Alyssa can't wait for next year's sixth grade STEM class. But she's even more excited to tell her Uncle Mikey all about it.Uncle Mikey calls himself a "hacker". But he doesn't crack passwords or break into video games. Uncle Mikey is an engineer at NASA designing the next Mars Rover. Uncle Mikey, the "hacker", guides Alyssa through STEM class, teaching her how to think like a NASA engineer. She learns "hacking" can also be about creating. She learns it can be about trusting herself to figure things out.

She learns it can be about expecting to mess up.As Alyssa learns how to think, she creates her own Maker Space in her head. She starts to think like a NASA engineer. A different type of "hacker".Educator NoteThis late elementary and early middle grade fiction novel for STEM students is meant to encourage the positive traits of the "hacker" culture; focusing on persistence, creativity, self-trust, and a growth mindset. Complex STEM projects can be frustrating, and this book aims to teach thinking patterns that help work through the frustration, and hopefully come out the other side a bit wiser.The author is a software engineer who has worked on a variety of projects, including NASA missions, aircraft avionics, medical devices, and attempts at home repair (thank you YouTube). He lives in Texas with his wife and three children, a fish, a dog who sometimes listens, and piles of electronics he won't give away.