Promoting STEM through Fiction UKS2

Many scientists cite their favourite childhood reads as the reason they chose a career in science: the father of the modern submarine, Simon Lake, was a huge fan of Jules Vern’s ‘2000 Leagues Under the Sea’ and Jane Goodall loved reading ‘Doctor Dolittle’ and ‘Tarzan of the Apes’ as a child. Here is a selection of books that celebrate scientific achievement and revel in science fiction. In these books maths performs the impossible, the heroes (both girls and boys) are experts in technology and engineering or champions of the scientific method and scientific visionaries. It is the job of scientists, engineers and mathematicians to create hypotheses and solutions and to reimagine the world around us, no wonder a love of fiction is so often where they start.