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  • STEM Tuesday-- Naturalists-- Author Interview: Danna Staaf
    STEM Tuesday– Naturalists– Author Interview: Danna Staaf
    April 22, 2025 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 featuring Danna Staaf, a marine biologist and author of several science books. Her book The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biology garnered these reviews: Notable Award Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2023 Booklist Top 10 History for Youth, 2023 Booklist Top 10 Science and Technology Books for Youth, 2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choices, 2023 Booklist Top 10 Biographies & Memoirs for Youth, 2023 School Library Journal Best Book of 2022   Andi Diehn: I love your sidebar in the first few pages about historic accuracy and doing our best with what we know until we can add to that knowledge. Why include this? Danna Staaf: Honesty really is the best policy, especially when talking to children. Both the historical and the scientific record are intrinsically incomplete—there...
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    STEM Tuesday– Naturalists– Writing Tips & Resources
    April 15, 2025 by
    Hello again, STEM Tuesday friends. Here in Utah the spring has been iffy, with bitter winds and snow as recently as two weeks ago. Now that the air is warm and filled with little white blossoms from the cherry trees, it seems like we’re finally close to summer. With the warming weather, and our monthly theme of naturalists, my first impulse is to recommend a nature walk. When I was young, I loved looking at different leaf shapes, and feeling their various textures. I remember washing out an Altoids tin and keeping an assortment of dried flowers, twigs, and rocks. These sorts of outings are timeless. It being poetry month, I have a wonderful resource for you: a book about writing nature poems, written for and featuring young poets called A Crow Doesn’t Need a Shadow: A Guide to Writing Poetry From Nature by Lorraine Ferra. Indeed, the first chapter...
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  • STEM Tuesday-- Naturalists-- In the Classroom
    STEM Tuesday– Naturalists– In the Classroom
    April 8, 2025 by
      Instead of just reading about ecosystems or food chains in a textbook, naturalists are out in the world seeing it happen —watching ants build a colony, seeing mushrooms grow after rain, or noticing how birds behave at different times of day. These books explore naturalists, what they do, and how you can be a naturalist too. They make a great starting point for nature explorations, classroom discussions, and activities!   I Begin with Spring: The Life and Seasons of Henry David Thoreau  by Julie Dunlap and Megan Elizabeth Baratta Henry Thoreau collected leaves and arrowheads from a young age. He could tell when skunk cabbage was blooming by smelling the air. As an adult, he kept copious notes about nature, sending samples and observations to scientists. Observant readers will enjoy the timeline that runs along the bottom of the pages. Back matter dives into phenology (botanical signs of the...
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  • STEM Tuesday-- Naturalists -- Book List
    STEM Tuesday– Naturalists — Book List
    April 1, 2025 by
    A naturalist is a person who observes plants, animals and fungi, and looks at how they fit into their environments. You don’t have to go to a special school to learn how to be a naturalist; you just have to be curious. Here are a few books about naturalists, and how you can become one. I Begin with Spring: The Life and Seasons of Henry David Thoreau by Julie Dunlap and Megan Elizabeth Baratta Henry Thoreau collected leaves and arrowheads from a young age. He could tell when skunk cabbage was blooming by smelling the air. As an adult, he kept copious notes about nature, sending samples and observations to scientists. Observant readers will enjoy the timeline that runs along the bottom of the pages. Back matter dives into phenology (botanical signs of the seasons) and how Thoreau’s work has helped modern scientists understand climate change. Wildheart: the Daring Adventures...
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Shruthi Rao

Website: https://www.shruthi-rao.com/

Biography

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.

And then, in the 2000s, she rediscovered my love for writing. Shruthi blogged at Hallucinations! and wrote short stories, and essays for a number of publications. She now writes books for children of all ages, both fiction and non-fiction.