Welcome to STEMinism Sunday! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be an opportunity for me – and you – to get to know some of these intellectual badasses. Today, my guest is Tahrana Lovlin, brilliant woman and accomplished engineer… with an unusual specialty. Take it away, Tahrana! So I’m writing…

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Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by great Canadian children’s writers! Today’s guest: Frieda Wishinsky. Take it away, Frieda! My Writing Career and the Many Writing Roads I Travel…. A poet and illustrator once said to me, “Why don’t you stick to one kind of writing? You’re all over the place. You should write one kind of book and brand yourself.” It’s true. I write in many genres— picture books, chapter books, series, novels, hi-lo…

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Welcome to Mad Science Mondays, where we talk about depictions of science in movies, TV shows, books, and the media. We dissect the good, the bad, the comical and the outright irresponsible. Who says learning about science can’t be fun? And we’re back for another look at the scientists of Stranger Things. Today, Dr. Sam Owens, successor of the horrible Martin Brenner, new head of Hawkins Lab. Let’s just take a moment to reflect on…

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Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process. Last time, we discussed the special, double audience that we have to consider when writing a class assignment for a teacher. Hopefully that advice will help all the students that have now…

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Welcome to STEMinism Sunday! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be an opportunity for me – and you – to get to know some of these intellectual badasses. Today, we’re talking to Dr. Linda Campbell of Saint Mary’s University. I worked with Campbell at SMU, and she’s passionate about both…

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Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by great Canadian children’s writers! Today’s guest: Robin Stevenson. Take it away, Robin! Ghost’s Journey: A Refugee Story Back in 2015, I became involved in refugee sponsorship when I joined a group sponsoring a Syrian family with four small kids. It was a great experience. In fact, this first sponsorship led me to start three more sponsorship groups to help other refugees come to Canada and resettle in my…

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Welcome to Mad Science Mondays, where we talk about depictions of science in movies, TV shows, books, and the media. We dissect the good, the bad, the comical and the outright irresponsible. Who says learning about science can’t be fun? Time to get a little… strange… over here, with a series of posts about the scientists* of Stranger Things. We’re going to start with Martin Brenner, the true Big Bad of Season One, and a…

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Welcome to Teach Write! This column draws on my 20 years’ experience teaching writing to kids, university students, and adult learners. It includes ideas and exercises that teachers can use in the classroom, and creative writers can use to level up their process. Listen up, students, because this edition of Teach Write is all for you: today, we continue our exploration of audience with a critical one: teachers. When teachers give us writing assignments, they…

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Welcome to STEMinism Sunday! As a former woman in science, I have a deep and enduring interest in the experiences and representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). This series will be an opportunity for me – and you – to get to know some of these intellectual badasses. Today we’re branching out – rather than talking about a specific woman in science, we’re going to talk about the perception of…

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Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by great Canadian children’s writers! Today’s guest: Karen Patkau. Take it away, Karen! Peck! Pick! Pop! Crack! HATCH! A plaster cast of an embryo fossil and three eggs circulated around the room. Dr. David Evans, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, described his remarkable find: a dinosaur nursery where he found dinosaur eggs! As a writer and illustrator of non-fiction picture books, nature and animals are my passion.…

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