Jennifer Swanson » STEM Tuesday

I admit it. I have yet to see partridge in a pear tree. I have seen a turkey on a fence, a great blue heron on a play set, and a groundhog in an apple tree. I love watching birds and other wildlife in my backyard. I recently asked my #KidsNeedMentors 4th grade class if they’ve ever watched birds in their yards. Sadly, most of them had not. Perhaps reading some of this month’s great list of bird books will get kids excited to look for birds on their own. For this week’s post, I was inspired by three books that covered different bird-related topics. Snowy Owl Invasion! In this book, author Sandra Markle covers one episode in 2013, when snowy owls showed up in lots of places that were outside their normal range. Sightings by citizen scientists alerted researchers to this phenomenon. They were then able to take a closer look at the situation and determine what drove the...

  Happy December! We’ve decided to have fun with the holiday song featuring a partridge in a pear tree and highlight some of our favorite middle-grade STEM titles about birds. Take a “gander” at these books for the budding ornithologists in your classroom. Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop The last remaining Kakapo parrots live on a remote island off the coast of New Zealand. Explore recovery efforts in this Scientists in the Field title by noted author Sy Montgomery.   Beauty and the Beak: How Science, Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle by Deborah Lee Rose and Jane Veltkamp Discover the uplifting story of how one bald eagle was treated with a 3D-printed prosthetic beak after a devastating shooting.   Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95  and  The Race to Save The Lord God Bird...

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview & Book Giveaway, a repeating feature for the fourth Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math! Today we’re interviewing Chana Stiefel, author of FINGERPRINTS: Dead People DO Tell Tales. Mary Kay Carson: How’d you come to write this book? Chana Stiefel: Enslow Publishers was doing a series on True Forensic Crime Stories and the editor contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in writing a book about fingerprints. I was instantly intrigued–mainly because I was a fan of the TV show CSI, I’d never written about forensic science before, and was excited to take out my magnifying glass and dig into the research. That’s one of the best parts of being a science writer: You often get to research and write about topics you know very little about–until you feel like a mini expert. MKC: Did your exhaustive research lead to some interesting finds? Chana: Oh my goodness, yes!...

Well, today is my birthday . . . so to celebrate, I thought I’d make a list of some great middle grade books about birthdays. Enjoy!   Moon Shadow by Erin Downing Thirteen-year-old Lucia Frank discovers that she can become the girl she’s always wanted to be with the help of a little “moon magic” in this charming novel about the value of friendship, family, and finding yourself. Lucia Frank has never had time for her mom’s “new age” nonsense. She doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. All she wants is to figure out how to get her best friend, Will, back and cope with her parents looming divorce. But then something strange happens on the night of her thirteenth birthday. When the eclipsed moon slips into the shadow of the earth, Lucia’s Shadow slips out. Now hidden in a moonstone, the Shadow waits for Lucia to sleep so...