and me, Jennifer Swanson would like to wish you all a very HAPPY 2019! We hope your year is filled with lots GREAT STEM books. Here’s a few of our own new titles that we’d like to share with you.
Coming soon!
Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis Under the Waves by Heather L. Montgomery
Lerner Publishing, January 1, 2019
THE TORNADO SCIENTIST: Seeing Inside Severe Storms by Mary Kay Carson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 19, 2019
Cat Science Unleashed: Fun Activities to do with your Feline Friend by Jodi Wheeler- Toppen(National Geographic Kids, August 2019)
Breakthroughs in Planet and Comet Research by Karen Latchana Kenney (Lerner Publishing, Feb 2019)
Breakthroughs in Mars Exploration by Karen Kenney (Lerner Publishing, Feb 2019)
Also look for:
This is a Book to Read with a Worm by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen (Charlesbridge)
Save the Crash-Test Dummies by Jennifer Swanson (Peachtree Publishing, October 2019)
Have a FABULOUS 2019 and may your year be filled the excitement of STEM Books!
*****
Jennifer Swanson is the founder and administrator of STEM Tuesday. A self-professed science geek, Jennifer discovered her love of science when she started a science club in her garage at the age of 7. While no longer working from the garage, Jennifer can be found exploring, learning, and writing about exciting STEM topics in her books. You can find her at www.JenniferSwansonBooks.com
Bah-humbug! We didn’t have STEM books like that when I was a kid. Textbooks were perfectly fine for us.
No, my name is not STEMbeneezer Scrooge. Now, get off my lawn and leave me be. It’s time for my nap.
Who’s there? I thought I told you to skedaddle.
Aye! It’s a spirit.
Leave me be! I’m just an old STEM guy stuck in my ways. I’m going back to sleep before Wheel of Fortune comes on.
“STEMbeneezer, log on and follow me!”
What in the world? Another STEM spirit!
Smooth, Ghost of STEM Present. Real smooth. But I’m not going to get on the internet to scour bookstores.
Haven’t you heard of online identity theft and spyware?
Jeez, leave me be, I’m going back to sleep. And where do you come up with these “original” names, anyway?
What are you? You must be the Spirit of STEM Future.
Aack! Don’t beam me up, Scotty! I don’t want to go!
NOOOooo!!!
A hint? For what?
Help meeeeeeee!
Holy bad dreams. What happened? How long have I been asleep?
I know that answer!
Come, on! The answer’s easy.
Graphic storytelling isa great format for STEM books.
I’m a changed man. Textbooks have their place but the graphic novel format really does work well with STEM storytelling.
Graphic storytelling + STEM = Natural match
Using graphics to define a STEM concept has been a natural partnership for ages. I present the evidence.
DaVinci designs are a graphical how-to manual
DaVinci’s water lifting device proposal
A canon design
Galileo’s graphic notes on his observations of Jupiter’s moons
Sir Issac Newton’s Graphic Notes
Illustrated concept from NEWTON’S PRINCIPIA
From Newton’s Notes on Alchemy
A young Isaac Newton’s graphical code listing his sins committed
Chemistry
If you have the reagents, you could probably make your own Vitamin A from this graphical reaction.
Maps of biological pathways
The Krebs Cycle, aka The “I wish I had a dollar for every time I memorized & forgot this pathway in my school days” Cycle.
TNF pathway from one of our lab’s publications. It tells the visual story of an E. Coli effector subverting the TNF inflammatory pathway.
Let the evidence show using graphics has worked in STEM since the STEM fields were born.
It’s only natural they work in the field of STEM storytelling, right?
Visual Storytelling
A picture is worth a thousand words.
UNDERSTANDiNG COMICS: THE INVISIBLE ART by Scott McCloud
This a book you must read whether you are interested in straight graphic storytelling or storytelling in general. It doesn’t matter if the storytelling is fiction or nonfiction, graphic storytelling can be a powerful option for a writer.
Sketchnotes
Sketchnoting is a great way to take notes for the visual-minded individuals. I follow Eva-Lotta Lamm and her work with sketchnotes. She offers a free, downloadable Mini Visual Starter Kit at her website to help you get started with sketchnotes.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you are now convinced that images and STEM go together. The graphic novel format for nonfiction and STEM books not only works, but it fits. Just as architects and engineers use a blueprint drawing to relay information to the contractor and specialists, STEM writers can use graphic storytelling to relay information to the reader.
Still not a believer? Go to the STEM Tuesday book list and give those titles a try. It’s a much less harrowing path than visits from a trio of STEM spirits.
Take it from me. STEM graphic novels and comics are the real deal!
Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal opportunity sports enthusiasts, that is. If they keep a score, he’ll either watch it, play it, or coach it. A molecular microbiologist by day, middle-grade author, sports coach, and general good citizen by night, he blogs about sports/training related topics at www.coachhays.comand writer stuff atwww.mikehaysbooks.com. Two of his science essays, The Science of Jurassic Park and Zombie Microbiology 101, are included in the Putting the Science in Fiction collection from Writer’s Digest Books. He can be found roaming around the Twitter-sphere under the guise of @coachhays64.
The O.O.L.F Files
The O.O.L.F. Files this month emphasizes the power of visual storytelling in STEM and to celebrate the season, a few links to STEM activities for the holidays. Enjoy!
Graphic nonfiction is a great way to work on visual literacy strategies. This week I’ll introduce four questions/ teaching moves that I use to work on visual literacy with students. I’ll give examples from this month’s book list, but you can repurpose these for use with other graphic nonfiction, illustrations, or diagrams from any science text.
1) Provide a diagram or illustration with the text removed. Ask students to work with a partner to talk through the answers to these questions: (a) Describe what you see. Don’t worry if you don’t know the name of any item in the picture—just describe it as you see it. (b) Make a prediction. What do you think the illustrator is trying to show here? (or—what do you think [xxxx] is?)
Make a prediction: what do you think the shapes might represent?
After students have studied the image and made predictions, show them a version with the text. They will be engaged and eager to see if their predictions were correct.
2) Take this a step further and ask students to fill in the blanks themselves with possible text. For example, if your class has already studied meiosis, you might use this image from page 17 of Science Comics: Dogs and let them fill in what the dog might be saying.
Then show the author’s version. Who’s do they like best?
3) Talk about the role of arrows or other diagram features. I worked with a group of high schoolers studying a mitosis diagram many years ago. When I asked about what they saw, they were describing the image as if it were showing 6 different cells—they missed the role of the arrows indicating that the first cell turned into the cell in each image that followed.
Ask: Arrows in diagrams can have different meanings. They can–
a) point to something important you should notice
b) give the name of an object in the picture
c) show that one thing turns into something else
d) show that something is moving.
What is the role of the arrows in this diagram?
4) Help them see the value of imagery. Often, some information is found in the text while the images add extra information or make the text more clear. Students who don’t study images miss that extra information. So another pair of questions I like to ask are: What information do you get from the words that is not in the images? What do you see in the images that is not in the words?
This series of frames from page 21 of Secret Coders is a good example of text and images with different information. In this scene, the boy Eni is explaining to Hopper how binary code can show numbers. (Which could be especially useful since digital coding—e.g., binary—is now a piece of the Next Generation Science Standards for middle school.)
Try these techniques with any of the graphic nonfiction texts from this month’s list, or any other image-heavy text you choose. Once you have used an image in class, make sure the book is available. Students will want to read the entire book!
Jodi Wheeler-Toppen is a former science teacher and the author of the Once Upon A Science Book series (NSTA Press) on integrating science and reading instruction. She also writes for children, with her most recent book being Dog Science Unleashed: Fun Activities to do with Your Canine Companion. She can’t draw, so she’s extra impressed with the writers for this month’s books.
In today’s Author Spotlight, Jo Hackl chats with award-winning author John Claude Bemis about his new graphic novel, Rodeo Hawkins & the Daughters of Mayhem. John Claude Bemis is the...
From the Mixed-Up Files is the group blog of middle-grade authors celebrating books for middle-grade readers. For anyone with a passion for children’s literature—teachers, librarians, parents, kids, writers, industry professionals— we offer regularly updated book lists organized by unique categories, author interviews, market news, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a children's book from writing to publishing to promoting.
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Breakthroughs in Planet and Comet Research by Karen Latchana Kenney (Lerner Publishing, Feb 2019)
Jennifer Swanson is the founder and administrator of STEM Tuesday. A self-professed science geek, Jennifer discovered her love of science when she started a science club in her garage at the age of 7. While no longer working from the garage, Jennifer can be found exploring, learning, and writing about exciting STEM topics in her books. You can find her at www.JenniferSwansonBooks.com
Who’s do they like best?
Jodi Wheeler-Toppen is a former science teacher and the author of the 