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STEM Tuesday
  • STEM Tuesday-- Cryptography (Math)/Spy Science-- In the Classroom
    STEM Tuesday– Cryptography (Math)/Spy Science– In the Classroom
    December 10, 2024 by
    In my former career, I worked with communications and communication security (which included cryptography). It is a topic that will always be near and dear to my heart. This month, I read the following books:   How to Be an International Spy by Andy Briggs This book covers lots of different topics associated with being a spy. The science around it all ranges from psychology to quantum physics. It includes lots of practice activities to help you fully engage in the topic.   Top Secret Science: Projects You’re Not Supposed to Know About by Jennifer Swanson If you’re looking more for the history of secret projects, this is the book for you. It looks at a variety of programs that were run in secret.   Can You Crack the Code? by Ella Schwartz and Lily Williams If your goal is to learn how to create and crack secret codes, you might want to check out this book. It does a great job...
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  • STEM Tuesday-- Spy Science and Cryptography-- Book List
    STEM Tuesday– Spy Science and Cryptography– Book List
    December 3, 2024 by
    From ancient ciphers to modern-day digital encryption techniques, this month’s book list explores the science, technology, engineering, and math that make code-making (and code-breaking) possible.         The Enigma Girls written by Candace Fleming It all began with a letter in an unmarked envelope received by ten teenage girls. It was World War II, and the British were desperate to break the German Enigma code. Instead of turning to cryptographers, these women were responsible for Bletchley Park, a well-kept secret operating under the code name Station X. Award winning author Candace Fleming spins an engaging narrative based on true facts.     Unbreakable: The Spies Who Cracked the Nazis’ Secret Code by Rebecca Barone Rebecca Barone jumps across the European continent to trace the history of the Enigma machine, an encryption device invented by the Germans and thought to be unbreakable. Barone highlights the international collaboration among Polish,...
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  • Rachel Poliquin author
    STEM Tuesday — Human Body– Author Interview
    November 26, 2024 by
    I’m delighted to welcome Rachel Poliquin to the STEM Tuesday blog today. She has written a fabulous book about the body, but there’s a really cool twist. You’ll see… “Kids and adult alike will love poring over the different sections of this book and will delight in informing their friends and family members of the facts they’ve learned.”—School Library Journal ★ A perfect book for engaging kids in STEM: This illustrated tour of our “leftover” body parts (like the appendix, or even goosebumps) introduces readers age 7-11 to the bizarre and fascinating science of evolution. Welcome to the weirdest museum you’ll ever explore—the one inside your body. Did you know your amazing, incredible body is a walking, talking museum of evolution? In The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers, tour guides Wisdom Tooth and Disappearing Kidney lead readers through a wacky museum dedicated to vestigial structures: body parts that were essential to our ancestors...
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  • STEM Tuesday -- Human Body-- Writing Tips & Resources
    STEM Tuesday — Human Body– Writing Tips & Resources
    November 19, 2024 by
    I am in constant awe of the human body. The sheer magnificence of what our bodies do every second of every minute of every day is remarkable. Recently, neuroscientists at Princeton released a complete neural map of the fruit fly’s miniscule brain. This connectome showed all the connections and cell types in the brain giving insight into processing that can help understand the nuts and bolts of a neurological system. Since the fruit fly brain resembles the basic functionality of a human brain, but on a larger magnitude and complexity, knowing how the system works fundamentally will lead to discoveries toward treating human neurological diseases.  (Side Note: The one fact that caught my attention in the Princeton research was their measurement of the total length of neuron wiring in the fruit fly brain. Although the size of a grain of sand, the fruit fly brain contains about 300 feet of...
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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.…

Photo of Andi Diehn

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!…