One place where kids and families can get their hands on STEAM series and activities is Scholastic’s Discovery Fair, a new style of book fair for grades K–6 that “brings STEAM topics forward,” according to Laura Lundgren, chief marketing officer of Scholastic Children’s Book Group. The lineup is all nonfiction titles, focusing on such high-interest subjects as dinosaurs, outer space, and oceans, which are grounded in STEAM and presented in “curiosity-fueled ways,” Lundgren says. “There’s a lot you can see and touch at the fair, and there are lots of activity kits.”
The Discovery Fair launched in January to roughly 14 markets after the team spent two years designing and workshopping the concept and running a pilot phase with schools. Reception has been very positive so far, and plans are to scale to more markets next year. In developing the fair experience, Lundgren says great effort went into “museum-ifying” the displays, so that walking through the fair feels like a visit to a science museum. As an example, kids can interact with some displays to learn more about individual books. “We wanted to encourage kids to explore the fair, and their interests, by inviting them in.”
A distinguishing feature of the Discovery Fair is custom video content and products created by popular YouTuber, educator, and former NASA engineer Mark Rober. “Our goal is to try to create cultural relevance and excitement, and Mark has high appeal for some of our older kids,” Lundgren says. Scholastic’s trade publishing division recently partnered with CrunchLabs, Rober’s STEM-centric brand, to produce a line of STEM book titles across a variety of formats. First up are Extreme Engineering with Mark Rober and Lava vs. Lasers, both due out in September.
Lundgren notes that the Discovery Fair offers the same fundraising and community building boosts as a traditional book fair and is just as easy for schools to host. “But we tried to distinguish this new experience so that it fueled knowledge building, curiosity, and discovery,” she says. “We really want to make sure every student believes that they can be a scientist or an engineer or a mathematician, and we want them to see that interest for themselves.”
