you realized! Some of the most iconic scientific tools or achievements have been led or aided by female engineers in their field! Some of the most famous women in STEM and art we will talk about or feature here include:

Look for a free printable project related to each woman in STEM/STEAM and art to add to your lesson plans this year or use for a fantastic screen-free activity at home.

WOMEN IN STEM FIELDS

Celebrating women in STEM fields is a great way to encourage kids to seek out a career in whatever area they desire. Social platforms like TikTok have even seen a rise in trends like, I Am a Woman in STEM, which puts the spotlight on present women in STEM and how they’re impacting the STEM community!

Another great way we can acknowledge and learn from famous women who have helped shape our present lives is by doing hands-on projects while learning about the women who made them possible! Choose one (or all!) of the projects below to teach kids about amazing women who have done incredible things!

Grab this FREE Women in Science Project Idea Mini Pack to get started!

STEM QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

These STEM questions for reflection are perfect to use with older kiddos to talk about how the project went and what they might do differently next time around. Use these questions for reflection with your kids after they have completed one of the STEM challenges below to encourage discussion of results and critical thinking.

What were some of the challenges you discovered along the way?
What worked well and what did not work well?
What part of your model or prototype do you really like? Explain why.
What part of your model or prototype needs improvement? Explain why.
What other materials would you like to use if you could do this challenge again?
What would you do differently next time?
What parts of your model or prototype are similar to the real world version?

Map the Ocean Floor with Tharp!

Write in Code with Margaret Hamilton

WOMEN IN STEM ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

Did you know women were responsible for the advances in STEM and Art in the posts below? Some of our most influential scientific advances have come from intelligent and talented women in STEM!

Make sure to look through each person and grab the free printable project, you can also get a complete pack of Women in STEM (includes even more female STEM-ists), 10 (and growing) in all! Click here.

Women in STEM

Build A Space Shuttle

Who is Mae Jemison? Mae Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Lorna Simpson Art For Kids

Lorna Simpson is a significant African-American artist, who lives and works in New York. She has become known for her unique artworks that combine photographs with words.

Paper Airplane Launcher

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.

Build a Satellite

Evelyn Boyd Granville was the second African-American woman toreceive a Ph.D. in mathematics from an American University. She graduated in 1949.

Bubble Wrap Prints with Alma Thomas

This bubble wrap art activity is inspired by the colorful abstract art of American painter, Alma Thomas. An artist who loved to smile and to paint with bright colors that made her paintings look happy and vibrant.

Alma Thomas Circle Art Activity

Thomas did not become a full time artist until she was 68 years old! Her work first became famous in the Washington DC area, where she went to school and later taught, but was not fully appreciated world wide until after her death in 1974.

Alma Thomas Stamped Heart Project

Alma Thomas was an African-American artist born in Georgia. In 1907 her family moved to Washington, D.C., seeking relief from the racial violence in the South.

Wind Tunnel STEM Project for Kids

Mary Jackson started off at the NASA Langley Research Center with a job title of ‘computer’! Before actual computers, people actually did all the math by head and hand as mathematicians!

Code Your Name In Binary

American computer scientist, systems engineer and business owner Margaret Hamilton was one of the first computer software programmers. She created the term software engineer to describe her work.

Magic Pepper and Soap Experiment

Scientist, Agnes Pockels discovered the science of surface tension of fluids simply doing the dishes in her own kitchen. Despite her lack of formal training, Pockels was able to measure the surface tension of water by designing an apparatus known as the Pockels trough. This was a key instrument in the new discipline of surface science.

Map The Ocean Floor

Marie Tharp was an American geologist and cartographer who along with Bruce Heezen, created the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. A cartographer is a person who draws or produces maps. Tharp’s work revealed the detailed topography or physical features and 3D landscape of the ocean floor.