Metropolitan Library System

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen is on a quest for perfection, from the perfect pizza to what makes the perfect Thanksgiving meal.

Positive Psychology is a relatively new branch of psychology as introduced in 1998 by Professor Martin Seligman, but it has quickly developed a large following amongst practitioners around the globe. It concentrates on studying and promoting positive human functioning, and developing effective interventions that help to support thriving individuals, families, and communities. Positive psychology aims to go beyond just treating mental illness, and...

Jump-start your creativity with a selection of fun exercises, including “What-If Moments” and “The First-Line Game.” Mr. Bell cites best-selling authors such as Alice Sebold and Mickey Spillane to demonstrate the importance of creating unique elements: a twist, a character, a setting, a relationship. Find out how to create the ever-important elevator pitch.

Part biography, part day-in-the-life, this is a look into the mind and onto the pages of this prolific and well-loved children's book illustrator David McPhail.

Little Samantha had a BIG dream: to be an Olympian! She loved gymnastics, the way the athletes moved on the floor, the vault, the uneven bars and the balance beam. With the support of her parents, Samantha worked hard and dreamed BIG! To be an Olympian Samantha would have to be the very best, or so she thought. When adversity struck again and again, Samantha had to learn the true meaning of being an Olympian and being her best self. Based on the...

We commonly define the Pythagorean theorem using the formula a2 + b2 = c2. But Pythagoras himself would have been confused by that. Explore how this famous theorem can be explained using common geometric shapes (no fancy algebra required), and how it’s a critical foundation for the rest of geometry.

Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself. In Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World, award-winning Professor Benjamin Schumacher gives you the logical tools to grasp the paradoxes and astonishing insights of this field.

In vocal technique, consider how the quality of the exhalation determines the quality of the inhalation. Study the appoggio technique, which focuses on encouraging sternum elevation and rib position during the exhalation. Practice exercises to maintain an open upper body and suspend the inclination to collapse on the exhale, releasing the inhalation and engaging appoggio on the exhale.

Our adventurers have no fears of the bees that build the combs and fill them with honey but they are amazed to discover how that honey gets out of the hive and into the jars.

Graphical data analysis was once cumbersome and time-consuming, but that has changed with programming tools such as R. Analyze the classic Iris Flower Data Set - the standard for testing statistical classification techniques. See if you can detect a pattern in sepal and petal dimensions for different species of irises by using scatterplots, histograms, box plots, and other graphical tools.