Mishaal Ashemimry and Suzanne Slade are two women who looked up at the sky and were determined to understand it.
Ashemimry is helping people explore space in her work as an aerospace engineer, an entrepreneur, and the first Saudi woman to work for NASA. She started her own rocket company at age 26 and works to inspire girls to pursue STEM Careers.
Slade has a degree in engineering and worked on Delta and Titan rockets before becoming an author. She has written over 150 children’s books, many of which explore the history of space exploration. Her newest book Mars Is shares amazing images being captured by NASA’s HiRISE Camera, which is orbiting Mars.
Host Gillian King-Cargile (@gkingcargile) interviews these impressive women about their amazing careers, their advice for young people, and their love all things space.
The STEM Read podcast is produced in association with WNIJ. Support for the STEM Read podcast comes from NIU STEAM and Northern Illinois University.
Show Notes:
· Mishaal Ashemimry’s Official Website
· Kids: Experiment with electricity without short-circuiting your house!
· Books that Mishaal loved as a kid: Oliver Twist & Journey to the Center of the Earth.
· Einstein’s Thought Experiments
· Einstein failed too! But he learned from his mistakes. “How the 1919 Solar Eclipse Made Einstein the World's Most Famous Scientist”
· How will we industrialize the Moon and Mars? Check out Sci-Show Space “Micro Miners” and WIRED “Scientist Explains How Moon Mining Would Work”
· Non-Chemical Rockets?! Electric Propulsion and Nuclear Propulsion are options being explored.
· Learn More about the International Space Station in our interview with NASA’s Ryan Prouty.
· Don’t be afraid to fail! Listen to our sister podcast Failure Bites for more inspiration.
· Suzanne Slade is the Queen of Backmatter!
· Books Suzanne loved as a kid: Runaway Ralph, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Boxcar Children, The Toothpaste Millionaire
· Want to write children’s books? Find resources at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
· Is Engineering like Writing? Listen to our episode “Revisions in Writing, Engineering, and Life” with author Mike Mullin and engineer Craig DeAmbrose.
· Watch the Mars Isbook trailer with images from NASA’s HiRISE Camera like Mars’ Alluvial Fans.
· June Almeida Virus Detective – The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus.
· NASA’s Artemis program plans to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
· Suzanne has written several great books about space: Daring Dozen: The Twelve Who Walked on the Moon, Countdown, A Computer Called Katherine, and Astronaut Annie, which was even READ IN SPACE!
· NASA’s Perseverance Rover is gathering amazing data on Mars RIGHT NOW!
· Suzanne’s Friend Alan Bean was the fourth person to walk on the moon.
· NIU’s Future Telling web series has more great talks with authors and STEM Experts.
· Science Riot! Get your tickets! We’re doing a virtual show with them on June 18, 2021!
· STEM Read’s Science + Fiction Camp is a virtual camp for teens this July. We explore STEM topics by meeting experts, digging into great sci-fi, and researching and writing speculative fiction rooted in STEM facts. It’s just one of the many virtual summer camps offered at NIU this summer.