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STEM Tuesday
  • STEM Tuesday-- Fossils-- In the Classroom
    STEM Tuesday– Fossils– In the Classroom
    January 14, 2025 by
    Fossils are like time capsules that preserve clues about life on Earth millions of years ago. They help us reconstruct the planet’s past, including ancient environments, climate conditions, and ecosystems. By studying fossils, we learn how the Earth has changed and how life has evolved in response to these changes. These books explore fossils and how they tell Earth’s story. They make a great starting point for fossil classroom discussions and activities!     Tales of the Prehistoric World: Adventures from the Land of the Dinosaurs by Kallie Moore, illustrated by Becky Thorns How do stromatolites in Australia connect to Mars? Starting with the answer provided by these oldest known fossils (3.5 billion years old), we are led on an engaging journey through time. Detailed discussions of the life found in each period are sandwiched between captivating accounts of the intrigues, adventures, and conflicts of scientists, kids, farmers, and miners who discovered some unique and surprising fossils.   Classroom Activity We...
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  • STEM Tuesday-- Fossils-- Book List
    STEM Tuesday– Fossils– Book List
    January 7, 2025 by
    Ancient Stories Cast in Stone Every fossil tells a tale. It could be a story about an adventurous life in the ocean, before becoming buried beneath layers of sediment. Or it could just raise lots of questions, starting with: how did that get here? Mary Anning and Paleontology for Kids: Her Life and Discoveries, with 21 Activities by Stephanie Bearce Readers get to know Mary Anning as a child and, later, as she discovers her first skeleton. Mary did more than dig up bones, though. She cleaned them, figured out how to put them together in a complete skeleton, and drew detailed scientific illustrations about her finds. Scattered throughout the book are sidebars that dive into details about aspects of life in the 1800s as well as the hands-on activities. Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Paleontologists: With Stem Projects for Kids by Karen Bush Gibson, illustrated by Hui Li Paleontologists...
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  • Happy New Year from STEM Tuesday
    Happy New Year from STEM Tuesday
    December 31, 2024 by
    Time Out with the old and in with the new.  The calendar will soon turn from 2024 to 2025 and it has me thinking a lot about time. It started a few weeks ago with a memory of the old, 1970s holiday TV special, Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. Why Rudolph’s Shiny New Year should be taking up the brain space of a 60-year-old is anyone’s guess, but there it sits.  Time is on my mind. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about the passage of time and how we spend it.  2024 has been odd and loaded with distractions, detours, and dramas. For me, 2024 has been an odd creative year during which time management has been a struggle. I’ve made creative progress this year but it’s been slow and in new directions. As many have experienced, new creative directions often start with the enthusiasm of a New Year’s resolution but...
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  • C Fleming
    STEM Tuesday– Cryptography (Math)/Spy Science– Author Candace Fleming
    December 24, 2024 by
    Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math! Today we’re interviewing Candace Fleming, author of The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II.  It’s a fascinating look at the British effort to defeat a Nazi invasion by breaking their military codes. The staff were mostly female, and most of those women were teenage girls. The book is garnering a lot of attention and starred reviews. “In this absorbing book, Fleming approaches the subject by telling the individual stories of 10 young women… who left their homes to work secretly on projects related to the German military’s Enigma cipher machine. Even readers with little interest in codes and ciphers will find the women’s experiences intriguing.” — Booklist Review (starred)   CTB: Hi Candace. Welcome to STEM Tuesday. My first question: Did you always...
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Contributors

Photo of Christine Taylor Butler

Christine Taylor Butler

Christine Taylor-Butler has been a prolific consumer of public
libraries from an early age. A consummate tinkerer it was deemed
advisable she study engineering at MIT for job security. Years later she made a break for the corporate door and delved into children’s literature hoping to write stories about talking animals when a sneaky editor at Scholastic conned her into writing non-fiction for children.…

Photo of Callie Dean

Callie Dean

Callie Dean is a musician, writer, educator, and program evaluator. She teaches applied research at Eastern University and is passionate about the role of the arts in effecting community transformation. She lives in Shreveport, La., with her husband and two sons.  She is the director of CYBER.ORG, a STEM education organization with a national network of more than 25,000 K-12 teachers.…

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Andi Diehn

Andi Diehn grew up near the ocean chatting with horseshoe crabs and now lives in the mountains surrounded by dogs, cats, lizards, chickens, ducks, moose, deer, and bobcats, some of which help themselves to whatever she manages to grow in the garden. You are most likely to find her reading a book, talking about books, writing a book, or discussing politics with her sons.…

Photo of Mike Hays

Mike Hays

Mike Hays is from Kansas and is a tried and true flatlander by birth. He would most assuredly be obsessed with a statue of mysterious origins, especially if he could buy said statue on the cheap. He has worked as a molecular microbiologist for over 25 years, has coached high school sports, and writes middle-grade books.…

Photo of Sue Heavenrich

Sue Heavenrich

Sue Heavenrich is an award-winning author, blogger, and bug-watcher. A long line of ants marching across the kitchen counter inspired her first article for kids. When not writing, she’s either in the garden or tromping through the woods. Her books for middle-grade readers include Funky Fungi: 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens, and More and Diet for a Changing Climate.…

Photo of Stephanie Jackson

Stephanie Jackson

Stephanie Jackson’s poems and prose have been published in Cricket magazine and various literary journals including Touchstones, where she’s been a contributing poetry editor. A nature-loving creative, she writes picture books, middle-grade novels, and more. Professional memberships include the Authors Guild, the American Night Writers Association, the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.…

Photo of Karen Latchana Kenney

Karen Latchana Kenney

Karen Latchana Kenney loves to write books about animals, and looks for them wherever she goes—from leafcutter ants trailing through the Amazon rain forest in Guyana, where she was born, to puffins in cliff-side burrows on the Irish island of Skellig Michael. She especially enjoys creating books about nature, biodiversity, conservation, and groundbreaking scientific discoveries—but also writes about civil rights, astronomy, historical moments, and many other topics.…

Photo of Margo Lemieux

Margo Lemieux

A recently retired professor of art, Margo is devoted to seeing that the A stays in STEAM. Science & technology need the heart that comes with art. It was lack of heart that led to the ecological crisis we have today. The process of creativity is closely related to that of scientific inquiry.

She is a  published picture book writer and illustrator, editor, poet, and amateur ukulele player.…

Photo of Lydia Lukidis

Lydia Lukidis

Lydia Lukidis is the author of 48 trade and educational books, as well as 31 e-Books. Her latest STEM book, THE BROKEN BEES’ NEST (Kane Press, 2019), was nominated for a CYBILS Award, and her forthcoming STEM book, DEEP, DEEP, DOWN: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench will be published by Capstone in 2023.…

Photo of Maria Marshall

Maria Marshall

Maria is a children’s author, blogger, and poet passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. She was a round 2 judge for the 2018 & 2017 Cybils Awards. And a judge for the #50PreciousWords competition since its inception. Two of her poems are published in The Best Of Today’s Little Ditty 2016 and 2014-2015 anthologies.…

Photo of Carla Mooney

Carla Mooney

Carla Mooney loves to explore the world around us and discover the details about how it works. An award-winning author of numerous nonfiction science books for kids and teens, she hopes to spark a healthy curiosity and love of science in today’s young people. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, three kids, and dog. When not writing, she can often be spotted at a hockey rink for one of her kids’ games.…

Photo of Shruthi Rao

Shruthi Rao

Shruthi was that kid who actually enjoyed writing essays in school! She wrote her first novel when she was eleven. It was an Enid Blyton rip-off. It was terrible (so she says). She didn’t write stories for a long time after that. Instead, Shruthi got a Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from one of the top schools of India, and worked in the IT industry for four years.…

Photo of Janet Slingerland

Janet Slingerland

Janet Slingerland grew up studying animals and conducting science experiments before pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. She spent 15 years writing code for things like submarines, phones, and airplanes before deciding to share her passion for knowledge and STEM with others. Janet now has more than 20 published books for readers in grades K through 12, including Explore Atoms and Molecules!…

Photo of Susan Summers

Susan Summers

Susan started her career as a zookeeper and enjoyed working with polar bears, wolves, and owls – to name just a few of her favorite animals. Interest in science and nature firmly took hold and she followed that career by becoming a wildlife biologist. In this engaging field, she was able to participate in research on a variety of wildlife, including bears, bats, and fabulous birds!…

Photo of Jennifer Swanson

Jennifer Swanson

Jennifer Swanson dreams of one day running away to the Museum of Science and Industry- then maybe she could look at all the exhibits and try out all the gadgets without competing for them with her kids. An author of thirty nonfiction science books for grades 3-6, Jennifer’s goal is to show kids that Science Rocks!…