Posts Tagged middle-grade nonfiction

STEM Tuesday– Genetics– Writing Tips & Resources

By on February 21, 2023   /   Genetics, STEM Tuesday  

CAT TAG

It’s February. The month of love. The perfect month to declare my love of genetics to the STEM Tuesday world in the passionate execution of my Week 3 Writing Craft & Resources post. I love genetics!

It is more than mere fate or blind luck that the STEM Tuesday schedule and my posting schedule aligned for February 2023. The STEM nonfiction universe knows.

Genetics + Me = #ForLife.

But what does all that have to do with a Writing Craft & Resources post? Bear with me, please, through my soliloquy on genetics.

Genetics had me at my first Punnett square. Just like Mendel and his pea plants or Barbara McClintock and her corn chromosomes, genetics had me hooked from the get-go. The idea that life has a blueprint and we have the ability to study and define it captured the teenage me as much as sports had. As a son of a civil engineer who designed and built bridges and highways, plus, as someone just getting into computer programming on my Texas Instruments TI-99, I was hooked on the coded blueprint of life for life.

Then deoxyribonucleic acid came along. The fundamental code of life. Adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Four chemical bases attach to a sugar-phosphate backbone to form a nucleotide. Four bases that pair with one another (A-T and C-G) in a particular order to form a double-helix strand of DNA and the chromosome. Just about everything we see in the living world is built from the order of those four bases. A, T, C, and G, coded in the chromosome blueprint. 

The genetic information coded in our DNA is transcribed into a specific protein in the central dogma of genetics, DNA→RNA→Protein. The triplet code is the key to the central dogma during the transcription of the DNA code. The cell’s machinery reads the code three nucleotide bases at a time and makes RNA copies of them which, in turn, code for one of 20 amino acids used to construct a protein. 

Humans have about 38 trillion cells in the body and each of those cells contains the code for ~20,000 genes within its chromosomes. The total length of the DNA in one cell is six feet. That’s a lot of DNA needing to be intricately folded to fit inside the cell’s nucleus! Each cell transcribes the proper genes at the proper time to make the proper proteins it needs to function. The cell must keep the genetic code organized while maintaining its integrity and repairing any damage to the code. Add to that, the need to faithfully replicates itself for future progeny cells so mistakes in the code, called mutations, don’t get passed to the next generation of cells. 

This molecular dance of life. with its high level of fidelity. never ceases to blow my mind.

I’ve made a career chasing DNA. I’ve cloned it and I’ve sequenced it. I’ve digested, purified, manipulated, mutated, labeled, edited, and analyzed it. Everything I’ve done in three decades of science revolves around A, T, C, and G. And even after all this time, there is still so much that I don’t know about genetics and DNA and the molecular dance of life, which brings me back to writing. 

Everybody knows writing is work. It’s hard work but, similar to genetics, it is also work that has me hooked. Also like genetics, there’s is still so much I need to learn about writing, even after decades of writing. Just as there are the tools of genetics, writers have tools. Letters, words, structure, and grammar are the nucleotide bases (A/T/C/G), genes, chromosomes, and triplet code of genetics. 

Word→Sentence→Paragraph is the writer’s central dogma. Finding the right words to describe our ideas and transcribing them in legible form is what we attempt to do as writers. 

When I teach what we do in our lab or speak to students about genetics and genetic mutations, I use a little paper demonstration called CAT TAG. It’s based on transcription using the triplet code defined above. I use it to describe how important it is to preserve the correct sequence and fidelity of the triplet code when we are cloning or mutating a gene for further analysis.

Here’s the imaginary DNA code sequence I use for the CAT TAG gene demonstration:

ATG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

If we start transcribing at the “ATG” start codon signal, we get frolicking felines playing an adorable game of CAT TAG protein.

CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

What happens when we inadvertently insert a base in the gene?

ATG tCAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

We get nonsense and no more frolicking feline protein. Where did my adorable cats go!!!

tCA TTA GCA TTA GCA TTA GCA TTA G

The same thing happens when we delete a base in the gene. Nonsense and no cats!

ATG AT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

ATT AGC ATT AGC ATT AGC ATT AG

Even more frightful, what if a whole CAT codon gets deleted?

ATG TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

Argghh!!!!! Ouch!!! Now I’m tagging the cat and the cat does not appreciate it! Ouch!

TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG CAT TAG

Writing is like the CAT TAG gene game. Finding the right order and sequence of words to express ideas is the ultimate goal. The skill and magic of revision lie not only in the order and sequence but in finding the best words to express the idea. No more or no less. Make sure additions or subtractions fit properly.

The goal is to find the adorable cats playing tag version of your writing without creating confusion, nonsense, or attacking felines. 

Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal-opportunity sports enthusiast, 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.com and writer stuff at  www.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 and on Instagram at @mikehays64.

The O.O.L.F Files

This month’s version of the O.O.L.F.(Out of Left Field) Files explores revision tips, genetics history with two of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of genetics, a lesson in genetic expression, and CRISPR gene editing at home. 

Kirsten W. Larson’s Revision Tip: Unwriting Your Draft blog post

Barbara McClintock

Gregor Mendel

The fabulous Punnett square

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Plant & Soil Science Learning Module

CRISPR at Home

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YOUNG PEOPLE WORKING FOR CHANGE

By on February 20, 2023   /   Articles, Book Lists, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Nonfiction  

 Several new books have come out featuring young people working for change in their communities and the world. Child leaders have emerged in almost every activist movement today. Though too young to vote, they organize, draw public attention to issues, and often can get laws and policy changed. The causes they champion directly impact the quality of their future lives. These include water rights, human rights, and especially climate change.
Here are some of the  books designed to inform and encourage young readers who want to make a difference. .
The Climate Book (2023) is by 19-year-old Greta Thunberg,  an internationally known and respected leader in the movement to combat climate change. This has been her focus ever since she demonstrated outside the Swedish parliament with a hand-made sign at age 15. In this book, she outlines the urgent need for accurate information and effective , and she provides both. She calls on the wisdom and knowledge of hundreds of scientists, indigenous leaders, historians, engineers, and mathematicians. Her book includes graphs and illustrations, and suggests paths for real step-by-step change. Also see Greta’s Story: The Schoolgirl Who Went on Strike to Save the Planet by Valentina Camerini (2019)

We Have a Dream: Meet 30 Young Indigenous People and People of Color Protecting the Planet (2022) is by Mya-Rose Craig.” Mya-Rose,    British Bangladeshi ornithologist who was awarded an honorary science degree from Bristol University at age 17. She has created “Black to Nature” camps to encourage indigenous people and people of color to fight for equal rights and environmental protection, since they are the most affected. This book profiles thirty young people around the world, including the US, who are already taking action.

Also see Young Native Activist: Growing Up in Native American Rights Movements  by Aslan Tudo. Alsn is  a 13 year old member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. When he was 8 and again at 11, Aslan went to South Dakota to join the protests of Lakota Sioux against construction of a oil pipeline at Standing Rock. In this book, he describes native American causes in which he continues to be active.

In Movement Makers: How Young Activists Upended the Politics of Climate change (2022), author Nicke Englefried interviews over 100 youth leaders.  She  tells the background story of how youth climate campaigns have drawn attention, changed the national discussion, and become a mass movement.

Saving Animals: A Future Activist’s Guide (2021), is by Catherine Kelaher, founder of New South Wales’ Hen Rescue.  Her organization  rehomes chickens and other animals from factory farms. This well-researched guide is full of  ideas about how to protect and make the world a better place for pets, farm animals & wildlife . It includes stories of empathetic young people who are doing just that.

Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement (2018), is by the founders of March For Our Lives. On Valentine’s Day in 2018, a mass-shooter killed 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida. Surviving students channeled their grief and anger into a youth movement to end gun violence.  The students of the movement provide a blueprint, showing how they took action in rallies, on social media, in voter registration drives, and with a march on Washington.

Tomorrow Begins Now: Teen Heroes Who Faced Down Injustice (2022) is by Ava Lorelei Deakin. It features stories, ranging from the 1950s to today, of 11 teens fighting for their civil rights and liberties. Their  issues include school segregation, sports equality, censorship, unjust deportation, and others.

Putting Peace First: 7 Commitments to Change the World (2018) is  by Eric David Dawson, who at age 18 founded a non-profit called Peace First.  Peace first is  based on the idea that young people can change the world now. Putting Peace First is his handbook for would-be peacemakers, with step-by-step explanations of how peacemakers have achieved their goals

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STEM Tuesday– Genetics– In the Classroom

By on February 14, 2023   /   Genetics, STEM Tuesday  

This month’s theme ties in with a few of my interests/hobbies. An amateur genealogist, I was recently reading about the use of genetics in genealogy. As a nature lover and Environmental Science merit badge counselor, I’m constantly hearing about the effects of biodiversity (or lack thereof) on the environment. These interests impacted the books I chose to read this month.

Book Cover for Saving The Tasmanian Devil

Saving the Tasmanian Devil: How Science Is Helping the World’s Largest Marsupial Carnivore Survive by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Tasmanian devils are threatened by a disease that defies genetics. This book follows the author as she learns about the disease and how scientists are working to save the species.

 

CRISPR: A Powerful Way to Change DNA by Yolanda Ridge, illustrated by Alex Boersma
The book delves into CRISPR technology and how it can be used to modify DNA. It’s packed with interesting scenarios and questions about ethics.

 

BIODiversityBiodiversity: Explore the Diversity of Life on Earth with Environmental Science Activities for Kids by Laura Perdew, illustrated by Tom Casteel
Biodiversity is the variety of living things in an environment. This book explores biodiversity with a host of hands-on activities.

 

Bonus – This topic also ties in with a book I read for October’s STEM Tuesday theme.
Champion, The Comeback Tale of the American Chestnut Tree by Sally M Walker
To read about this book, check out this post: https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/stem-tuesday-extinction-in-the-classroom

Some of this month’s books have activities built into them. There’s a lot to explore there. Here are a few more ideas to extend or add to those.

Research and Speculate or Debate

There are lots of questions asked in CRISPR. For instance, in Chapter 4, while discussing the options available for modifying mosquito genes to get rid of malaria, there are the following questions:

“[S]hould humans really get to decide whether an entire species will live or die? Who decides which pests are pesty enough to get rid of, and who makes sure the technology is limited to bugs?”

Mosquitoes are carriers for some serious diseases, but what if editing their genes wiped them out? What would that do to the food web? Do a little research to see if you can find out what role mosquitoes play in the ecosystem.

How are other animals impacted by the diseases mosquitoes carry? What would happen if we wiped out those diseases? How would biodiversity be impacted?

Once you’ve done a little research, speculate or debate. Speculate on what you think might happen in the different scenarios where genetically modified mosquitoes are unleashed on the world. Debate whether or not you think we have the right to do so.

If you don’t want to explore this topic, pick one of the other topics raised in one of this month’s books. (Each chapter in CRISPR has at least one topic worthy of a deep-dive.)

Go Sci-Fi

“What If?” is a common question to ask when plotting fiction stories. Many “What if?” questions come to mind when reading up on the topic of genetics. Chapter 10 of CRISPR includes a few futuristic scenes that could be used as a Sci-Fi writing prompt. Pick a genetics-based What If? and write a science fiction story based on it.

Here’s a blog post that gives some good advice: https://writingcooperative.com/how-to-write-a-science-fiction-story-3f04782d243c

Explore Family Genetics

One fun way to explore genetics is to look into inherited traits. There are many published activities out there. Here are a few to start with.
This page – https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/activities – has several genetics activities. Perhaps start with “An Inventory of My Traits.”

If you want, explore traits among family members. “A Tree of Genetic Traits” from the previous website does this. Another similar activity is: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/seeing-pedigree-science-making-a-family-tree-of-traits.

Even if a child is adopted, they may share inherited traits with their adoptive parents. If not, maybe they can predict which traits they are likely to pass on to any children they might have.

—
Janet smiling while holding a butterflyJanet Slingerland is the author of over 20 books for young readers. Her latest project involves increasing the biodiversity in her yard by planting a wide variety of native plants. To find out more about Janet and her books, check out http://janetsbooks.com.

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