Posts Tagged middle-grade nonfiction

STEM Tuesday– Cephalopods — Writing Tips & Resources

By on June 17, 2025   /   Cephalopods/Mollusks, STEM Tuesday  

Creativity and Octopuses!

The first of the cephalopods that comes to my mind is an octopus. To me, the metaphor of a multi-limbed being is in the multi-possibilities offered to apply to creative activities. Many arms and many legs and many muscular hydrostats mean that connections can go many ways. As my focus is STE(A)M, I began to run options though my head. I settled on music, research, and visual art (camouflage). Like a cephalopod, these are just three of the connected “arms” in the world of art. I make my case below.

Music and the Octopus.

One of the best known octopus songs is “The Octopus’s Garden,” by Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and recorded by the Beatles.

“I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’s garden with you”

The cover of Octopus's Garden

The song is full of fun and joy. It is said that Ringo wrote the song after being told that octopuses collect stones and shells to make a decorative garden around their homes. Studies have shown that while we don’t understand their full capacity, octopuses have great intelligence.

Ringo is crediting them with a sense of artistry. Enough artistry to design and build a garden where …

“Oh, what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they’re happy, and they’re safe”

Musicologist  Alan W. Pollack says:

The charm of “Octopus’s Garden” lies in its simplicity and complete lack of pretension.

Alan W. Pollack is an American musicologist known for having analyzed every song released by the British band the Beatles. Since this STE(A)M post is about science, I was wondering if a musicologist is considered a scientist. While Wikipedia describes it as “the academic, research-based study of music,” it employs of a number of fields of science, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, formal sciences and computer science.

The Octopus and Reasearch

Back to the idea of octopus as metaphor -it makes a great visual for research. Sometimes called a map or web for exploring possibilities, finding connections through random ideas is a superb tool for creativity. One can imagine the octopus, sitting in their garden, all arms reaching out to explore different places. There are no boundaries to using the mind this way.

Listening to “The Octopus’s Garden,” you find it is more than about a garden. It tells a story, shows emotion, incites curiosity, invites the imagination. Which is what good research should do. Musicology is sometimes considered to be a social science but many aspects, such as acoustics, musical instruments, and sound waves (and more), involve mathematics, materials science, psychology, and the list goes on. It one of many multi-armed disciplines.

In planning projects for kids, music and octopuses are intriguing ways to frame research and creative thinking. The investigation can be about any topic at all.  

Visual art and Octopuses

Octopuses have been the subject of artists since ancient Greece. Shown here is a lithograph from Jean Baptiste Vérany’s Chromolithographs of Cephalopods (1851). There is curiosity about creatures so unlike humans.

A historic lithograph of an octopus.

Members of the shell-less subclass of cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses) have the magic trick of color changing (yes, I know it’s a complicated process – not magic, but it is like magic to me). Some of their cells are capable of producing rapidly changing color patterns to match the surrounding areas or mimic other creatures. What a fascinating ability!

Doing art activities involving camouflage is a great way to improve eye, hand, and perception skills. And a real challenge. One needs to recognize shape, value, and colors to accurately reproduce them. Teachers Pay Teachers (link below) has a number of activities listed on their website. You don’t have to be an art teacher to use art projects as encouragement for students to do in-depth observational studies. With today’s fast-paced imagery of phones and games, people seem to be losing ability to focus. The value of practicing real observation can be time well spent.

Conclusion

Making connections is a large part of the creative process. It may appear this post strayed off topic, but it is an example of allowing the brain to find solutions that are new. Many inventions (such as the printing press) were the result of someone making an odd or unusual connection that ultimately led to a very useful solution. And, like learning to play music or becoming a good athlete, preliminary training paves the way. Anyone can practice connected thinking skills and use them for practical situations. Sometimes when I am doing research, allowing my mind to wander discovers materials better than what I was looking for.

Happy Connecting!

Margo Lemieux

References and more info

The Octopus’s Garden book https://bookshop.org/p/books/octopus-s-garden-with-cd-audio-ringo-starr/10265712?ean=9781481403627&next=t

The Octopus’s Garden video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1LCQvbqV4

Alan W. Pollack https://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/og.shtml

Teachers Pay Teachers Cephalopods

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/browse?gad_campaignid=20273913093&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgIXCBhDBARIsAELC9ZiEjEwazcCjEgkVAUxueIxDCn_5mZEzBJuPrZn1OJjIO_wtepaOXSAaAtP5EALw_wcB&search=Cephalopods%20

Teachers Pay Teachers Camouflage

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/browse?search=camouflage

Historic lithographs of cephalopods

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/verany-cephalopods

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STEM Tuesday– Cephalopods — In the Classroom

By on June 10, 2025   /   Cephalopods/Mollusks, STEM Tuesday  

 

Oooh, this month’s theme is cephalopods! I’m always amazed but the things octopuses and squids can do—escape aquariums, camouflage in an instant, mesmerize predators with flashing colors, and so much more. I even read that octopuses can sometimes grow a ninth arm when they are injured!

There’s so much to amaze kids too. And while they are not in the classroom right now, here are some activities to get kids thinking about cephalopods and learning more about them!

 

Ink! 100 FUN Facts about Octopuses, Squid, and More by Stephanie Warren Drimmer

You can’t go wrong with National Geographic. This very visual book introduces readers to a variety of squids including cuttlefish that camouflage themselves and octopuses that outsmart their predators. The text is written by experts with first hand experience and includes many fun facts. It’s both educational and entertaining.

Activity: Octopuses and squid are a lot alike in many ways, but they do have some key differences. Use the facts found in this fascinating book to create a game to test players’ knowledge of these different kinds of cephalopods. Use index cards and write a fact on one side. Or print a picture or draw a diagram of a squid or octopus body part. Take turns guessing if the fact or image is that of an octopus or cephalopod. Whomever gets the most correct wins the game!

 

Amazing Octopus: Creature from an Unknown World, written by Michael Stavaric, illustrated by Michele Ganswer

This book takes a unique approach. It explores and views octopuses as otherworldly, almost as aliens. The text and original, black and white illustrations really capture the magic and mystery of these creatures. It introduces this topic by first talking about the evolution of all sea creatures, to provide context.

Activity: What if octopuses DID come from another world? What would that world look like? What would an octopus spaceship look like? Imagine that world and make a list of details about it (their homes, their favorite places to eat, their communities). Imagine their spacecraft, too. How different would it be from our spacecraft? Then make a short comic about these alien octopus astronauts traveling to Earth long ago. Use some free comic panel templates. You can find some here:

 

Giant Squid: Searching for a Sea Monster by Mary M. Cerullo and Clyde F. E. Roper

Part science textbook, part detective story, this Smithsonian book recounts biologist Clyde Roper’s search for a real-life sea monster. Readers will enjoy unearthing clues about the giant squid as they follow along with Roper’s ocean adventures. Cerullo’s text is full of facts and accompanied by a variety of eye-catching images, including both black-and-white illustrations and up-close photographs.

Activity: It’s not easy studying sea creatures and scientists have to be creative with how they study them. One method is to use a Crittercam, a camera described in this book. The scientists used a Crittercam on a sperm whale to try to capture the elusive giant squid on camera. Watch a few videos showing how this is done. It takes many steps and tries to complete successfully. Then write a step-by-step process for attaching a Crittercam to a sperm whale. This is a a good exercise in describing a process in a simple way when writing about a topic. Include diagrams if you’d like and share it with a friend. Ask: Does this make sense? Do you think I left a step out? What is confusing?

Here are some videos to watch:

Karen Latchana Kenney is a children’s author and editor who loves creating all kinds of STEM books and classroom content. Find her at https://www.karenlatchanakenney.com/.

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STEM Tuesday– Natural Disasters– Author Interview

By on May 27, 2025   /   Natural Disasters, STEM Tuesday  

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing Jessica Stremer, author of Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires a middle grade nonfiction book that examines how animals and plants detect and respond to wildfires as well as the role humans play during these widespread natural disasters.

Fire Escape has been named:

  • A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
  • An NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book
  • An ALA Sustainability Round Table Top 10 Selection
  • Named to the Missouri Dogwood Reading List

And now, let’s find out what sparked the idea for this book for a better earth!

Emily Starr: I would love to know more about the evolution of this book’s outline. How did you move from the questions about wildfires you described in the acknowledgements to a book that includes such a wide variety of information. I never considered how a zoo responds to a wildfire!  

Jessica Stremer: You’ll often hear nonfiction picture book writers joke about not getting lost down the research rabbit hole. The great thing about writing long-form nonfiction is that you have the freedom chase different rabbits. Fire Escape started as a picture book, but the more I researched, the more I realized I couldn’t contain the story to forty pages. When I first begin researching, I use different search phrases to see what different responses I get. Often those responses will lead me down another rabbit hole of searches. When I felt I had chased enough rabbits, I organized everything into potential chapters. Of course, there’s always more questions that come up and more research to be done. 

Emily Starr: You include a lot of specialized wildfire response information! What was your process for contacting experts and conducting interviews?  

Jessica Stremer: I made a list of different people whose names I found while researching, then I put on a brave face and emailed them. In my emails I mention a little bit about myself, the project I’m working on, and ask if they’d be willing to chat to help me learn a little bit more and clarify or fill in holes in my research. I also mention that I will credit the interview in the book and send them a copy when its published. 

Emily Starr: Wildfires can be a scary topic for some students–especially those living in fire-prone zones. What was your thought process when considering how to present the information in a way that was realistic yet not too frightening? 

Jessica Stremer: Kids can handle more than we give them credit for. We need to have honest conversations with them by meeting them where they’re at. That’s what I tried to do in Fire Escape. I think a lot of it comes down to voice, word choice, and sentence structure. I shared facts about wildlife and wildfires, and tried to be careful to not go too into detail or include information that I didn’t think kids would find interesting or engaging. Chapter two contains a trigger warning as there are a few graphic photos of injured wildlife.  

Emily Starr: Climate change is such a complicated topic, yet you make it understandable for children. What were your considerations when deciding how much and what type of climate change information to include?

Pine pitch cones release their seeds only after fire exposure. Dmccabe, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jessica Stremer: There are a lot of books about climate change out there, so while I did think it was important to mention, I didn’t want to spend too much time on that topic. Climate change does play a part in the frequency and severity of wildfires, but it’s not the only reason we experience fires. I include mention of climate change in the chapter on megafires, but the real takeaway I’m hoping for is that people see that not all fires are bad. In fact, one of the reasons we’re experiencing so many destructive fires is because we’ve worked hard to prevent fires from happening. Much of the landscape needs fire, and I hope kids see that after reading this book. 

Emily Starr: Throughout the book, you illustrate how we are all part of an interconnected ecosystem. I especially appreciated the inclusion of ways humans help animals after wildfires and how animals help humans prevent wildfires. Were there any animals that didn’t make it into the book? 

Jessica Stremer: Most of the wildlife in Fire Escape can be found in North America. I didn’t have room for it in this book, but there are plenty of animals in different continents that also experience wildfire.  

Emily Starr: The layout of the book makes the information accessible–small blocks of text interspersed with photographs, illustrations and fire fact sidebars. What was your involvement in the layout and/or choosing the photographs? 

Jessica Stremer: I used the Fire Facts as a way to include additional information that I couldn’t fit into the narrative. I put them in places where the break felt natural, for example when transitioning from one idea or topic to the next. For the photographs, I tried to include two to three per chapter, knowing there would also be artwork incorporated throughout. Some were easier to find than others! I presented a handful of photo options for each chapter to my editor, and she told me which ones she preferred. The layout was all her! 

Emily Starr: What do you hope readers understand about wildfires by reading your book? 

Jessica Stremer: While I never want to downplay the human loss experienced from wildfires, I hope that readers see another side to wildfires that’s different than the doom and gloom portrayed on the news. I hope they understand why wildfire is an important natural event and learn about some of the benefits fire brings to the landscape. I also hope it encourages them to spend time outdoors and exploring the world around them. 

Emily Starr: Do you have upcoming projects you can share with our readers? 

Jessica Stremer: I have three picture books publishing this year! They are PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: HOW SCIENCE SAVED A SPECIES, WONDERFULLY WILD: REWILDING A SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY, and TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT: HOW SCIENTISTS UNEARTHED A CITY’S PREHISTORIC PAST. I love nature and science and hope readers consider picking up some of my other books. 

Jessica Stremer is an award-winning children’s author who combines her love of science and writing to create books that inspire kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Her titles include GREAT CARRIER REEF (a NY Public Library Best Book of the Year and JLG Gold Standard selection), LIGHTS OUT: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds, FIRE ESCAPE: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires (a JLG Gold Standard selection), PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: How Science Saved a Species, TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT, and WONDERFULLY WILD. Jessica obtained a B.S. in Biology, with an emphasis in Ecology, from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She was a recipient of the 2023 Stephen Fraser Encouragement Award, a 2023 finalist for the Russel Freedman award, and received honorable mention for the 2021 Ann Whitford Paul award. When not writing you can find Jessica cheering from the sideline of her kids’ soccer games, spending time outdoors, and planning her next family adventure.

 

As a former fourth grade teacher and founder of StarrMatica, a STEM publishing company, Emily Starr has developed award-winning K-5 science curriculum and professional learning materials for 20 years. She is a member of the Iowa State Science Leadership Team, a peer reviewer for the National Science Teaching Association’s journal Science and Children, and a frequent presenter at state and national education conferences. Her debut middle grade nonfiction book will be released in 2025 from the Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation.

 

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