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Breakthrough
Cover of Breakthrough
Breakthrough
How One Teen Innovator Is Changing the World
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Featured in the 2018 movie Science Fair!

A National Science Teachers Association Best STEM Book of 2017

In this acclaimed memoir, teen innovator and scientist Jack Andraka tells the story behind his revolutionary discovery.

When a dear family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer, Jack was inspired to create a better method of early detection. At the age of fifteen, he garnered international attention for his breakthrough: a four-cent strip of paper capable of detecting pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers four hundred times more effectively than the previous standard.

Jack's story is not just a story of dizzying international success; it's a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying and finding the resilience to persevere and come out.

His account inspires young people, who he argues are the most innovative, to fight for the right to be taken seriously and to pursue our own dreams. Do-it-yourself science experiments are included in each chapter, making Breakthrough perfect for STEM curriculum.

But above all, Jack's memoir empowers his generation with the knowledge that we can each change the world if we only have the courage to try.

Featured in the 2018 movie Science Fair!

A National Science Teachers Association Best STEM Book of 2017

In this acclaimed memoir, teen innovator and scientist Jack Andraka tells the story behind his revolutionary discovery.

When a dear family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer, Jack was inspired to create a better method of early detection. At the age of fifteen, he garnered international attention for his breakthrough: a four-cent strip of paper capable of detecting pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers four hundred times more effectively than the previous standard.

Jack's story is not just a story of dizzying international success; it's a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying and finding the resilience to persevere and come out.

His account inspires young people, who he argues are the most innovative, to fight for the right to be taken seriously and to pursue our own dreams. Do-it-yourself science experiments are included in each chapter, making Breakthrough perfect for STEM curriculum.

But above all, Jack's memoir empowers his generation with the knowledge that we can each change the world if we only have the courage to try.

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About the Author-
  • Jack Andraka was just a fifteen-year-old Maryland high school student when he invented an inexpensive early-detection test for pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers. Now, at eighteen, he has already won the 2012 Intel ISEF Gordon E. Moore Award, the 2012 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Youth Achievement Award, first place in the 2014 Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, and the 2014 Jefferson Award. He speaks to audiences across the globe about his personal story, his research, LGBT issues, and his ideas for STEM education reform. He has been featured in several documentaries, including Morgan Spurlock's You Don't Know Jack, as well as countless radio, newspaper, and magazine articles.

Reviews-
  • The Horn Book

    July 1, 2015
    With Matthew Lysiak. Writing at age eighteen, Andraka recalls how, at just fourteen, he began the research that led him to discover a more efficient diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer. The story of Andraka's success (with occasional black-and-white photos) is inspiring, but the tone is sometimes didactic, especially when Andraka relates his personal struggles with bullying because of his homosexuality. Experiments and math tips are appended.

    (Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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    HarperCollins
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    All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.

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How One Teen Innovator Is Changing the World
Jack Andraka
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