YOU GUYS. The Boreal Forest has been nominated for a YELLOW CEDAR AWARD in the FOREST OF READING. If you're not familiar, the Forest of Reading is the largest recreational reading program in Canada. Kids across the country can register ... Read More  

Last time we compared primary and secondary sources and talked about how to use them when researching writing assignments or creative projects. Today, we're getting a bit more practical, with some tips for finding and accessing peer-reviewed journal articles, ... Read More  

Once upon a time, I had a dream: I wanted to write nonfiction. Keep in mind, this was many years ago, and I came from a poetry and fiction background. I had been writing poetry since I was six, ... Read More  

It's Science Literacy Week!  *Fires cannons full of biodegradable confetti* The brainchild of Jesse Hildebrand, Science Literacy Week started as a grassroots initiative meant to raise awareness about science: what it is, how it works, and why it's awesome. It's grown ... Read More  

We are going to be devoting many Teach Write columns to the intricacies of research for student and professional writers. Today, we are starting with the fundamentals: the difference between primary and secondary sources. Students need to understand this ... Read More  

While selecting a drone, it is imperative to first define the mission. Missions fall under the Ds category – for example, Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult, Dash, Delivery etc.  ‘Dull,’ synonymous with ‘boring,’ is exactly that – a mission that ... Read More  

Ghost. That one word has a strange power. All I have to do is announce that I’m going to tell a ghost story and children sharpen to attention. Grownups too. It seems that we are all touched by ghosts, ... Read More  

It's been almost six months since the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since then, the world's turned upside down... and as much as we'd all like to think that things will "go back to normal," I think the ... Read More  

School is starting soon (however strange and remote it may be), which means... writing assignments! Today on Teach Write, we are talking about coming up with ideas for writing on assigned topics. True story: most of my children's books are ... Read More  

“Quarantine.” That’s probably one of the most echoed words in the world during the Covid-19 crisis. And whether you are 9 or 99, it’s a word you won’t forget. I bet you missed that hot gooey chocolate fudge on cold vanilla ... Read More  

“Where do your ideas come from?” That’s the question I get asked most from children and adults alike. The simplest answer is, from my life. Don’t misunderstand, I don’t have a wild and crazy life full of intrigue and adventure. ... Read More  

If you're anything like me, media coverage of climate change has given you the following impressions: Dependence on fossil fuels is the main reason for climate change. Individuals bear ultimate responsibility for climate change, because we make choices that are bad ... Read More  

The human brain is really good at filtering out extraneous information. It's a survival instinct meant to focus our attention on things essential to life (ripe cherries!) and things that might kill us (bears!). Grappling with these big picture ... Read More  

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 ... Read More  

The idea for my teen novel, HE MUST LIKE YOU, which comes out on July 14, arrived in a kind of backwards manner. Let me explain: about a year before the #metoo movement took off, there was a high ... Read More  

One of the reasons I started Mad Scientist Mondays was because a lot of people don't actually know any scientists. As a result, cultural depictions of science and scientists - like those in movies and on TV - have ... Read More  

When asked where we get our ideas, writers often joke "The idea store." In an age where we can type "writing prompts" into Google and return literally thousands of starting points for our next masterpieces, it's actually not that ... Read More  

The goal of conservation biology is to maintain the planet’s biological diversity (biodiversity). So basically, it is a science born from the impact that humans have on nature. But it differs somewhat from other biological sciences because it is ... Read More