howtosmile blog

The first Week of Making, sponsored by the White House, is set for June 12-18. "Making can motivate and inspire young people to excel in STEM subjects and prepare students for careers in design, advanced manufacturing, and entrepreneurship.

A baby seal that calms people who touch it...a rover that carries out rescue missions through fire or after an earthquake...a mechanical arm controlled by the thoughts of an injured human...What do these have in common? They're all robots with potential for helping people.

Enrich summer reading with connections to STEM and history! Here are ten books, both nonfiction and fiction, to link with Howtosmile.org activities about science and history around the world. 

1) The Kite That Bridged Two Nations and SMILE's Sled Kite activity;

Summer means picnics! In the park, at the beach, even inside on a rainy day, pack math and science fun in your picnic basket with Howtosmile.org activities. Combine STEM explorations about whatever you like best—food, kites, sand, animals and lots more—to turn a picnic anywhere into a whole new summer learning adventure.

There are so many ways to celebrate World Oceans Day June 8, including making and sharing marine artwork. Learners and their friends at home, camp or school can create pieces of water-themed art—saltwater or freshwater—then hold a summer Marine Art Show for families, their whole school or camp, even their local community.

How do you diagnose and help a three-eyed monster with a heart problem? That's the challenge and fun in the new, free Monster Heart Medic iPhone/iPad app, now available in the App Store. This educational adventure game uses animated monster stories, interactive simulators, arcade games, virtual diagnostic tests and more to explore the cardiovascular system and how it's affected by healthy living.

Earth Day, April 22, is part of this year's international Climate Education Week. At Howtosmile.org, you can find thousands of STEM activities, for all ages, related to the environment, climate and the natural world.

Homeschool.com has named Howtosmile.org a Top Educational Website for the third year in a row. Many Howtosmile.org activities, for all ages, require only supplies that most people already have at home. In springtime, lots of homes have plentiful supplies of eggs. Here are some egg-citing hands-on explorations. DO try this at home!

Want to celebrate our planet's ocean? On or around World Oceans Day, June 8th, share what you know and why you care about the ocean by holding a special sea event. Ask your friends, family, students and colleagues to help you plan an ocean festival, beach party, sand sculpture contest, sea-themed parade, cooking event with sustainable seafood, photo exhibit or other fun and creative public event. 

If you do one thing for the environment in 2015, it could be to help clean up and prevent plastic trash from polluting our oceans. More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic may be floating—and sinking deeper—in the world's oceans, according to scientists. This marine debris includes toys, toothbrushes, bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other items that break down into smaller pieces and are carried around the globe by ocean currents and waves.