For Writers

STEM Tuesday Wild and Wacky Science — Writing Craft and Resources

By on February 20, 2018   /   For Writers, Fun!, STEM Tuesday, Writing  

Wild and Wacky (and Weird) Science

Wild & wacky science is all around us. One of the best examples I’ve ever personally encountered is the Titan arum, or corpse flower, that went full bloom last summer at the university where I work. Beautiful in its perfect weirdness. And, if you’ve never had the pleasure of a blooming corpse flower experience, its smell is just as wonderfully horrific as the name suggests. Think one hundred dead mice in a 90°F humidity chamber and you’re getting really close…

Sometimes in the STEM world, great discoveries are made through observations that, at first glance, are considered “wild” and/or “wacky”. And for argument’s sake, I’m going to add “weird” as the third “W”. Science is basically built on things which appear odd at first glance. Imagine the first person who ever looked at the four-legged ruminant chewing cud in the meadow next to the village and said, “Hey, I bet whatever’s inside that hangy-down, bag thing would go great with my PB&J sandwich.”

The wild, weird and wacky often leads to open doors in both thought and discovery. One notices a little thing like how annoying it is to pick the cockleburrs off the dog after every single trip to the field. And while struggling to pull the little !@#$s out of the dog’s fur as she sits so, so patiently, you notice the weird design details of the burr. The hooked barbs jutting out at the perfect angles to cover the maximum surface area. You notice how those hooks grab and hold tight. You also notice that for the umpteenth time today your preschool-aged offspring asks you to tie his or her shoes. BINGO! The observation of the weird natural design of the burr serves as a template for the invention of something awesome like Velcro; one of the greatest and most practical inventions of the 20th-century.

Odd triggers inquiry in our brain. We, as humans, are innately curious. We see something wild, weird, and/or wacky and, after our initial shock, begin to ask, “Why?”. “Why?” is the switch which fires the STEM mind. Once switched on, these STEM neural connections in the brain process the input observations and begin formulating the next question, “How?”.

The wild, the wacky, and the weird can lead to the WONDERFUL. Answering the “why” and the “how” questions unlocks the door to discovery. And this is the same in the laboratory as it is in the classroom, the library, or in the writing bunker. Wild and wacky things we observe in our universe spark inquiry. Inquiry leads to discovery. Discovery leads to more discovery and more creativity

An interest in certain wild and wacky and wonderful aspects of our universe also lends itself to social connection. People with like interests can bond over these seemingly off-the-wall interests.   

What halfway reputable STEM wild & wacky science blog post would omit a list of random wild and wacky science facts? Not this halfway reputable STEM blogger! So, for your STEM entertainment, here’s an eye-opening list of wild, wacky, weird, and wonderful science facts.

  • The human brain processes around 11 million bits of information every second but is aware of only 40.
  • 42 minutes and 12 seconds? That’s how long it would take to jump to the other side of the earth through a hole drilled straight through the center of our wonderful planet.
  • A light particle, called a photon takes only 8 minutes to travel from the Sun’s surface to Earth.
  • But it takes 40,000 years for that same light particle to travel from its origins in the Sun’s core to its surface.
  • A mid-sized, run-of-the-mill cumulus cloud weighs as much as 80 elephants.
  • A single bolt of lightning contains enough energy to cook 100,000 pieces of toast.
  • After removing all the empty spaces in all the atoms in every person on Planet Earth, the entire human race would fit into an apple.
  • Over the course of an average human lifespan, the skin completely replaces itself 900 times.
  • The air in an average-sized room weighs about 100 pounds.
  • In 20 seconds, a red blood cell can make a complete circuit through the body.
  • Tyrannosaurus rex lived closer in time to us than to Stegosaurus.

Dear student, teacher, writer, and/or librarian readers, your STEM Tuesday Wild and Wacky Mission for the week is to observe and record something odd in your everyday world. Be it animal, vegetable, mineral, or mechanical, write it down and then think about it.

  • The size.
  • The shape.
  • The function or niche.

Whatever you see, document it. Use the information to formulate the “why” and then the “how” questions. Finally, let your imagination and logic run loose in the spirit of discovery and invention to formulate an alternate use, function, or future for your odd observation. Repeat daily for one week to find out how much fun, and how functional, the wild, the wacky, and the weird science in your world can be.

I bet it’s wonderful!

Have a wild and wacky month!

THE O.O.L.F. FILES

My biggest question for this month was whether we even need the O.O.L.F. files in the month of Wild and Wacky Science since The O.O.L.F. File section is basically wild, wacky, and weird by design. After much deep thought and soul-searching, the issue was decided. Of course, we need an O.O.L.F. Files! One can never have too much wild, wacky, and weird STEM information, am I right?

  • Titan arum, the corpse flower, blooms!
  • Mitochondria run hot!
    • Our cellular power plants can operate at what temp? Is that even possible? I honestly can’t feel a thing in any of my 37 trillion cells. Can you?
  • What Baby Poop Says About Brain Development.
    • Can the composition of an infant’s intestinal microbiota have an effect on future cognitive abilities? 
  • A Virus With Black Widow DNA
    •  In order to find a new host Wolbachia bacterial cell, the WO bacteriophage must punch its way back into another insect cell and another Wolbachia. Viruses are masters of escape and infiltration, but WO can uniquely get through two sets of barriers—one bacterial, and one animal—by using genes picked up from the black widow venom’s toxin.  Think that’s freaky? So do I!
  • Keeping Cool With Drool
    • By drooling and then slurping up the drop of saliva, a blowfly keeps a cool head despite not having the ability to sweat. (This makes my inner middle school boy smile with joy.)

Mike Hays, O.O.L.F. Master

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Books and Buttercream

By on February 16, 2018   /   For Librarians, For Teachers, For Writers  

I’m a fan of stretching out celebrations as long as possible. Give me a birthday present or slice of cake a day, a week, even a month late, and I’ll be as happy as if I received it on time. Happier, really, because what could be better than making surprises and buttercream last and last?

This year, I got away with stretching one of my very favorite celebrations over two full weeks. February 1 was World Read Aloud Day* and I had a very good problem: more requests for Skype visits than could fit into one school day. With the help of wonderful, flexible librarians and teachers, I was able to say yes to almost all of them.  Each morning I put on my good sweater and sparkly earrings and chatted with students in Canada, Kentucky, Texas, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, New York…When I Skyped with kids in the Bahamas, I showed them a bowl of Ohio snow!

Still, some people wonder, what’s the value of any school visit? For the writer the answer is obvious: spending time with young readers is a jolt of reality. Sitting alone at a desk all day, our audience can grow dim and abstract.  No way this can happen in a school, where the walls pulse with kids’ energy and curiosity, concerns and confusions,  happiness and vulnerability.  One one Skype visit a fifth grader asked me, “Why do you write for kids instead of grown-ups?” and I said,  “Because! Kids are the most passionate, invested readers on the planet.”  He nodded. Case closed.

What about the value for the students? We writers  hope to convince them they all have stories to tell,  that each of them has a writing voices as unique and special as his or her speaking voice. We try our best to give them tips, to encourage them by sharing how much revision a “professional writer” does, and to empower them to use their imaginations and create their own worlds.

During almost every visit, in person or by Skype, someone asks me, “Did you always want to be an author?” I used to feel bad about having to admit no, and confess how long it took me to find my way. I would wish I was one of those people who knew, from the age of three, that writing was her reason for breathing.

But as time has gone by, I’ve come to feel okay about saying that I didn’t begin to write seriously until I was three of four times their age. I tell them that, as much as I loved to read when I was young, I was certain all writers lived in castles by the sea, cottages covered in roses, or rooms at the top of crooked staircases. Maybe if I’d met a writer when I was your age, I say now–maybe if I’d sat down and eaten pizza with one, or watched one hold her plump orange cat up in front of the camera, or listened to one talk about how many times she heard no before  finally hearing that magic yes–maybe if I’d ever  realized that writers were plain old everyday people, I wouldn’t have taken so long to make the discovery that  I could be one too. And then I tell them how lucky they are, to have such a big head start on me.

*Here’s WRAD’s mission statement. You can find out more at
http://www.litworld.org/wrad/
We think everyone in the world should get to read and write. Every year, on World Read Aloud Day, people all around the globe read aloud together and share stories to advocate for literacy as a human right that belongs to all people.

*****

Tricia’s newest middle grade novel, Cody and the Heart of a Champion, will publish in April.

 

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The Unicorn Quest: Some Writing Advice and A Giveaway!

By on February 1, 2018   /   Author Interviews, For Kids, For Librarians, For Teachers, For Writers, Giveaways, Writing  

 

Kamilla Benko spent most of her childhood climbing into wardrobes, trying to step through mirrors, and plotting to run away to an art museum. Now, she visits other worlds as a children’s book editor. Originally from Indiana, she currently lives in New York with her bookshelves, teapot, and hiking boots.


She describes her magical new MG this way:

Claire Martinson still worries about her older sister Sophie, who battled a mysterious illness last year. But things are back to normal as they move into Windermere Manor… until the sisters climb a strange ladder in a fireplace and enter the magical land of Arden. 

There, they find a world in turmoil. The four guilds of magic no longer trust each other. The beloved unicorns have gone, and terrible wraiths roam freely. Scared, the girls return home. But when Sophie vanishes, it will take all of Claire’s courage to climb back up the ladder, find her sister, and uncover the unicorns’ greatest secret.

Kamilla dropped by the MUF to give us a sneak peek into her writing process (spoiler alert: it’s not always easy!)

A fresh page.

A blank expanse with no mistakes, just waiting for your perfect idea to stampede across it, in wild curly cues of insight (or straight backed letters, if you’re typing and not one for cursive.) It’s exciting! It’s exhilarating! And then…

The words don’t come.

My solution had been, for years, to immediately close the blank Word document and go back to watching Downton Abbey with my cat. It was a reasonable enough solution and I learned a lot about the inner workings of a Victorian era high society house, which I’m sure will help me with my writing… some day!

I find myself thinking that the worst part of the blank page is not having no ideas, but having far too many.  It’s imagination in its purest form. And here I am caught with the paradox of choice. It’s the same disorder that causes you to scroll through your Netflix queue for hours at a time wondering why you don’t want to watch a single TV show. It’s because there are thousands of choices and you are suddenly crippled by the choice of having to pick only one (commitment issues, anyone?).

And because this paradox of choice has caused so many smart, talented writers to stop dead in their tracks, I want to share a few ways I worked through the terror of the blank page. These are few tips on how I, for the moment, tackled the infamous conundrum of Writer’s Block while working on my debut novel, The Unicorn Quest.

Tip Number One: Look AWAY!

Don’t turn on Downton Abbey, but do play with your cat. Take a walk, either on the sidewalk or through the mysterious side streets of the internet. Start putting together a Pinterest for each of your projects. Go to a Museum. Get lost on a street you’ve never turned down. Put on some music and go to a park. I’m in New York, so I like to put on some timeless music and wander through Central Park until I can almost forget what year it is. Let yourself be transported by the beauty of what is around you. Make sure to get yourself out of your house or apartment, and find something new.

Tip Number Two: READ!

This should be obvious, but sometimes it’s not. Why would you want to be a writer if you aren’t a voracious reader? I know some authors avoid reading during writing projects, as they are too worried about being influenced by other works. This is not a philosophy I prescribe to. Don’t be a copy cat, obviously, but your brain is unique enough to take in other works and craft your own narratives from those interpretations.

And don’t read just what connects to your book! Read books about politics, history, memoirs. Read about great historical romances and long lost civilizations and explorers discovering new lands – even if you’re writing a contemporary love story set in New York City. I truly believe it is human nature to search for patterns, and your brain will start making new and fascinating connections between disparate sources.

Tip Three: Give yourself permission to FAIL.

I’m going to be upfront with you. You’re going to write a lot of bad stuff. Tons of totally bad, awful, no good writing. And you know who else wrote a lot of bad stuff? J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, probably even William Shakespeare. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received on writing is this: When you first start writing, you will want to quit because your writing won’t be good enough to match your taste. You just have to keep writing until you are good enough to create something you actually like.  

Sometimes, you just need to wade into the blankness of the page and give yourself permission to just be bad. Be cliché and be silly! You’ll find that, magically, gems appear on the page in between. One of the best ways to dive into this is to assign yourself a time to free write. This means writing for 15 minutes straight without ever taking your fingers off the keyboard or lifting your pencil from the page. There’s even an app for this. It lets you set a timer for yourself and if you stop writing, it deletes your previous progress. You have to keep writing! Always remember that things are almost never perfect on the first try.

Thanks, Kamilla! And thanks for offering a free copy of The Unicorn Quest to one lucky winner. To be eligible, please enter a comment below.

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