Who’s the greatest teen prodigy in the Marvel Universe: Peter Parker or Shuri?

The Marvel Cinematic & comic universe is full science and tech awesomeness. From Bruce Banner to Tony Stark; Peter Park to Shuri; these tech geniuses have paved the way to introduce to STEM to a new generation of kids.

Becoming a chemical engineer was one of the coolest things that I have ever done. While going back to school to pursue the degree, was no easy task. Needless to say, every chance I get to talk about or do something related to engineering, I feel as if I am one the awesome superhero geniuses on the screen.

As we prepare for the release of Avengers:Infinity War, I decided to use my degree and my favorite movie genre to get my kids inspired with more science and technology projects that we can easily create at home. While we won’t be creating anything like the Quinjet, there isn’t any harm in trying. Although I am pretty sure that my son would much rather try and create his own version of Ultron as well (baby steps).

Want to know more about a few of our favorite scientists? Check out the deets on them below, plus a few fun activities that you and your kids can do at home to prepare for Avengers: Infinity War, hitting theaters May 4th, 2018

Bruce Banner

Robert Bruce Banner, M.D., Ph.D is a renowned scientist who was highly respected for all his work in the fields of Biochemistry, Nuclear Physics, and Gamma Radiation.

STEM Qualities

• Master Scientist: Banner is brilliant in many different fields of science, notably biochemistry, and bioorganics, as well as both atomic and radiophysics, being a former professor at Culver University, and one of the world’s most renown scientists overall. Indeed, even fellow genius Tony Stark admired Banner’s brilliance, claiming that the latter’s work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled, while Nick Fury referred to Banner as the world’s foremost expert in gamma radiation. In addition, Stark needed Banner’s assistance in downloading J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vision android, due to Banner also being the world’s foremost expert in the discipline of bioorganics.
• Master Engineer: Banner, while not quite on par with Tony Stark, is an extremely skilled engineer, computer scientist, and robotics technician. Hence, Banner was able to help Stark construct the Hulkbuster, create the Ultron AI, and download J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vision android.
• Skilled Physician: Banner possesses enough medical knowledge to help the sick and injured while living in India.
• Expert Tactician: Banner has over the years become an expert in developing strategies to go unnoticed and run from the government, military, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. by using his intellect to quickly evaluate his surroundings and develop feasible escape strategies. As such, Banner also became quite skilled at going undercover.
• Multilingualism: Banner speaks his native English, as well as some Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese. However, he only demonstrated a fluency in Hindi, while in Kolkata, and had notable trouble with Spanish and Portuguese while in South America, occasionally mixing up words.

At home science project for kids: 

Neon Green Flame 

Oil & Ice Density Experiment

Tony Stark

STEM qualities:

• Genius-Level Intellect: A scientific prodigy, at age four Stark built his first circuit board, at age six his first engine, and at seventeen he graduated summa cum laude from MIT. As a child, he built Dum-E and U., his personal lab assistants. Stark is one of the smartest humans in the world, surpassing even his late father Howard Stark, while rivaled only by fellow geniuses like Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Hank Pym, Shuriand Helen Cho. As a result, Stark is known by the nickname “The Da Vinci of Our Time”, and despite initially being deemed unfit for the Avengers Initiative, Nick Fury and Black Widow still respected Stark’s genius enough for him to be recruited as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D..
• Master Engineer: Stark is an extremely skilled and prolific engineer and robotics technician, having been able to make many complicated inventions at a young age, and then going on to construct numerous innovative Stark Industries weapons for the US military as an adult, most notably the Jericho, as well as leading Stark Industries to become the largest tech conglomerate in the world. 
• Master Scientist: Tony Stark is ingeniously resourceful, knowledgeable, and brilliant in many different fields of science, particularly physics, but also computer science, chemistry, and neuroscience. Hence, he was able to attach an Arc Reactor to his chest in order to save his life, to synthesize a previously unknown element discovered by his father Howard Stark, to understand Erik Selvig‘s thermonuclear astrophysics notes on the Tesseract overnight, and to modify Maya Hansen‘s Extremis formula. Tony, however, notably admits to Bruce Banner surpassing him in the fields of radiophysics, particle collisions, and bioorganics.
• Master Hacker: Tony is an extremely skilled hacker, as he had managed to crack the Pentagon‘s firewall on a dare, while still in high school. As an adult, Stark successfully used J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack into the S.H.I.E.L.D. database and learn of Phase 2, and, after successfully hacking into the NEXUS world Internet hub, Stark is able to discover J.A.R.V.I.S.’ scattered remnants from all across the Internet.

At home STEM Project

Epic Bottle Rocket

Solar Oven

Number Line Secret Code

 

Peter Parker

STEM qualities:

• Gifted Intelligence: Peter Parker is a highly intelligent science enthusiast, with aptitudes in chemistry, physics, and engineering, developing a highly advanced chemical compound into a silk-like material (the sophistication of which even impressed Tony Stark) and constructed his own web-shooters. As Spider-Man, he can also come up with witty and incredibly annoying quips and references, much to his allies and enemies’ irritation. In addition, he was a valued member of the Midtown School of Science and Technologyacademic decathlon team, with Liz Toomes claiming that Peter was its most intelligent member.
• Tactician: Parker uses the laws of physics to his advantage in battle, notably when he let Iron Manand War Machine know of his plan to tie up Ant-Man‘s legs, after which they knocked the immobilized giant down or when he used the lift from a SWAT team’s helicopter blades to his advantage to get enough momentum to break a window in order to save his classmates. Peter is still relatively inexperienced, however, since he asked Iron Man for advice during the Avengers Civil War, and later consistently asked for Karen‘s assistance in taking down Vulture and his gang.

At Home STEM Project

DIY Balance Game

Building Structures

Color Changing Milk

Shuri

Heiress to Wakanda

STEM qualities:

• Genius-Level Intellect: Shuri is one of the smartest humans in the world, particularly in the fields of technology and engineering, rivaled only by fellow geniuses like Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, Erik Selvig and Helen Cho.
• Master Engineer: Shuri is an engineering and robotics genius on par with Tony Stark, as she has been the one to invent and create much of the modern technology in her country of Wakanda, most notably her brother T’Challa‘s new Panther Habit.

At Home STEM project

Motion Activated Guard Bot

Square Paper Airplane

Hank Pym

STEM qualities

• Genius-Level Intellect: Hank Pym is one of the smartest humans in the world, rivaled only by fellow geniuses like Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Shuri and Helen Cho. Hence, Pym was able to discover and isolate the extremely rare inter-dimensional Pym Particles, as well as personally go on to harness them. Indeed, S.H.I.E.L.D. were unsuccessful in their covert attempt to replicate Pym’s work, and even Pym’s protege Darren Cross, a genius himself, took several years to replicate it.
• Master Scientist: Pym is brilliant in several fields of science, particularly entomology and atomic physics, but also chemistry. Indeed, he was considered the world’s foremost entomology and nanotechnology expert and, was once recruited by Howard Stark and Peggy Carter as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D., in addition to him later also advancing the fields of nanotechnology, human enhancements, as well as molecular and atomic studies with his company Pym Technologies.
• Master Engineer: Pym is a brilliant engineer, especially in a field of nanotechnology, having personally created the Pym Particle-harnessing Ant-Man Suit, as well as the EMP Communication Device. Pym later worked with Scott Lang to render the suit capable of also increasing in size, and they were ultimately successful

At Home STEM project

Tiny Dancers Homopolar Motor

(Bio’s from Wiki fandom)