Growing With Science Blog

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Four Great Places to Find STEAM Activities for Summer

June 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Looking for ways to incorporate STEAM activities this summer? I’ve got four fantastic suggestions.

1. At LitLinks, Patricia Newman invites guest authors and scientists to share activities and lessons featuring children’s books that link STEM and language arts. For example, in a recent post I contributed activities to accompany the picture book, How to Build an Insect, including instructions for making an insect-related word collection and constructing a collage insect.

Full of creative and educational suggestions on a range of topics!

2.  If your children or students are verbal learners, they might want to listen to the Solve It For Kids Podcast. Each week hosts Jennifer Swanson and Jeff Gonyea interview STEM experts. Recent podcasts featured an expert on giraffes and a meteorologist. So cool!

3. Although it is held later this month, you can check out Pollinator Week website any time.


To prepare, hop onto their resources page for bee identification guides, puzzles, posters, instructions for building a bee house, and more. Also, check the activities page for local events happening that week.

Bonus:   The Tohono Chul garden in Tucson has a multi-day lesson on pollination that is wonderful.

4. Look for National Moth Week, July 17-25, 2021. To get ready, check the kid’s page, which includes a link to a free moth coloring book!

We’ll be posting more about this in July.

Do you have a favorite place to find STEAM activities and experiments? Please let us know in the comments.

STEM #Kidlit Mammal Mania by @LJAmstutz

May 7, 2021 / / 1 Comment

If you’ve been a reader of our blog for any length of time, you know we love the children’s books from Chicago Review Press because they have loads of activity suggestions to extend learning.  Let’s take a look at the newest title in their Young Naturalist series, Mammal Mania: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Mammals by Lisa J. Amstutz.

Although mammals are familiar animals, we might not always study them in a structured, scientific way. Lisa Amstutz’s text covers everything young readers will want to know:

  • What a mammal is
  • Some unique anatomical features
  • What they eat and what food webs they are part of
  • Where mammals live
  • How they communicate
  • What we can do to protect mammals

Are any mammals venomous? How long can vampire bats go without food? How many species of mammals have gone extinct in the last 50 years? You will find the answers to these questions and many more.

Each chapter features three activity suggestions. For example, in chapter ten about “How You Can Help,” readers can build a squirrel feeder or learn about their state mammal.

The back matter includes a glossary, a list of the mammal orders, online resources, and a bibliography. Also included is a “Teacher’s Guide” with two pages of additional ideas for research topics and activities.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. Mammal Mania would be a great gift for educators who need well-organized information and age-appropriate activity ideas for science lessons. It would also thrill budding zoologists and be a wonderful addition to any library.

Related:

It may seem redundant to offer activity suggestions for a book filled with them, but to celebrate the book:

Reading age : 7 – 9 years
Publisher : Chicago Review Press (April 20, 2021)
ISBN-10 : 1641604360
ISBN-13 : 978-1641604369

 

Disclosure: Reviewed a digital uncorrected ARC 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.

Walk in the Woods for Arbor Day

April 30, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Let’s take a photographic hike through the woods to celebrate Arbor day.

What kind of trees might we see? (For more information, the links go to previous posts at Growing with Science).

We might see pine trees. Pine trees are conifers. They have needle-like leaves and cones.

Spruce trees also have needle-like leaves and cones.

Hemlocks have tiny cones.

Is this a conifer?

Turns out that although it has broad leaves, this gingko is a gymnosperm so it is a member of the conifer group!

The other major group is the broadleaf trees or angiosperms.

They have flat leaves like this silver maple. Angiosprems have flowers.

The seeds come in different shapes. These are red maple keys.

Acorns are the seeds of oak trees.

Hickory nuts are seeds from a shagbark hickory.

Here in Arizona we have some lovely trees with yellow flowers and green bark called palo verdes.

Palo verde seeds form in pods.

We could go on and on, but our feet are getting tired. If you want to learn more about trees:

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