STEM Tuesday– Amphibians– Author Interview with Annette Whipple
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 Annette Whipple, author of Ribbit! The Truth About Frogs. The book investigates some of the more than 7,000 frogs around the world and invites readers to take an active interest in their preservation. The Truth About the Writing Process By Ann McCallum Staats Ann: There’s a great mix of facts, incredible photography, and just-for-fun jokes and asides (which are TOAD-ally awesome to quote you!) in this book. Can you share how this all came together? Annette: Ribbit! The Truth About Frogs is part of The Truth About series with Reycraft Books. I had already written about owls, dogs, and spiders—and I was ready to write about an animal familiar to me that I still didn’t know a lot about. (My favorite topics to write about are the ones I’m already curious about!) I suggested to my editor the
STEM Tuesday– Amphibians– Writing Tips & Resources
Hello! Welcome back to STEM Tuesday’s Writing Tips and Resources. I’m Stephanie. Did you know that axolotls are amphibians? I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it’s true; they’re salamanders. And actually, they’re strange ones, since they don’t fully grow up, but instead stay in their “tadpole” stage, keeping their gills and living underwater completely. Very rarely, they can spontaneously morph into terrestrial animals. When this happens, their gills recede and they depend on their lungs to breathe. Anyway, happy poetry month! If you’ve read last week’s post, you’re familiar with poems about frogs, like the informative ones found in Amphibian Acrobats. Today I’m excited to share two writerly resources with surprisingly relevant titles. The first, by a Utah poet and professor, is Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens: On Reading and Writing Poetry Forensically (2024). Its title references American poet Marianne Moore, who said that a poem is “an imaginary garden with real toads in them.” Elaborating on that, Rekdal
STEM Tuesday– Amphibians– In the Classroom
Studying amphibians is a natural interest for most students. After all, some amphibians hop, they stick out their tongues to catch their meals, and they go back and forth from land to water. Studying amphibians is also a great way to expand students’ critical thinking skills through STEM. Luckily, some great books can help teachers, parents, librarians, and others on this mission. First of all, what is an amphibian? By definition, they are a cold-blooded vertebrate animal that usually has two different life stages in two different habitats. That is, larval in a water stage, and breathing in a land environment. Amphibians include frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders. Caecilians are also included, though they are not as well known. The word amphibian derives from the Greek words “amphi”, which means “both sides”, and “bio”, which means “life”. This refers to the two stages of life in two different environments. Many engaging books teach and inspire children to learn more about
STEM Tuesday– Amphibians– Book List
Amphibians are animals that tend to live part of their life underwater and part of their life on land. Frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts have soft, moist skin, and most can breathe through their skin – as long as it stays damp. Adult amphibians also use lungs to breathe. Amphibian Acrobats by Leslie Bulion, illustrated by Robert Meganck This book is filled with froggy poetry about Olympic jumpers, deep-freeze artists, salamander wrestlers, and marathon walkers that migrate to their puddle home to lay eggs every spring. From caecilians to salamanders, each poem introduces amazing amphibian behavior. Amphibian Groups by Sue Bradford Edwards A fascinating, photo-illustrated exploration of various frogs, salamanders, and caecilians and how they band together and cooperate to ensure their survival. It includes eye-catching graphics, multiple writing prompts, and discussion questions, as well as an awesome list of facts and a call to action. Tree Frogs: Life in the Leaves by Moira Rose Donohue Five chapters discuss where
