5 Daddy-Daughter STEM Activities

Did you know that Einstein was first inspired to pursue science when a toy compass was given to him by his father?  Little Einstein wondered what made the compass point north.  Did you know that Richard Feyman’s father made up pattern games and read to him from Encyclopedias?  We all know the importance of fathers but they are especially important discussing science and math with their daughters (and their kids!).

Here are 5 Daddy-Daughter STEM activities that they can do together to encourage your daughter to be curious and confident about science. (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

1. Building things together: Teach her the importance of structures having a strong foundation and using her imagination to create her own inventions.

• Tinker toys
• Legos
• Building forts
• Quadrillas (shown below)

2.  Doing puzzles and logic games together: Help build her spatial skills and understand math is all about reoccurring patterns

• Memory games like matching
• Puzzles
• Tanagrams

 

3.  Show her household processes: Got a plumbing project?  Need to change a light bulb or an air filter?  Take her along and explain how it works. Engineering is full of understanding how processes work together and how to improve them.

4.  Watch and play sports together: Baseball is a very strategic game about batting averages and pitching statistics.  Soccer is a great way to show momentum in action and basketball can be a simple physics discussion about how ball trajectory will help make a basket.

5.  Take her out in nature: Every Father’s Day growing up that I can remember we went fishing in Port O’Conner, Tx.  This is where I learned that if I was patient and worked hard I could be just as good as my brothers at fishing and later at engineering.

You could also involve her in:

• Planting flowers or a garden and talk about the sun’s energy and the plant life cycle
• Making a kite and flying it to appreciate wind dynamics
• Spend a day at the beach discussing the tide and sand erosion

My Dad is one of the biggest supporters of this blog and has always been one of my biggest fans as I tackled difficult things in life (like engineering).  I think that is so important to realize that Daddies don’t have to set up elaborate experiments to show their daughters (and kids) how exciting science, engineering, and math can be!

Happy Father’s Day!