Science Comics: Volcanoes: Fire and Life
by Jon Chad (Author / Illustrator)
Booktalk: In a not-so-distant future our world is as cold as a frozen burrito. But can humanity save itself by harnessing a power that dwells inside the Earth?
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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Melissa Stewart is an award-winning children’s book author who specializes in nonfiction and particularly science. Today we’re highlighting her book, Bird-acious.
This book deserves a second look because it is a fun and educational introduction to birds for young readers. It contains big color photographs and interesting facts. It covers everything from feathers and flying to beaks and eating. There’s even a two-page spread that features photographs of cool bird tongues and describes what the various structures are used for.
But Bird-acious offers even more. In the cover image above, do you see the brown mass in the yellow oval to the right, just under the title? That is an actual owl pellet for kids to dissect. A bird book with its own hands-on activity included, how cool is that?
Want to find out what an owl pellet is? Check out the complete review at Growing with Science blog.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Mission to Pluto: the first visit to an ice dwarf and the Kuiper belt (Scientists in the Field)
by Mary Kay Carson; photos by Tom Uhlman
80 pages; ages 10-12
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
It takes a lot of work to get to Pluto: teams of scientists and engineers, mission control specialists who keep your vehicle on track, and time. Nearly ten years of time – even if your spacecraft is tiny. That’s why the folks at NASA had to build a craft that was durable and could take care of itself.
In 2005, when they were building the New Horizons spacecraft, engineers knew it would need a power source. Solar panels make electricity for most satellites and space probes, “but a sunny day on Pluto is about as bright as twilight on Earth,” writes Mary Kay Carson. So New Horizons carried its own power source: plutonium.
More about the book, and mission-appropriate theme music over at Archimedes Notebook.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Coding with ScratchJr
by Adrienne Matteson (Author)
Booktalk: ScratchJr is a beginner’s programming language that is fun and easy to use. Through simple text written to foster creativity and problem solving, students will learn the art of innovation. Large, colorful images show students how to complete activities.
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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
To the Edge of the Universe, a 14-foot fold-out journey
by Raman Prinja; illus. by John Hersey
36 pages; 8-12 years
Carlton Kids, 2016
Above earth is an atmosphere, and beyond that the space station and the moon, the sun, 8 planets, an asteroid belt, supernovas, more galaxies until you reach… the edge of the known universe.
What I like about this book: The pages are connected in a long, long, long (14-foot long) mural that takes you from the earth’s surface to the edge of the universe. On the reverse side are facts, graphs, charts, constellations… answers to the questions you’ll be asking as you explore the universe. I also love the interaction requires for this book. You can unfold the entire mural – indeed, you could (if you want to) cut it off the cover and tape it to the wall. It’s just plain fun.
Head over to Archimedes Notebook for another space book and hands-on activities for budding space cadets.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Mind-Boggling Numbers
by Michael J. Rosen (Author) and Julia Patton (Illustrator)
Booktalk: If you could hike to the moon, how long would it take? Just how many glasses of lemonade would you need to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool? If everyone on Earth owned exactly the same amount of land, how big would your yard be? And how much time would you spend mowing the lawn? Ms. Mary Math answers the questions . . .
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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Animals in Winter
by Jenny Fretland VanVoorst (Author)
Booktalk: Beginning readers learn how animal behavior changes during the winter season.
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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
We seem to have an animal theme going on today at STEM Friday. I’m featuring a Cybils finalist in the elementary/juvenile nonfiction category, Animal Planet Strange, Unusual, Gross & Cool Animals by Charles Ghigna.
Kids go wild over these kinds of books. With over 200 photographs of weird animals and text by award-winning poet and children’s author Charles Ghigna, how can you go wrong?
First up are the Strange animals. Some of the animals include the blobfish, which was once voted the world’s ugliest animal (see video below); the red-lipped batfish, which turns out can’t swim very well; and the lowland streaked tenrec, a tiny animal which looks like it got tangled up with the spines of a porcupine. After all the weird creatures in that section, it’s hard to imagine what they found for the Unusual, Gross, and Cool animal categories that follow.
Budding zoologists will definitely dare take a look at Animal Planet Strange, Unusual, Gross & Cool Animals. In fact, even the most reluctant reader will want to explore it. Check out a copy today!
Hop, leap or fly over to Growing with Science blog for a review, suggested activity, and a video about that really strange blobfish.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Animals by the Numbers: a book of animal infographics
by Steve Jenkins
48 pages; ages 6-9
HMH, 2016
How much do all the humans on earth weigh? Without adding up everyone’s weight, we have to make an estimate, and that comes to around 350 million tons. That’s a lot, right?
So how much would all the insects on earth weigh? Best estimate of that comes to 100 billion tons – about 15 tons for every person on earth. To help put these huge numbers into context, Steve Jenkins creates infographics – charts, tables, diagrams, and graphs that illustrate information.
He uses bar graphs to compare how fast animals swim, fly, and run and how far animals jump. There are pie charts and “thermometer” graphs, maps and a very cool decision tree illustrating the sorts of things that might run through a small animal’s mind when another creature approaches: does it look dangerous? Does it see me?
What I like about this book: it presents facts about animals in a fun way. Sure, you could read a page telling how fast different animals run, but a chart comparing those speeds makes you think about information in a different way. The way he presents the information is as fun as the questions he explores: how fast do critters have to flap their wings to stay airborne? How many hours a day do animals sleep compared to their waking time?
And, for us writers, Jenkins includes a pie chart showing how he spent his time making the book (5% spent staring into space). Review copy provided by the publisher.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
STEM Friday 