Author Juli-ann gasper

Juli-Ann Gasper

I grew up in a family that explored. Every year we took a 3 to 4 week driving/camping vacation to a national park to learn about the area’s geology, flora and fauna, and culture. We camped in a tent and cooked our meals over a campfire. We hiked in the forests and canyons and played in the streams. My husband and I were adult chaperones on two 50-miler backpack treks with my parents’ Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops.

Author Juli-Ann Gasper

TEACHING CAREER

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My teaching career spanned 32 years at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Besides keeping up to date on advances in the subject matter, I took on the challenge of always staying ahead of the students with respect to learning technology skills. I was the first professor at Creighton who had a web page to serve up information for the class. I remember the day I first inserted a YouTube video into a PowerPoint lecture. The astonishment on students’ faces was accompanied by “How did you do that, Dr. Gasper?” My teaching also included 4 semesters teaching in the Dominican Republic and a research trip in Costa Rica to study women’s cooperative businesses.

FABRIC ARTIST

I am a fabric artist in my second career. I create pieces that are small enough for me to afford the framing (we all know how much it costs to frame something). The technique I developed is called layered cutaway. I stack up to 10 pieces of fabric, stitch through them, cut away the top layer judiciously, stitch another pattern, cut away another layer, etc. The result is a 3-dimensional creation. I’ve sold over 200 art pieces in the last 2 decades. Most of the pieces are landscapes, animals, and plants that I have discovered in our explorations. Several were inspired by the trip to the Arctic north on which this book is based.

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Books | Kittiwakes play

Juli-Ann Gasper Juli-ann gasper

Way Up North Where the Kittiwakes Play

A final essay about climate change in the Arctic includes extraordinary resources for kids, tweens, and teens with coloring pages, puzzles, games, videos, science activities, quizzes, and extra reading for teens and adults.

BOOK TRAILER

Way Up North Where the Kittiwakes Play​

Learning opportunities about science and the natural world include the small (algae, barnacles, and reindeer poop), the large (reindeer, walruses, dolphins, and whales), and the amorphous (greenhouse gases). Photos by the author and her husband illustrate camouflage, permafrost, an up-close and personal walrus, and the oddly shaped eggs of the kittiwake