Category: Out and About

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AAAS 2013

Courtesy AAAS
Photo Courtesy AAAS

Boston is hosting the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend, and there is lots of crazy cool science-y stuff going on.

Saturday and Sunday are dedicated to kids and families, with interactive science exhibits, tabletop science demos, and plenty of science peeps to talk shop and answer questions for students of all ages. These Family Fun Days are held in the Hynes Convention Center from 11am to 5pm on both days and are completely free. Check out the details here.

If science books are your thing, consider attending the award ceremony for the SB&F Prizes on Saturday. Here are the details:

Saturday, February 16, 2013

6:30-8pm

Sheraton Hotel, Liberty Ballroom

39 Dalton Street, Boston, MA

And on Sunday, SB&F authors (including me!) will be reading and signing books at the Hynes Convention Center as part of the Family Fun Days festivities. Here’s our schedule:

Readings in Booth #69/70

11:30 -12:00       Sy Montgomery (author of TEMPLE GRANDIN)

12:15-12:45        Penny Chisolm (author of OCEAN SUNLIGHT)

1:00-1:30            Loree Griffin Burns (author of CITIZEN SCIENTISTS)

1:45-2:15            Terrie M. Williams (author of THE ODYSSEY OF KP2)

Signings in Booth #321

12:15-12:45        Sy Montgomery (author of TEMPLE GRANDIN)

1:00-1:30            Penny Chisolm (author of OCEAN SUNLIGHT)

1:45-2:15            Loree Griffin Burns (author of CITIZEN SCIENTISTS)

2:30-3:00            Terrie M. Williams (author of THE ODYSSEY OF KP2)

I hope to see you in Boston!

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Middle Schoolers Rock!

SONY DSC
© Yana Davis

Especially these ones.

Thank you, Driscoll School, for sharing your enthusiasm for science with me and with your school community. It was a treat to be part of your Science Solstice festivities … and I love this picture of us!

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Brookwood School

Brookwood
© Loree Griffin Burns

Check it out.

That right there is the FeederWatch station of the Pre-K students at Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts. It has everything the students need to monitor the feeder bird populations on their school grounds: stools for comfortable viewing, windows looking out over the school bird feeders, a basket for storing clipboards, data sheets, and pencils, and photos of birds to help remind watchers what they are seeing. There is even a sign–its posted on the easel at the left of the photo–warning passersby: “Shhhhhhhh! Bird Watchers at Work!” I was lucky enough to have a personal tour of this research station, and was mighty impressed with the citizen scientists who work there. Thank you Brookwood Pre-K students!

Thank you also to the Brookwood kindergartners, who shared their MonarchWatch experiences with me, the first graders, who told me about their tulip work for Journey North, and the second graders, who taught me about chicken care, introduced me to Cynthia and Mabel … and even gifted me a couple of fresh eggs.

Hooray for student scientists and the schools that inspire them!

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Center City Public Charter School

Photos courtesy of An Open Book Literacy Foundation

Last month, while in Washington, D.C. for the USA Science & Engineering Festival, I was invited to visit the Center City Public Charter School in Center Heights. Sponsored by An Open Book, my morning visit with Ms. Vanessa Elliott’s sixth grade science class was, in a word, spectacular. Ms. Elliott’s students were excited and inquisitive and completely jazzed by the concept of citizen science. And I was completely wowed by their enthusiasm.

The morning would have been a success no matter what, because Dara La Porte from An Open Book had prepared the school, and Ms. Elliott had prepared her students, and because these kids were so very open to rewriting the definition of a scientist. (You know, so that it included them.) But my supremely generous publishers, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and Houghton Mifflin Children’s Books, pushed the event over the top by donating enough copies of Citizen Scientists and Tracking Trash that each student went home with a copy of their very own.

Do you know how cool that was? It was very cool. I thought so, and so did the students.

Sometimes in the rush to write and edit and perfect and promote and meet deadlines, I lose sight of what I am really trying to do with my work: share stories and ideas that thrill me with people who will be equally thrilled. I’d like to thank each and every student I met at CCPCS last month for reminding me of that. Happy exploring to all of you!

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USA Science & Engineering Festival

Later this month, science fans from around the country will descend on the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, for a celebration of all things science. The second USA Science & Engineering Festival is a free two-day event boasting thousands of hands-on activities, exhibits, and presentations. I’ll be speaking on the Family stage Saturday, April 28 at 4:25pm, and signing books at the Signing Stage at 5:30pm on the same day. (Woot! Woot!) Come on by and say hello!

Find details about the festival, featured activities, the book fair, and all the featured authors on the official festival website.

SCIENCE ROCKS!

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Leap Day Book Launches!

“What is citizen science, anyway?” So begins this journey into the surprising world of science for everyone, everywhere. Part job description, part nature study, and part beginner field guide, Citizen Scientists invites readers of all ages to think of themselves as scientists, encouraging them to begin by tagging butterflies, counting birds, identifying frogs, and hunting ladybugs…

It’s here! It’s finally here! My newest book for young readers, Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard will be published on February 14, 2012. Photographer Ellen Harasimowicz and I will be launching the book in two public events, one at her local library and one at mine. In keeping with the books outdoorsy nature, and in celebration of the amphibians that star in chapter three (“Frogging in Spring”), we’re holding these events on Leap Day, February 29, 2012.

We’ll share the people and places that helped us create the book in a short, all-ages presentation. A book sale and signing will follow. Here are the details:

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 1:30pm
Harvard Public Library
4 Pond Road
Harvard, MA

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 6pm
Beaman Memorial Public Library
8 Newton Street
West Boylston, MA

Please feel free to help us spread the word by sharing a link to this post. And if your free, we hope you’ll come and help us celebrate!

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Sneak Peek!

I’m thrilled to be part of the Worcester Writers Collaborative Author Explosion on January 29 at Tatnuck Bookseller in Westboro, Massachusetts, where more than a dozen local authors will be reading and signing copies of their books in a single afternoon. We are a diverse group of writers, creating books for children as well as adults, works of fiction and of nonfiction, books published traditionally and books published on our own. If you live in central Massachusetts and would like to learn more about the variety of writers living and working near you, do stop in and say hello. We’d love to meet you. Here are the event details:

Saturday, January 29, 2012, 1-4pm
Tatnuck Bookseller
18 Lyman Street
Westborough, MA

I’ll be on hand to talk about and sign copies of The Hive Detectives and Tracking Trash. Since Citizen Scientists releases just two short weeks later, however, I’ve decided to dedicate my reading time to a Sneak Peek! I’m scheduled to read at 1:30pm, but plan to hang around, enjoy the festivities, and mingle with attendees and with my fellow authors all afternoon. I hope to see you there!

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Got Bugs?

Okay, Scientists in the Field (SITF) fans … do you remember this Donna M. Jackson title from 2002? Of course you do. How could you forget that cover? I remember reading it back when I was obsessively studying the SITF series and preparing to pitch my own title to its editors. That pitch became my first book, Tracking Trash, and now, in just a couple hours, I’ll be in a conference call with Tom Turpin, the guy up there with the bugs on his face.

Can I just take a moment to say that this sort of full circle stuff thrills me to no end?

Anyway, Tom and I are joining forces with a group of scientists and educators to tout the power of insects in science education. We’ll be sharing our ideas later this month at the Entomological Society of America annual conference in Reno, Nevada, in a morning-long symposium. If you happen to be in ‘the biggest little city in the world’ at the same time, do please stop by and say hello. I don’t think there are any plans for us to wear bugs, but you never know …

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The Bears and the Bees

© Loree Griffin Burns

The White Oak Land Conservation Society‘s Wildlife Saturdays programming this spring has been dubbed The Bears and the Bees. On March 19, Laura Hajduk, Black Bear Project Leader for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, talked about her work with black bears here in Massachusetts. And this week, I’ll be giving a family presentation on honeybees.

Yes, admission is free.

Yes, you can buy local Worcester county honey at the door.

Come one, come all!


Wildlife Saturdays: Honeybees
A Family Presentation by Loree Griffin Burns
Satuday, April 2, 2011 at 11 am
Holden Senior Center
1130 Main Street
Holden, MA