April 2021 – STEM Friday

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021

Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil, and Shell Hunting

Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil, and Shell Hunting: The Definitive Interactive Nature Guide
by Jennifer Swanson (Author) and John D. Dawson (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: No experience is required–only curiosity and courage. This interactive field guide to rocks, fossils, & shells, includes:
-Digging, chiseling, hammering, and wading for rocks and minerals
-Identifying rocks & minerals by location, texture, color, shape and size
-Determining between rocks, geodes, and space rocks
-Finding fossils and setting up a dig site
-Searching and snorkeling for shells
-Storing and displaying your collection
And so much more! Did you notice the metal corners on the book cover?

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

April 23, 2021April 22, 2021

Palm Trees at the North Pole

Palm Trees at the North Pole: The Hot Truth About Climate Change
by Marc ter Horst (Author), Wendy Panders (Illustrator), and Laura Watkinson (Translator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: With facts about farting cows and cracking icebergs, tall windmills and fast electric cars, burly polar bears and cute little pikas, this guide for readers ages 8-12 covers the history of our climate–starting with exploding volcanoes and extinct mammoths–and explains humans’ role in climate change. It also shares information about environmental movements throughout history.

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

April 16, 2021April 15, 2021

How to Build an Insect

How to Build an Insect
by Roberta Gibson (Author) and Anne Lambelet (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Let’s build an insect! In the pages of this book, you’ll find a workshop filled with everything you need, including a head, a thorax, an abdomen, and much more. Try it yourself with the activity in the back of the book!

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

April 9, 2021April 8, 2021

Nature Did It First

Nature Did It First: Engineering Through Biomimicry
by Karen Ansberry (Author) and Jennifer DiRubbio (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Explore the ways we have looked to nature for brilliant new designs and innovations to solve our own conundrums. Each example in nature is paired with a rhyming description, an example of how it has been used by us, and a question to the reader–“what other problems can be solved?”

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

April 2, 2021April 1, 2021

Cougar Crossing

Cougar Crossing: How Hollywood’s Celebrity Cougar Helped Build a Bridge for City Wildlife
by Meeg Pincus (Author) and Alexander Vidal (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: P-22, the famed “Hollywood Cougar,” was born in a national park near Los Angeles, California. When it was time for him to leave home and stake a claim to his own territory, he embarked on a perilous journey–somehow crossing twenty lanes of the world’s worst traffic–to make his home in LA’s Griffith Park, overlooking the famed Hollywood sign. But Griffith Park is a tiny territory for a mountain lion, and P-22’s life has been filled with struggles.

Residents of Los Angeles have embraced this brave cougar as their own and, along with the scientists monitoring P-22, raised money to build a wildlife bridge across Highway 101 to help cougars and other wildlife safely expand their territories and build new homes–ensuring their survival for years to come.

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It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)