Highlights
Earth and friends is a great way to encourage our future generation to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math, or subjects referred to as STEM.
The book comes with a free companion mobile app that brings the book to life. Life-like 3D models of the the celestial orbs, and even an astronaut, come alive through augmented reality to keep children engaged for hours of fun and learning.
This book makes a perfect gift for baby showers, birthdays, Father's Day, first libraries, and more!
Sweet and playful illustrations, and rhyming text make for an engaging, educational and entertaining read
Story
Space has captured the imagination of those that look up at the night sky since...well since there have been imaginations to capture. It has inspired little boys and girls to go on to push the boundaries of knowledge and do amazing things. Now...imagine if you could bring the entire solar system...into your living room. Today, few Americans are choosing to pursue expertise in science, technology, engineering, and math--subjects collectively known as STEM despite current and projected increases in STEM jobs. When a group of NASA employees felt they had to try and do something about it.
The Book
They decided to dedicate their time to coming up with a fun and engaging way to introduce subjects like our solar system to the youngest minds around us. "Earth and Friends" is a story starring the wonderful world we all live on, the Sun that gives us light, warms us, the Moon that lights up our nights, and Mars, a planet we hope to visit soon. The book will educate and delight on its own, but we wanted to give children a way to see the objects in our solar system as they really are, so "Earth and Friends" bring them to life using augmented reality.
Augmented reality allows us to show the objects in our solar system as they really are, wherever you might be sitting. We allow for users to interact with the objects, but more importantly, it allows us to demonstrate concepts that would otherwise be difficult in two dimensions, such as the earth's orbit around the sun.
The App
The app for this book that helps bring the pages alive work for both Android and iOS. You can get them for free on both the Google Play store, and the Apple App Store. There is a QR code inside the book that will take you to a webpage (earth-and-friends.com) that details how to install and use the mobile app. You can also download the apps directly by searching for "Earth and Friends" on either of the app stores.
What be believe STEM encompasses many subjects, not all of them equal in terms of there being a shortage, but the truth is, innovation keeps pushing humanity forward and we believe that fostering interest in industries where there are currently real and interesting problems to solve just makes sense.
From the Author
Demand for Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills is on the rise, but few Americans pursue expertise in STEM fields. Instead of scaring children away from STEM subjects with boring explanations, I put together a team to come up with a fun and engaging way to introduce subjects like our solar system to the youngest minds around us. We worked with artists to create the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and Mars; then wove them into a fun story, with rhymes, to introduce them to little humans for the first time.
The team that helped develop this book, love this book, and their children love it as well. Most of the kids were too busy enjoying the book to notice that they were learning about space, some math, and scientific concepts at the same time.
This project went from idea to passion project pretty quickly. After spending some time on it and seeing the reaction children had with the book, it is really something that we want to share. I really hope that this book helps to capture the imagination of the current and future generation's STEM education.