Posts Tagged STEM Tuesday

STEM Tuesday– Math– Writing Tips & Resources

By on May 19, 2026   /   Math, STEM Tuesday   /   Leave a comment

MATH (AND WRITING) IS FOR EVERYONE!

As the some of the books in this month’s book list mention, there is a persistent myth that some people are inherently good at math. Others are not. This usually comes hand-in-hand with a narrow idea of what math is and isn’t.

These myths are mirrored in writing. Some people “are writers” while others are not. “Real” writing is serious and lengthy.

But the truth is that math and writing are both skill sets anyone can learn with patience and persistence. Whether we recognize it or not, we all have our own relationships to both math and writing, our own ways of seeing them. And both are EVERYWHERE!

You can find math in the kitchen, supermarket, even the garden: just look at the many patterns of petals beginning to bloom! Writing can be found on signs and in emails, bumper stickers, blogs, and beyond!

This month we’re focusing on finding our way into writing and math through writing about math.

Math is Everywhere

Here are books that demonstrate the ways that math connects with other subjects, as well as the creative ways that different authors present a topic. What might sound like a single topic—math—is actually incredibly diverse, as these books demonstrate. Each author writes about math from their own unique angle, combining subjects and bringing their own writing style to their book.

Cover of "Adventures in Math"

Math and your mind:

Adventures in Math: How to Level Up Your Math Game by Carleigh Wu and Sean Simpson focuses on how our mindset shapes our relationship to math. This math book emerged from the author’s unique background as a teacher and math coach. Following illustrated characters as they venture into the jungle (of math), this colorful book is all about using curiosity and a growth mindset to level up your math game. Punchy, relatable text and an engaging voice weaves together real people doing amazing things with math, inspiring quotes, and exercises that speak directly to readers.

 

 

Cover of "The Book of Math"

Math and social studies:

The Book of Math: Adventures in the World of Shapes and Numbers by Anna Weltman and Paul Boston takes readers on a tour of dozens of moments in math across history and around the globe. Each two-page spread covers a fun and interesting math-related topic using discussion questions, short paragraphs, questions and answers, and other writing styles. Visuals including maps, timelines, labelled diagrams, and illustrations of the concepts complement the words and showcase the writer’s decisions regarding which combination of words and images best conveys each concept.

Cover of "Which One Doesn't Belong?"

Math and play:

Which One Doesn’t Belong? Playing with Shapes by Christopher Danielson shows the creative possibilities and elegant simplicity that arise when a creator selects one concept they’re passionate about and goes deep. This book takes a simple question—which shape doesn’t belong?—and in each spread, offers increasingly challenging sets of shapes. Readers can use their analytical and argumentative skills to decide which shape doesn’t match the others. The limited yet clear and encouraging words in this book show how clarity of thought is more important than verbosity.

Cover of "Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and other animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities"

Math and animals:

Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities by Stephanie Gibeault and Jaclyn Sinquett explores fundamental math concepts through surprising animal behavior and by unpacking the scientific studies that prove humans aren’t the only ones using math. Learn how to design scientific experiments, read interviews with the scientists behind the discoveries, and collect amazing animal facts… all through math! Would it surprise you to learn this author has a background as a biologist, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer?

 

An example from Our Own Kamilla:
Math and a Change Maker: Bringing a mathematician to life

Each of these authors made a personal connection to the material, exploring unique aspects under the big umbrella of math, and writing about it in their own creative and engaging way. By drawing on their own interests and skills, anyone can find a way to write themselves into the world of math.

MARYAM MIRZAKHANI, First Woman to Win the Fields Medal in Mathematics in 2014 by Kamilla Milligan
. Maryam.
Seeker.
Problem-solver.
Devotee of beauty.
 Maryam pursued truth
 from Tehran to Stanford
, in books and proofs,
classrooms,
 conversations, 
doodling on the floor. 
Maryam
 unveiled magical connections 
across the curves of space and time,
 bridging fields 
to win the Fields Medal—
bending the arc of possibility
 for us to follow.

One of us (Kamilla) recently did just this. I drew on my Persian cultural heritage and long-time interest in the accomplished Persian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani to write a submission to Vivian Kirkfield’s #50PreciousWords children’s writing contest.

Researching for this story allowed me to read about her life and mathematical achievements to understand both the technical details and the significance of her mathematical discoveries as well as who she was as a person. While I didn’t fully understand her mathematical work (massive understatement!!), I gained more appreciation for the diversity within mathematics, the creative questions it inspires, and the significance of the Fields Medal.

I played around with many different details from Maryam’s life, creating different versions as I selected key images and themes to frame the significance of her accomplishments. Writing this poem and choosing what elements to include was creatively satisfying and also cemented my curiosity about higher mathematics.

Now You Try!

Take a moment to notice at least 3 examples of where math and writing overlap:

Option 1: Start with Your Heart

  • What do you care about? What matters to you?
  • How does that intersect with math?

Option 2: Look at Your Daily Life

  • Where do math and writing show up in your life?
  • What kinds of math and writing are YOU drawn to?

Note: If you work with students, consider using resources that showcase the broad spectrum of ways that math shows up in our lives, and the diverse people and cultures who have played a significant role in the development and use of math. With encouragement, everyone can find at least one entry-point. And as they explore this personal connection, you may see a shift in how they relate to the discipline of math—a stronger sense of connection, which is as important for success as mastery of any specific concept.

Now write:

Write a 50-word interdisciplinary story about math and (at least) one other subject area.

Use any writing style or approach that works for you and your topic: prose, rhyme, free-verse…illustrated, comic-style, text-only…”silly or serious” (from the #50PreciousWords guidelines by Vivian Kirkfield)–writer’s choice. Look for inspiration among this year’s contest winners.

Bios

Kamilla Milligan is a kidlit writer who explores themes of home, connection with nature, and cultural diversity in her stories. Kamilla has lived in Canada, the southern US, and Russia, and applies her PhD in education to her work in equity and human rights. Outside of reading, Kamilla enjoys gardening, fibre projects, and nature walks. Visit Kamilla online at kamillamilligan.com

Alexandra Millarhouse is a researcher, science communication professional, and writer focused on the intersection of nature, science, and self. Her debut picture book, THE ANIMAL QUEENDOM, comes out in 2027 with Simon & Schuster, followed by an unannounced picture book in 2028. Living in Vermont, Alexandra is often tracking wildlife across a cemetery, or sitting by the water with a sketchbook. Visit Alexandra online at: https://www.foxandindigo.com/

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STEM Tuesday– Math– In the Classroom

By on May 12, 2026   /   Math, STEM Tuesday   /   Leave a comment

 

You might not realize it, but we use math every day! We use math when playing games, sharing snacks, telling time, shopping, and building things. In these books, readers can practice mathematical tips and strategies, solve logic puzzles, learn about inspirational mathematicians, and more. They make a great starting point for classroom discussion and activities!

 

Cover of the book Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities by Stephanie Gibeault and illustrated by Jaclyn Sinquett

This book explores the remarkable mathematical abilities of five animals: guppies, hyenas, African grey parrots, chimpanzees, and honeybees. This 2025 Mathical Honor Book provides a window into how scientists study animal behavior and number skills. Readers are sure to be fascinated that fish can distinguish between large and small quantities; African grey parrots can represent numbers with symbols; chimpanzees can add; honeybees understand the concept of zero; and hyenas count.

Classroom Activity – Animal Math Research Posters

Some animals have amazing math skills! To learn more, students can work in small groups to research one animal from the book. Students can take what they learned and create a poster explaining the animal’s math skill, how scientists studied it, and why the discovery is important. Students can include diagrams, number facts, and illustrations in their poster presentation.

 

Cover of the book Show and Tell! Great Graphs and Smart Charts: An Introduction to Infographics Show and Tell! Great Graphs and Smart Charts: An Introduction to Infographics, written by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Teresa Bellón

This book is an excellent introductory guide that shows how to collect and display information using eye-catching, easy-to-interpret line graphs, bar graphs, pictographs, and pie charts. It’s perfect for children interested in surveys, organizing and interpreting data, and visually representing their findings for others.

Classroom Activity – Classroom Infographic Survey Project

After learning about graphs and charts, it’s time for students to make their own! First, have students conduct a class survey on a topic such as favorite snacks, pets, or hobbies. Students organize the data into bar graphs, pie charts, or pictographs and then create colorful infographics to present their findings to the class.

 

Cover of the book Do the Math!: Challenging, Fun Math Puzzles for KidsDo the Math!: Challenging, Fun Math Puzzles for Kids, by Steven and Jessica Clontz

This book offers a plethora of puzzles for readers to complete while working on core math skills. Through clear instructions and a variety of activities, the reader develops logical thinking skills as they solve different types of puzzles one chapter at a time.

 

Cover of the Logic Workbook for Gritty Kids Logic Workbook for Gritty Kids series

Choose different levels of fun puzzles and games to develop spatial reasoning, math skills, and focus in the Logic Workbook for Gritty Kids series. In each book, the puzzles increase in difficulty to maintain motivation.

 

Cover of the book Perfectly Logical!: Challenging Fun Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles for Smart Kids Perfectly Logical!: Challenging Fun Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles for Smart Kids by Jenn Larson

This book of logic puzzles and games focuses on developing skills such as abstract reasoning and processing speed.

 

 

Classroom Activity – Logic Puzzle Stations

Create rotating stations using different types of logic puzzles, inspired by Do the Math!, Perfectly Logical!, and the Logic Workbook for Gritty Kids series. Each station focuses on a different skill, such as spatial reasoning, number patterns, riddles, or deductive thinking. Students work individually or in pairs to solve the puzzles and explain their reasoning. Finish with a class discussion about different problem-solving strategies.

 

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Carla Mooney loves to explore the world around us and discover the details about how it works. An award-winning author of numerous nonfiction science books for kids and teens, she hopes to spark a healthy curiosity and love of science in today’s young people. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, three kids, and dog. Find her at http://www.carlamooney.com, on Facebook @carlamooneyauthor, or on Instagram @moonwriter25

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Mixed-Up Member Spotlight: Mike Hays

By on May 11, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment

All About Mike Hays

From the Mixed-Up Files is a place to celebrate middle grade books—new books, collections of books on a particular theme, STEM books—as well as a place to interview authors. Now I get to celebrate a fellow MUF blogger: Mike Hays, who has been a part of the team for more than eleven years.

Hi Mike! It’s nice to finally meet you and get you “in front of the camera” for a change. First, tell us about your non-writing life.
My life firmly orbits around my family. Faith, family, food, and an insatiable curiosity for the world is probably the dime store philosophical motto for my life. The writing and creating parts are deeply rooted in all those things.

What do you do for fun?
Much to the chagrin of people I live with, I try to do everything for fun. Of course, there are times when one has to buckle down, pinch your nose, and get the dog poo of life cleaned up. But, even then, I try to infuse those times with an element of a fun challenge. The things I do for fun are all over the board; playing with my grandkids, gardening, biking, drawing, games of any sort, and, most of all, reading.

I see you are a molecular microbiologist by day. Fill us in on what that entails.
Unfortunately, being a molecular microbiologist is not as exciting or as sexy as it sounds. It’s work and it’s failure. The general aim of our research laboratory within a veterinary medical college is to use molecular biology and gene editing to make viral and bacterial pathogens less dangerous. We also focus on using isolated aspects of those pathogens and/or their genes as treatments for other diseases and conditions, i.e. knocking down the body’s inflammation response in autoimmune disease. It’s a bugs to drugs approach.


How does your day job impact your writing?
I get to approach every day with a discovery mindset. We are using what scientists have previously done to forge new ground in our field. Constantly interested. Constantly investigative. I like doing what I do because it’s a hands-on job that requires thought and analysis every dang day. It’s the Fail Cycle in daily action ⇒ Try. Fail. Analyze. Problem solve, Try again. Repeat. (Sound familiar, creators in the crowd? The Fail Cycle is how we create.)

Were you always interested in being a writer? Did you like to write as a child?
No! And No! I had trouble reading and writing as a child. It was a struggle. I’m sure I have some learning issue that was beyond the capacity of a mid-1970’s lower middle class Catholic grade school. The key was that my lower middle class Catholic grade school had people who cared and refused to allow me to slip through the cracks. I made a breakthrough in sixth grade reading Jack London’s To Build a Fire on mimeographed sheets of paper while tucked deep in a storeroom where a volunteer provided kids extra help. It changed everything! It opened the doors for my creative brain that were previously locked. The fire was lit. One of the things I preach to all who will listen is: Reading is a Superpower!

If you could interview any middle grade author (past or present), who would it be and why?
This is an impossible question to fully answer, so here is my shortened version of a list that could encompass this entire interview post. I spared you my long-winded why and just include their almost perfect book(s) I’d talk to the author about and beg to know how they did performed their perfect alchemy.
Terry Prachett (The Tiffany Aching series)
Louis Sachar (Holes)
Kelly Barnhill (The Girl Who Drank the Moon)
Neil Gaiman (Coraline/The Graveyard Book)
Jennifer L. Holm (The Fourteenth Goldfish)
Erin Entrada Kelly (We Dream of Space)
Okay for Now (Gary D. Schmidt)
Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dandelion Wine)
Michael Chabon (Summerland)
Jonathan Stroud (The Lockwood & Co. series)

About His Books

Tell us about the types of books/short stories you write. Would you say there’s a common thread in them?
The common thread at the core in everything I write or create is probably similar to a great number of creators. I write for me. In particular, I write stuff the young me would have appreciated. I wrote a MUF post called Creative Braining that kind of touches on how this process works on a neuroprocessing level.

What is your favorite book/short story you wrote?
Ha! Isn’t this like asking me to pick a favorite child? I think the honest answer is the favorite piece is the one I’m working on. That love and passion helps drive through that mucky slog every piece must trudge through.

I know you are a coach—what sports do you coach? How has your love of sports and/or coaching impacted your books?
I was a Rule 10 (non-certified staff) high school football, baseball, and strength & conditioning coach. Now, I volunteer with youth sports and love to work with kids on the fundamentals of hitting a baseball.
A love of sports, and participation as a player and coach, has had a huge impact on my creative work. First, it instilled in me the value of practice in developing technical ability and skill. Second, it taught me the value of work ethic and discipline. Show up and do the work because hard work is the magic. Finally, I learned to compete. In creativity, this competition is 100% a competition against my own self to finish a project to the very best of my ability at that particular time and place.

What are you working on now?
Although not recommended to working fast or keeping one’s mental faculties completely in order, I work on multiple projects at a time. I have this memory of Ray Bradbury from an old TV interview talking about how he works three or four projects simultaneously. If he got stuck on one, he rolled his office chair to the next typewriter and got to work on that one. My current problem is limiting my work to three or four projects and not seven. 😀
I’m revising and querying several MG manuscripts, working on an informative fiction graphic novel about the Sputnik I launch, drafting and outlining a new MG fiction project, and making a picture book dummy. Even though it seems to be tough times in the MG universe, we must keep on keeping on. Plus, baby steps are still steps moving forward, right?

Mike’s Roles for MUF

How long have you been writing for From the Mixed-Up Files…of Middle Grade Authors?
In a move the MUF leadership probably wishes they could reconsider, I was accepted to be a part of the team in November of 2014. (Wait! There’s no way is can be that long ago. It seems like just yesterday.)

What hats do you wear for MUF?
I do several regular MUF posts per year and those almost exclusively lean toward creativity and how we do what we do. I’m also the most unreliable member of the MUF Author Interview team and am working to rectify my lack of participation on that important front. As one of the original STEM Tuesday team members, I am part of the STEM Tuesday Week Three Writing Tips & Resources team and helped lay the groundwork for the post’s format, including the O.O.L.F. Files component.
I am the class clown of the STEM Tuesday family and, for some reason, Jennifer Swanson and the others let me get away with it. I am forever grateful they allow me to be my stupid-funny self in the oft-serious arena of STEM.

What are your favorite types of posts to do and why?
At a basic level, I like the posts that allow me to explore the creative process. My most challenging post assignment is having the honor and the responsibility to write the annual STEM Tuesday New Year’s Post.

You write posts for STEM Tuesday. What topics do you like to cover?
I love the challenge of being “forced” into learning something new in order to properly address the monthly STEM Tuesday theme. When one learns more creating the piece than one was able to share in the post, it’s a win for a nerdy boy like me.

What was your favorite post you wrote and why?
Another hard question! On this question, though, there is one that stands out above the rest. The STEM Tuesday New Year’s Post at the end of December 2020. Yes, that 2020! You know, global pandemic, science being attacked from multiple fronts, etc. Truth bomb here, I was so nervous and almost backed out of posting this one for a generic “Happy New Year from the STEM Tuesday Team!” post. I was pulling out the stupid-funny ridiculousness stops and going so far off the standard STEM Tuesday rails that I was worried about embarrassing the whole STEM Tuesday team. In the 11th hour, Jennifer Swanson was consulted and she said to run with it. Honestly, I think she was just desperate to get something posted on New Year’s Eve. It even had to run in two parts. Here are the links:

Part One: A Great Conjunction
Part Two: Partie Deux (Translation…Part Doo.)

For Teachers

Are you doing school visits related to your books?
I am available for free virtual school visits, tailored to all ages, to talk writing, creating, science, and a grab bag of other things that are on the mind of young people. Interested teachers can send a message via my socials or on my website and we can get something scheduled.

How can we learn more about you?
My author website is: https://mikehaysbooks.com/
My blog site (over 500 posts since 2009!) on life, coaching, sports, etc. is: https://coachhays.com/
Instagram: @MikeHays64
Bluesky: @mikehays64.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachhays

Thanks for your time, Mike.

Thank you! I love what the MUF family does on a daily basis and the spotlight it shines on MG space. I’m forever proud and thankful to be a part of this spectacular group.

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