Suzanne Lyons M.A., M.A.
Author, Educator, Game Designer, Business Owner

Suzanne Lyons M.A., M.A., is a science educator who believes that, even in science, it’s crucial to combine head and heart—content and caring—in order to make wise decisions and fulfill your potential. That’s why Suzanne creates educational materials that integrate STEM with SEL to teach the whole student.

Suzanne has been creating educational materials, from textbooks to games to tutorials, for pre-K through college level students for over 20 years. Her clients include most of the major educational publishers in the United States. Suzanne draws on her experience teaching to create materials that work for real students in real classrooms. She has been a classroom physics instructor and a general science teacher as well as a teacher trainer. Her degrees are in physics (UC Berkeley), Earth science (Sacramento State University), and education (Stanford University), plus she holds a California teaching credential. Suzanne’s books for science education include the textbook program Conceptual Integrated Science, which was first published by Pearson Education in 2005, is now in its third edition, and is sold internationally. Another recent book is Empowering Young Voices for the Planet, a teaching manual on climate change published by Corwin in 2015.

In 2009, Suzanne formed her own independent publishing company Child and Nature. She founded CooperativeGames.com as a subsidiary of Child and Nature at the same time. Cooperative Games was conceived as a way to promote the concept of cooperative play to the general public as well as teachers, but due to popular demand it has become a supplier of cooperative games and related services. In 2015, Suzanne released her first self-published book, The Cooperative Games Bullying Prevention Program which she also illustrated, and published through her small company. In 2017, she designed and published The Baby Beluga Game, a cooperative board game for children that she designed and produced in collaboration with Raffi (made in the USA, fair trade, and made from sustainable materials.) Besides supplying cooperative games to the public, Suzanne gives workshops and webinars to teachers showing how to use cooperative games for social-emotional learning and bullying prevention as well as in science instruction.

Suzanne is currently working on a new book on a subject close to her heart—holistic science education. Expect more resources from Suzanne in 2019 on that topic!