Engineering: Cool Women Who Design

Reviews

Science Books and Films 2016 Best Books List
++: Highly Recommended
“Engineering: Cool Women Who Design presents engineering as a varied and inspiring career path for women towards children. The book features wonderful examples of different women in engineering who are solving problems by creating lighting solutions for disasters, improving surgical devices, and utilizing lasers for broader applications. The book starts with an introduction to the history of engineering. Then it has three chapters that feature a particular woman's early life, work, and challenges in engineering. There was LGBTQ representation and senior representation among the women featured in each chapter. Every chapter also had excerpts that summarize additional women's impacts on their respective engineering disciplines. Within the excerpts, there was representation of women with disabilities and women of color. All of the scientific and engineering work described in the book was accurate and succinct, including household items for easy connection to the daily life of the reader. The book also features many links and resources for young women to further explore the possibilities engineering offers. Finally, this book is very well-written, organized, and researched. It has a glossary to allow readers to find primary sources. It engages readers by using colorful images and cartoons effectively. This is a wonderful book to introduce girls to engineering!”

Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's Media
Recommended -- Superior in style, liveliness, integrity and format.
“Designing medical equipment, solar lighting, and optical devices using lasers are the primary areas of work for three successful women engineers, Amy Kardok, Anna Stork, and Elise Garmire, PhD. After a brief history of engineering, biographies of these three describe their childhood, obstacles they faced in their pursuit of their careers, and major contributions addressing human needs through engineering. What distinguishes this series from other biographies is the inclusion of mini-biographies of other women engineers, QR codes to access online content, such as a 3-D doodle pen, catapult design, TED talks, and surgical robots. Beginning with a "How to use this book" page, readers are directed to high quality Essential Questions in "Ask & Answer" boxes, "She Says" quote boxes, "Cool Career" suggestions, and Primary Source symbols linked to the QR codes. A recommended purchase.”

Ithaca Child
“Engineering is as old as human societies. In ancient times, engineers designed the aqueducts, the pyramids, and trebuchets. As people developed new materials. - iron, steel, plastics - engineers used them to build the things people needed: bridges, heart valves, cell phones. Engineering schools sprouted during the industrial age, but women weren't admitted as students.

This books highlights three women who are engineers. One designs medical devices, one designs solar lighting products and one designs devices that use lasers. In addition to their stories, there are plenty of short bios about other women in engineering, such as Nora Stanton who, in 1905 was the first woman to graduate from Cornell University with an engineering degree. You'll also find information about cool careers, and a few hands-on engineering challenges.”