Posts Tagged STEM Tuesday

STEM Tuesday– Radio/UV Waves and Applied Physics — Book List

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the things you cannot see! This book list gives an introduction of all the different kinds of waves and radiation out there – and their sometimes surprising applications.

 

 

 

Wave Hi and Goodbye to Energy!: An Introduction to Waves

by Baby Professor

With colorful photographs and simple explanations, this book gives a basic introduction to the different waves of energies and their applications in day to day life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radar and the Raft: A True Story About a Scientific Marvel, the Lives it Saved, and the World it Changed 

by Jeff Lantos

Are you looking for a tale that includes scientific discoveries, the dangers of war and a family in peril? This is the book for you. Jeff Lantos connects the dots between batteries and radar during World War II while adding into the mix a family’s harrowing journey. The result, a rollicking adventure through history. This is an adventure you won’t want to put down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Ray of Light: A Book of Science and Wonder

by Walter Wick

Fascinated by the world of light?  Take a peek inside and discover what it is made of. With fabulous photographs and engaging text, readers will come to understand the secrets of light. Take a look at incandescence, light waves, the color spectrum and more; it just might change the way you observe the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Up: An Illustrated Guide to Telescopes 

by Jacob Kramer and Stephanie Scholz

Telescopes have been our partners exploring the skies for ages. How do they work? Are  all telescopes the same? Peer inside this amazing book and learn about

the instrument that makes our skies shine.

 

Inside In: X-Rays of Nature’s Hidden World

Written by Jan Paul Schutten, photography by Arie van ‘t Riet, translated by Laura Watkinson

What can an X-ray show us? Only nature’s hidden world! See a seahorse’s skeleton, discover how a frog uses its eyes to swallow, and peek under a bee’s furry coat for starters. Images will amaze readers as they explore a world they never knew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlocking the Universe: The Cosmic Discoveries of the Webb Space Telescope

by Suzanne Slade

It took thousands of people to build the James Webb Space Telescope. With the help of scientists and engineers, what started with a dream became an amazing reality. The result? Images that captivated the world. This is the story of the James Webb Space Telescope, and it will astound you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Radium Girls: Young Readers’ Edition: The Scary but True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark 

by Kate Moore

The true story of the young women who worked in watch factories painting dials with glow-in-the-dark radium paint – and started falling ill with a mysterious illness, and their determination to fight back. For fans of both science and history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Way Things Work 

by David Macaulay

Learn about all things physics in this exciting, fun-filled book, including about different kinds of waves and their applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

X-Rays: Super Science Feats: Medical Breakthroughs

by Alicia Z Klepeis

With photographs, infographics and activities, this book is an introduction to how x-rays were discovered, how X-ray imaging works, and its applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microwaves

by Traci Vonder Brink

Microwaves don’t just cook your food! This book tells us all the other things that microwaves do – carry messages, help detect weather and much more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understanding and Using Radio Waves (Electromagnetic Spectrum) 

by Elizabeth Rubio

Radio waves don’t just mean music on your radio. The applications of radio waves are far-reaching – it is used in space exploration too! Learn all about radio waves, transmitters, AM/FM frequencies and much more in this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Summers is a wildlife enthusiast and an author. Contact her at: https://susan-inez-summers.weebly.com/

 

 

Shruthi Rao is an author. Her home on the web is https://shruthi-rao.com

 

 

 

STEM Tuesday– Fossils– Author Interview

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 Alison Pearce Stevens, author of Rhinos in Nebraska. Rhinos is the tale of a supervolcano, its aftermath, and the intrepid scientist who discovered one of the world’s greatest paleontology sites–an ancient Nebraska waterhole filled with the fossilized skeletons of hundreds of animals that look like they came straight out of Africa.

This book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection that’s won three Nebraska Book Awards!

Andi Diehn: Time as a character – there’s a lot of discussion of time in your book – the time that’s passed since ancient animals lived in Nebraska, the time it takes to turn bones into fossils, how time can change a landscape and make it hard to find the exact location where a fossil was found. Why is geological time an important concept for kids (and adults) to understand?

Alison Pearce Stevens: How often do we say we’re “running out of time” or “don’t have time” for something? I know I say it a lot. Time is this commodity that always seems to be in short supply, but our concept of time is limited by our (rather limited) experience. I think taking a step back to get some big-picture perspective can be really helpful. On a geologic time scale, we humans exist for the blink of an eye. Given that, maybe some of the issues we feel pressured about aren’t actually so pressing. I think temporal perspective-taking can help us prioritize what’s really important in our lives, so we can be more content with what we have and put our energy into bigger, truly pressing issues.

As a side note, time played a big role in how this book came to be. I was working at University of Nebraska State Museum on a series of exhibits about Nebraska’s past, present, and future, and one section focused on the Ashfall Fossil Beds. Now a state park, it’s the site of an ancient water hole filled with hundreds of skeletons of ancient animals, from camels and rhinos to crowned cranes and turtles. There were elephants around then, too. It looks like something you would find in modern-day Africa—but it’s in the middle of North America. One day, it hit me—twelve million years ago, those animals were running around in what’s now my backyard. It was kind of mind-blowing. That’s the moment I knew I had to write Rhinos in Nebraska.

Andi: I love the descriptions and discussions of tools – field notes, GPS, topographic map, scanning electron microscope. 

Alison: Field notes tie to any kind of journaling or record-keeping. Writing down what we see, feel, and experience gives us a way to track what’s happening in our lives, so we can gain some perspective on things as they play out—or simply have a record of them that we can refer back to. I track things like rainfall and bloom time and when I see migratory birds in my yard, and I regularly go back to see how those things have changed (a lot, it turns out).

If you’ve ever tried to catch them all in Pokémon Go, you’ve used GPS. It’s also essential for geocaching, if families have done that. GPS is how the map app in a phone or car knows where you are and tells you where to turn next.

Topographic maps are commonly used by hikers. They’re super useful when there are multiples trails, so you can tell which ones are steep or have lots of hills, and which ones provide a gentler hike.

If you look up SEM images, they are super cool—the detail on tiny things like pollen grains are beyond anything you’ve imagined.

Andi: I love this line about Mike Voorhies: “It was the best he could do at the time with the information he had available.” How does this quote reflect the scientific process?

Alison: To me, that line summarizes the scientific process. One of the main things I wanted readers to take away from the book was how we know about things that happened millions of years ago. I think people tend to think of science as a bunch of facts. We do have facts that are the outcome of scientific investigation. Barrel-bodied rhinos used to live in Nebraska, for example. We can say that with certainty after discovering their fossils, but answering other questions—like when the volcano that buried the Ashfall animals erupted—takes time and patience. Science is a process, and our ability to figure something out is limited by the available equipment and technology.

I like to think there are similarities between scientific investigation and the justice system. Both collect and analyze evidence and use it to reach a conclusion. I would certainly hope that if new evidence comes to light during (or after) a trial, the jurors or judge would be willing to reconsider the conclusions they had reached up to that point, and science is no different.

Andi: Convergent evolution – I love the idea that similar traits can evolve in organisms from different parts of the world. How might kids think about convergent evolution as it applies to organisms they’re familiar with?

Alison: Convergent evolution happens when different organisms living in different places come to share specific characteristics. It happens over time as certain traits help individuals survive and reproduce. The example I use in the book is hummingbirds and sunbirds, which live in Africa. Both have long, curved bills to drink nectar from trumpet-shaped flowers. Birds with longer bills would have been able to drink from tall flowers more easily, so they would have gotten more food. That means they can have more babies, all of which would also have long bills.

The appearance of falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey is actually an example of convergent evolution, as well. DNA evidence tells us that peregrine falcons are more closely related to parrots than hawks or eagles—but those sharp talons, forward-facing eyes, and curved beak help them hunt, so they’ve come to look more like hawks and eagles than their parrot cousins. Another example is eyesight, which evolved separately in vertebrates (animals with backbones) and squid and octopus. Even though we all have eyes, an octopus’s eye is structured differently than ours.

Andi: Details like fossilized seeds stuck in rhinos’ teeth are great! Also great that when the paleobotanists got involved, this was more evidence of a growing team. How does teamwork improve science?

Alison: Teamwork is essential for science, and that’s especially true when you’re studying something as vast as the Ashfall Fossil Beds. Scientists develop expertise in specific areas, so when they encounter something outside their area, they need to find another expert to weigh in. Mike Voorhies studied extinct mammals, so he needed other experts to help with plants, birds, and even dating the age of the volcanic ash. I think some of the best science comes from coordinated team efforts—when lots of people collaborate, you get more creative ideas about how to answer a question and a variety of approaches to call upon to collect the data you need. And collaboration is fun! If you’re part of a good team, you enjoy the work more than you would toiling away on your own.

Andi: There are many times when it seems like the team fails – why is that an important part of the story?

Alison: Every success comes on the heels of a series of failures. That’s a pretty standard story in science—and in life! The process of figuring something out isn’t always easy and usually requires some serious creativity (scientists have to be creative—they don’t get much credit for that!), so there are failures and false-starts and partial successes until they finally get an answer. And then the answer might not be what they expected—so they have to re-evaluate, ask new questions, and start the process of investigation all over again.

Andi: I love Matt Huynh’s illustrations – how do they help make the story accessible?

Alison: Matt’s illustrations are perfect for the book. His woodcuts bring these ancient animals to life in such an unusual way, and they help readers envision what North America might have looked like twelve million years ago. Although the animals were similar to modern African species, there were some key differences, and Matt’s illustrations show our ancient animals as they might have looked. Plus, they’re just fun.

 

 

Alison Pearce Stevens has an M.S. in zoology and Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and behavior. She has researched and written hundreds of articles for Science News Explores, Highlights for Children, and ASK magazine, among others. Her book Rhinos in Nebraska (Henry Holt BYR) details the discovery and excavation of one of the world’s premier paleontology sites, and Animal Climate Heroes (Henry Holt BYR) showcases four incredible animals working to protect their ecosystems—and us. Both were Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. She and her husband have three dogs, one of which would make a great detective dog.

 

 

Andi Diehn works as an editor for Nomad Press and has written many STEM books for kids!

STEM Tuesday– Fossils– Writing Tips & Resources

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome again to STEM Tuesday! I’m Stephanie.

When you’ve been writing for a long time, coming across an old piece of writing is like finding a fossilit’s a record of a bygone era: incomplete, stripped of context, languishing unstudied. The metaphor breaks down eventually, because I’m no paleontologist, but you get the idea. We all have tidbits of stories that we’ve never completely unearthed, or found all the pieces of. And in that spirit, instead of generative prompts, today we have revision prompts!

Revision Prompt 1 | Dig, Discover, Excavate

Pickaxes and rock hammers ready? It’s time to revisit a piece of writing, something you haven’t looked at for a long time. Where do you keep these things? I have discarded notebooks, a drawer of ideas jotted on paper scraps, a list of odd facts, and files scattered on two computers. Wherever your archeological dig site, take a good look, skimming and rereading…

(Teachers, have students select excerpts from classroom journals or past assignments. Define a scope for your students… do you want them to revise a single sentence, a paragraph, a story idea?)

  1. Look for something that catches your eye, for whatever reason. Select a dusty piece but one that seems to say, “I have more to give.” Maybe you thought nothing of it when you wrote it, but now you’re not sure where it came from. It could be strange, or funny, dark-humored or sentimental. Mysterious. Playful. Whatever you like, but something you want to spend time on: something with a hook.
  2. For at least 10 minutes, do some exploratory writing, examining what you’ve found. What’s the size of your “fossil”

    Whale skeleton on sandy land in a desert. Picture by Rachel Claire. Used with permission.

    (writing sample)? What’s its nature? What do you like about it? What does the language do: nail an authorial tone that you like? perfectly capture a universal truth? Where did it come from, within you? answering these and the following questions. Does your fossil want to tell a fiction story, or a non-fiction one? What motivates you to excavate around it? What do you hope to find?

  3. Write down as many revision options for yourself as possible—and make them differ widely in scope, tone, and even genre. Think mash-ups. Think metaphors. Don’t edit your options. Go for variety.
  4. Next, discuss your revision ideas with someone else. If nobody is available, say them aloud anyway. Talk through them. Pick any two significantly different ideas and write them out for 10 minutes each.

If you feel exhausted, it’s well deserved. You dug. You discovered. You excavated. Congrats on your findings! Maybe you’ll continue to revise this piece, or maybe a year from now you’ll dig, discover, and excavate again. After all, the writing process sometimes feels paced like the geologic eras.

Revision Prompt 2 | Fragmented Storytelling

Fossils are seldom found complete. It’s more common to find fragments, and I find memory to be the same way. With creative nonfiction such as I’ve been writing lately for my undergrad classes, while the setting, characters, and events must be accurate, the license to embellish covers a good swath of gray area, such as story structure. Where memory fails, creative nonfiction offers artful transitions. Where historical gaps exist, the genre says, (since know it’s creative) give us approximations of the truth, renditions of it. Give us stories based on true stories.

Sometimes constructing context requires this sort of fragmented, non-linear, woven storytelling. It requires a rhetorical look at sequencing. If that’s something you like, maybe take a look at Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems by editors Sarah Giragosian and Virginia Konchan. It’s a compilation of essays about how to organize poems, but not-so-secretly, I think the methods for motif layering are similarly applicable to prose.

  1. Print both of your revisions from above, double spaced. You may want to print more than one copy each, since this exercise is about experimentation, and there’s always more than one way to revise a sentence. Cut your “fossil” into white strips of paper—individual words, phrases, entire sentences or paragraphs. Now piece these together like the bones of a skeleton. Create a new story using fragments. The story should become both and neither of the stories it was before.
  2. There’s no “wrong” way to do this exercise, but the important part is to break sentences in search of better sentences, to braid metaphors from each version, to look for surprises buried in the words that are already yours. Perhaps you wrote an entire paragraph that’s perfect as it is… almost. Can you substitute a better word from your other story? Alternate sentences. Try reversing parts of the story, or parts of the sentences. Where might sentence fragments do a better job of communicating than a whole sentence would?

How much fragmentation is too much fragmentation? That’s up to you and the story you’re telling. This is, after all, just an exercise. If your new piece feels too fragmented, adjust as necessary.

Do you still like the paleontology metaphor for writing? I’ll be posting some of my extra fossil-themed writing prompts on my website very soon!

All my best,

Stephanie

 

A nature-loving creative, Stephanie Jackson writes poems, articles, picture books, middle-grade novels, and more. Her nonfiction has been published in Cricket magazine and her poems have been published in The Dirigible Balloon and various literary journals including Touchstones, where she’s been a contributing poetry editor. Professional affiliations include the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and The Authors Guild. This spring she’s graduating from Utah Valley University with her English degree, emphasis in creative writing. She interacts with the kidlit community on Twitter as @canoesandcosmos, and you can read more at StephanieWritesforKids.com.