Growing With Science Blog

The fun thing about Bug of the Week is that sometimes you spot a critter that has been there all along, you just haven’t paid attention to it before. Today’s spider is an example of this. Here’s a little spider that has built a web in the corner and is hanging from it.

It is a tiny little spider, it’s body is less than 1/3 of an inch long. I have seen these spiders many times before with their long front legs stretched out in front, but they are so small, I never really looked at them carefully.

In a closer view you can see the front legs have a soft, feathery appearance, which led to the common name of feather-legged orb weaver. They are also called cribellate orb weavers.

It’s amazing when you look at a macro photograph how the color and details pop out.

I learned from Nature at Close Range that the cribellate orb weavers have no venom, but catch their prey in the hairy front legs.

Now that I have been formally introduced to my fuzzy little neighbor, I’ll be sure to pay more attention to it in the future.

If you or your children are interested in learning more about your spider neighbors, try:

I have more information about these books at baby spiders and some books.

This week for Meet A Scientist Monday let’s take a look at a book that introduces us to ten women scientists.

Super Women in Science by Kelly Di Domenico contains the biographies of women scientists who made outstanding contributions to their fields of study. Starting with the tragic story of Hypatia, born in the year 355, through the first African-American woman in space, Mae Jemison, this book briefly summarizes the lives of women in the light of the times in which they lived. Each chapter summarizes the life of a single woman, listed in chronological order.

Some of the women, like Rachel Carson, are household names. In other cases the author has chosen a less well-known scientist. For example, instead of a biography of primatologist Jane Goodall, Di Domenico introduces us to Birute Galdikas, a woman who studies orangutans in a similar ground-breaking way that Goodall studies chimpanzees. It is fun to learn about someone new.

Most of the women had to struggle against bias to continue working in science. For example, Maria Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for physics, but had to work as a volunteer because no university would hire her early in her career. Hearing the same setbacks due to gender bias again and again is a bit disheartening, but it does reflect the realities of the times.

Part of the high-quality Women’s Hall of Fame Series, this particular volume does have a few minor flaws. For example, in the second chapter on fossil-hunter Mary Anning, some of the scientific names are not properly capitalized. The list of sources in the back, however, are extremely helpful for children who get excited about the life of one of these women and want to find out more.

Super Women in Science is likely to be inspiring not only children interested in science, but also those interested in history. Although listed as a middle grade book, I think older children will also find it useful.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 102 pages
Publisher: Second Story Press (January 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1896764665
ISBN-13: 978-1896764665

This post was prepared for Nonfiction Monday, a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. (I usually participate in this carnival at my Wrapped in Foil blog.) For more information, stop by Anastasia Suen’s Nonfiction Monday page. This week’s carnival is at Bookish Blather.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this older book for review.

Did you know this week, May 10-16, 2010, is Children’s Book Week? (For more information, see the Children’s Book Council).

With great timing, I just had a grandma ask me to recommend a book for her 4-year-old granddaughter, who is interested in bugs.

Here’s a few of our favorite picture books, both fiction and nonfiction. They are in no particular order and there are many other very good books about insects and spiders out there. I chose these because of they haven’t lost their appeal over the years.

Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries have a wonderful nonfiction series, asking the question “Are you…?” Are you a butterfly? Are you a grasshopper? Are you an ant? All are beautifully done and well-researched books. The child is brought into the story in a creative way.

At that age, the First Discovery Series books are fun to explore nonfiction. They have clear acrylic pages that change the scenes when you turn them. We have The Ladybug and Other Insects by Gallimard Jeunesse and Pascale de Bourgoing and Butterflies.

Lois Ehlert’s books are visually lovely, and Waiting for Wings is no exception. This book gives the child a chance to learn about both butterflies and plants.

Diane Cronin and Harry Bliss have a lovely series of fiction books with invertebrate main characters. Diary of a Spider, Diary of a Fly and Diary of a Worm are sweet and funny. We discovered them at a bit older age (6 or 7), but I think an advanced four-year-old child would enjoy them.

Two Bad Ants might also be for a bit older child, because in this classic fiction book the ants get into scary situations and the illustrations are not as bright and colorful. Children with a sense of adventure and a good imagination will enjoy it.

We like the ubiquitous Eric Carle books, such as The Very Busy Spider. They are fiction, as Carle has the butterfly in A Very Hungry Caterpillar emerging from a cocoon. (Butterflies don’t make cocoons.) I just substitute the word pupa and explain why.

Ruth Heller’s How to Hide a Butterfly has fascinating illustrations to explore and a wonderful rhyming text. There are insects and spiders hidden in each two page spread.

I hope you find something useful here.

Do you have any favorite picture books about insects that I’ve missed?

All the books on this list are personal copies that we purchased. For information on my affiliation with Amazon, see the disclosure page.