Tag: STEM Friday (Page 2 of 39)

STEM Friday #Kidlit Begin with a Bee

Let’s continue our garden-related series of children’s books with Begin with a Bee by Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, and Phyllis Root, illustrated by Claudia McGehee.

The three authors follow a single rusty-patched bumble bee queen through her life, starting with the bee overwintering in a hole under the ground.

“What else waits all winter under the ground?”

Seeds and roots of plants! By explaining that plants are also important for the bee’s survival by supplying food, young reader’s learn how different living things depend on each other.

The text proceeds in a question-and-answer format. In the spring:

Where will she nest?

It turns out that as well as overwintering, bumble bee queens also nest in the ground. We learn about how the queen feeds her offspring and how they change and grow. One two-page spread shows all the stages the larvae and pupae go through to become bumble bee workers.

You might wonder what bumble bees have to do with gardening. Throughout the summer and into fall the bumble bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers. In the process, the bees pollinate many plants so they can produce the seeds that grow into next year’s plants. Although not mentioned in the text, bumble bees pollinate some plants better than honey bees, for example clover grown for seed. They are also used in greenhouses to pollinate tomatoes.

Before we know it, it is winter again and another bumble bee queen rests in the ground, waiting for spring.

The back matter rocks. The rusty-patched bumble bee page includes facts like that it was the first bee species to go on the endangered species list. The next page lists “Ten things we can all do to help.”

Claudia McGehee’s scratchboard illustrations are incredible. The shapes, textures, and the deep black lines add so much interest to every page. There’s so much to see and explore.

Begin with a Bee is a picture book that will appeal to nature lovers of all ages.  Investigate a copy today!

Related activities:

There are so many cool things to see and do related to this book, it is hard to know where to start.

1. Watch the video by Clay Bolt, A Ghost in the Making:  Searching for the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee.

2. Think about adding fall-blooming native plants to your garden to help bees.  Some general kinds are goldenrods, asters, and joe pye weed. The Xerces Society has more information.

Asters

3. Want to learn more about bumble bees? Visit the citizen science project Bumble Bee Watch.

4. Participate in Pollinator Week activities June 20-26, 2022. You can find fun activities on their Resources page at any time. See our activity suggestions for a previous Pollinator Week.

5. Interested in trying a scratchboard art project like the illustrations in the book? Although there a commercially-prepared products, you can also make your own. See how in this video.

Want to read more? See our growing list of children’s books about pollination at Science Books for Kids.

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 4 – 9 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ Of Minnesota Press (May 25, 2021)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1517908043
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1517908041

Disclosure: This book is my personal copy. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Come visit the STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

STEM Friday #Kidlit Little Killers Has a Big Impact

We all know middle grade readers who can be a little jaded and hard to please. That’s why you should make sure you have Sneed B. Collard III’s newest, Little Killers: The Ferocious Lives of Puny Predators in your arsenal.

With just enough humor sprinkled in, Collard introduces us to some lesser-known predators that have a big impact regardless of their size.

Take the pteropods. More commonly known as sea angels or sea butterflies, he calls them the “potato chips of the sea” –isn’t that great imagery?– because so many critters eat them. But it turns out at least some of these “potato chips” have a bite. The sea angels turn on their mostly vegetarian cousins the sea butterflies and eat them!

After revealing the killer instincts of invertebrates from flatworms to driver ants, the final chapter is a call to action to protect these creatures that we often don’t see or notice, but which serve such important roles in ecosystems.

The book is illustrated with eye-catching stock photographs, like the closeup of the driver ant worker on the cover. A few photographs show young scientists at work, allowing kids to relate.

Little Killers will grab the attention of both budding biologists and reluctant readers.  Get your claws on a copy today!

Related Activities:

Get to know more about tiny predators

  1. Most of us know that lady beetles (also called lady bugs) eat aphids.

convergent lady beetle

Did you know that another stage of their life cycle eats even more aphids than the adults?

Lady beetle larvae don’t look much like their adult parents, but they are even hungrier! When you see them on plants, don’t be alarmed. You should leave them alone.

Let’s look at the rest of the stages.

To start out, adult lady beetles lay eggs that look like tiny orange footballs.

The eggs hatch into voracious larvae.

Any idea what the orange blob below is?

 

If you look very closely at the base where the blob attaches to the plant, you might see a clue. That is the outside skin or exoskeleton of the lady beetle larva.

This is the lady beetle pupa. Doesn’t look much like the beautiful beetle that will emerge in a few days, does it?

Keep your eyes open this spring for lady beetles. Learn about the kinds of lady beetles living in your neighborhood and watch for their life stages.

2. Sea angels are incredibly beautiful, but you are unlikely to see one unless you visit an aquarium.  They are snails without shells that swim in the ocean.

And they are also “Tiny Killers.”

 

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 – 12 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Millbrook Press ™ (March 1, 2022)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728415691
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728415697

Want to entice  younger readers? Try the picture book, Beaver and Otter Get Along…Sort of: A Story of Grit and Patience Between Neighbors by Sneed B. Collard III and illustrated by Meg Sodano. It came out in September.

Meet the author and learn more about the book in this video.

Be sure to visit Sneed’s website

and see our reviews of his books in previous posts.

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 4 – 8 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dawn Publications (September 7, 2021)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728232252
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728232256

Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Come visit the STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

STEM Friday #Kidlit Junk Drawer Ecology

 

Time to revive this blog! I’m going to start with a series of posts inspired by some awesome new children’s STEM books, starting with Junk Drawer Ecology: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don’t Cost a Thing  by Bobby Mercer.

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Do you enjoy themed collections of hands-on experiments and activities  that can be done with little preparation time using stuff from around the house? Then check out the newest in the Junk Drawer Science series which delves into ecology.

First of all, what exactly is ecology? It is the study of the relationships of living things to one another and to their physical surroundings or environment. It encompasses concepts like habitats, food webs, and also human activities such as recycling. The book covers all those aspects.

High school Physics teacher Bobby Mercer has organized instructions for 50 activities into 4 general categories:  “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”, “Animals and Plants”, “Water and Land”, and “Air.” Each activity has a brief summary of the project and the ecology concepts it covers. Next is a list of the materials needed “From the Junk Drawer.” Once you have gathered the materials, the instructions are given step by step, illustrated with black and white photographs (Note:  if you are used to  full color, professional images in children’s books, you might be put off by the quality of the photographs. But remember, smaller gray scale photographs have kept down the cost of the book, part of the effort to keep things inexpensive.)

Included with each activity is a discussion of “The Science Behind It” and ends with “Science for the Ages”, a description of the age requirements for that particular project — based on safety concerns — plus ways to extend learning. Although the reading age is listed as 9-12, most of the experiments and activities could be used as is or modified for a broader age range.

One activity that caught my eye was making your own paper straws — so you don’t have to use as many plastic ones. How can a paper straw be used in a liquid? The solution is dipping it in wax! Mercer also suggests using the paper straws for craft projects. For example, a bundle of un-waxed paper straws might make nests for wild bees if you used sturdy paper and put them in a sheltered location (previous post).

Many of the activities in Junk Drawer Ecology could also be extended and expanded to follow a child’s interests.  Using inexpensive household items to do hands-on science that has potential to grow with the child? It doesn’t get any better than this.

Related Activities:

1. Plant Ecology:  Grow sunflowers

Want to study the relationships between living things? Planting sunflowers can be a great place to start. Larger varieties do well in the yard or garden. Smaller varieties can grow in a big pot on the patio.

Plant seeds in the spring. You can either start the seeds indoors about four weeks before the average last frost date for your region, or your can plant into a pot or the ground outdoors after the last frost date.

Sunflowers provide food for insects, small mammals, and birds. Spiders may use them for a home while catching insects for food. Visit your sunflower plants every day and keep a record of what you see. Keep an eye out for smaller insects, like aphids and small caterpillars, as well as flying pollinators that visit the flowers for pollen and nectar.

If you would like, come up with an experiment to test how the physical environment might effect the plants or their visitors. For example, you might plant some seeds in big pots and some of the same variety in the ground nearby and see how the plants grow under the different conditions.

 

Sunflowers are very popular with flying pollinators, like this honey bee.

Aphids on sunflowers might attract other living things, for example parasitic wasps, lady beetles, or insect-eating birds.

At the end of the year, make a food web diagram of all the living things that depend on sunflowers for food. For example:

Remember:  birds that eat sunflower seeds are also herbivores.

Previous post about sunflowers

2. Check out our previous ecology-related posts:

3. Want more hands-on STEM? See our growing list of experiment collections at Science Books for Kids.

 

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 – 12 years
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicago Review Press (December 14, 2021)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 262 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1641605499
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1641605496

Disclosures: This book was provided by the publisher. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.

Come visit the STEM Friday blog each week to find more great Science, Technology, Engineering and Math books.

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