Anastasia Suen

September 16, 2022September 15, 2022

Let’s Explore Deserts

Let’s Explore Deserts
by Tammy Gagne (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Introduces readers to deserts and important animals and plants that live there. Learn how deserts benefit the rest of the world and the threats they face.

Snippet: Some deserts are the hottest places on Earth. The Sahara Desert in Africa gets as hot was 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius). Other deserts are cold. The world’s largest desert is in Antarctica. Temperatures there can drop as low as -129 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees Celsius).

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

September 9, 2022September 8, 2022

Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain

Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain
by JoAnn Deak (Author), Terrence Deak (Author), and Neely Daggett (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Go to sleep and grow your brain!

During the day, your brain helps you do things like eat, walk, play with friends, and learn new things―and using your brain helps it stretch and get stronger. But did you know that you have the power to grow and train your brain just by going to sleep? In fact, while you’re resting, your brain is doing some of its most important work!

Learn about the important jobs your brain does at night like:

Locking in what you learned during the day
Resetting itself so that it’s ready when you wake up
Even taking a bath to make sure it’s clean and healthy!

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

September 2, 2022September 1, 2022

Chickenology: The Ultimate Encyclopedia

Chickenology: The Ultimate Encyclopedia
by Barbara Sandri (Author), Francesco Giubbilini (Author), and Camilla Pintonato (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: This visual encyclopedia presents chickens in all of their feathered glory. Discover the incredible variety of chickens with different origins, breeds, and feather patterns. Learn incredible facts: did you know that chickens can learn to count up to four and have excellent hearing? Many even like to listen to music!

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

August 26, 2022August 25, 2022

Five Hiding Ostriches

Five Hiding Ostriches
by Barbara Barbieri McGrath (Author) and Riley Samels (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Count five fast ostriches as they play hide-and-seek with a lurking lion in this rhyming early concepts counting picture book!

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

August 19, 2022August 18, 2022

Working with Computers and Robotics

Working with Computers and Robotics
by Sonya Newland (Author) and Diego Vaisberg (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Learn how hardware and software work, and discover how engineers are creating robots to help us out on Earth — and in space. Writing in binary code and building a brushbot are just a couple of the fun activities included.

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

August 12, 2022August 11, 2022

Footprints Across the Planet

Footprints Across the Planet
by Jennifer Swanson (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Every footprint–from the physical to the digital and the permanent to the fleeting–leaves a mark on Earth telling a story of the past, the present, or the future. What type of imprint will YOU leave?

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

The author, Jennifer Swanson, is one of my former students.
Copyright © 2022 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

August 5, 2022August 4, 2022

Making Math Fun

My new Focus on STEM column, Making Math Fun, is in the August Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries newsletter.

Snippet: It’s already time for back-to-school! One of the 30 ways math coach Mr. Elementary Math recommends to make math fun is using picture-book read-alouds with students.

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

July 29, 2022July 28, 2022

The Art of Clean Code

The Art of Clean Code: Best Practices to Eliminate Complexity and Simplify Your Life
by Christian Mayer (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Learn eight principles to simplify your code and become a more effective (and successful) programmer with real-world examples:

Concentrate on the important stuff with the 80/20 principle — focus on the 20% of your code that matters most
Avoid coding in isolation: create a minimum viable product to get early feedback
Write code cleanly and simply to eliminate clutter
Avoid premature optimization that risks over-complicating code
Balance your goals, capacity, and feedback to achieve the productive state of Flow
Apply the Do One Thing Well philosophy to vastly improve functionality
Design efficient user interfaces with the Less is More principle
Tie your new skills together into one unifying principle: Focus

Snippet: Large companies like International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Microsoft, and Apple employ the Pareto principle to build faster, more user-friendly computers by channeling their focus on the vital few; that is, by repeatedly optimizing the 20 percent of the code that was executed most often by the average user. Not all code is created equal. A minority of code has a dominating impact on the user experience, while much of the code has little impact. You might double-click the File Explorer icon multiple times per day, but you seldom change the access rights of a file. The 80/20 principle tells you where to focus your optimization efforts!

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

July 22, 2022July 21, 2022

Thank You, Corals

Thank You, Corals (Animals We Can’t Live Without)
by Emma Huddleston (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Why do we need corals? Find out in this book from the Animals We Can’t Live Without series! Meet different coral species and see how they help their environments. Learn about their role in the food web and how their actions benefit animals.

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

July 15, 2022July 14, 2022

How to Teach Grown-Ups About Pluto

How to Teach Grown-Ups About Pluto: The cutting-edge space science of the solar system
by Dean Regas (Author) and Aaron Blecha (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Pluto has not been a planet since 2006. But this tiny world still inspires people of all ages while sparking controversy. In this delightfully witty book, astronomer Dean Regas teaches you how to educate your grown-up about the cutting-edge science of space, most crucially the reason why Pluto is NOT a planet anymore. Delving into the history of space discoveries, the key players who have helped our understanding of the universe (including the 11-year-old girl who named Pluto in the first place), and the ever-changing nature of science, this book will equip every reader with the tools they need to bring their grown-ups fully up to speed, and to sneak in as many amazing astronomical facts as possible. And there’s a handy quiz at the end so that you can check your grown-up has been paying attention!

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