Posts Tagged teachers.

STEM Tuesday– Radio/UV Waves and Applied Physics — Writing Tips and Resources

By on February 18, 2025   /   Applied Physicis, STEM Tuesday  

Catch a Wave!

(This post was originally a STEM Tuesday Spin-Off guest post for the Middle Grade Book Village blog. It fits with this month’s theme of Radio/UV Waves – Applied Physics so I’m recycling it for my Writing Tips & Resources post.)

In STEM Tuesday Spin-Off, we look around at the things in life we often take for granted. We peer behind the curtain, search underneath the hood for the STEM principles involved, and suggest books and/or links to help build an understanding of the world around us. The common, everyday thing will be the hub of the post, and the “spin-offs” will be the spokes making up our wheel of discovery. As our former STEM Tuesday Writing Tips & Resources partner, Heather L. Montgomery often says, we’ll “Go deep!” on a common subject and take a look at its inherent STEM components. 

Today, we will take a closer look at something that is always with us and affects the life of the average 8-14-year-old.

Waves!

Shalom Jacobovitzderivative work: Brocken Inaglory ([[User talk:Brocken Inaglory|talk]]) [CC BY-SA]

The Hub: Waves

Waves, dude! They’re awesome. Riding a wave, either on a board or by body, is exhilarating. Throwing a rock into a calm lake or pond to watch the wave patterns is pretty entertaining and tossing in another rock or two to watch the wave patterns interact takes it to a whole new level. 

Wave motion is pretty cool. The waves created by a sheet flapping in the breeze or the waves generated with a length of rope or a Slinky toy give us hours of entertaining observation. Waves provide both satisfaction from their aesthetic and their physical principles. In short, waves rock!

As cool as the above waves are, there are multitudes of waves in constant motion around us every day and we don’t even need to hit the beach to enjoy them. We notice some of these waves, while others we don’t notice. Yet these waves profoundly affect our modern life every second of every day.  

In today’s Catch a Wave Edition, we’ll talk about these sound and electromagnetic waves and introduce some spin-off resources to learn more and dig deeper into STEM. There are waves all around us, light waves, sound waves, radio waves, microwaves, other electromagnetic waves, and, may I add, waves of middle-grade academic enthusiasm.

Spoke 1: Sound Waves

Sound waves are mechanical waves created by the vibration of a source. The vibrations create longitudinal waves consisting of regions of high pressure and low pressure called compressions and rarefactions that mimic the source vibration. A sound wave must travel from one place to another in a medium and cannot move through a vacuum. 

Sound wave in a cylinder. via Wikimedia Commons.

Transverse Waves

The remaining Spin-Off Spokes are all transverse waves of the electromagnetic spectrum. One of the amazing things about electromagnetic waves is they are a single physical phenomenon that can be separated into types by the characteristic properties associated with their frequency and wavelength.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is em-spectrum-nasa_-wikimedia-commons.jpg

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is longitudinal-and-transverse-waves-1.png

Electromagnetic wave shape is the more familiar wave shape of crests and troughs, called a sine wave. Transverse waves of the EM spectrum travel at the speed of light in a vacuum.

Spoke 2: Radio Waves

We are all familiar with radio. Turn it on, crank it up, and dance down the hallway on the way to the lunchroom. Radio rocks! Let me tell you, that box that plays our favorite tunes is only a mere sliver of the pure awesomeness of radio waves. Radio waves are the do-it-all, blue-collar, workman of the physical world. Sound, data, and video can be pulsed (modulated) onto a radio wave carrier, transmitted great distances through an antenna, and received by another antenna. A receiver then separates (demodulates) the original signal from the carrier wave and transmits it to an output device.

Let’s say I want to play my wicked new surf guitar solo to a friend who lives six hours away. First, I create the sound into a microphone by playing my new jam. The microphone transforms the vibration of the longitudinal sound wave from the guitar strings into an electromagnetic wave which then gets pulsed/modulated onto a radio wave or microwave. The message on the carrier wave is sent by my antenna great distances at the speed of light until it reaches my friend’s antenna. The antenna catches my message, and the electromagnetic wave is decoded/demodulated from the carrier and sent to a speaker where it is transformed back into a sound wave. Next thing you know, my friend is rocking out to my surf guitar solo. All is good in the world.

A low-frequency message signal (top) may be carried by an AM or FM radio wave.

Look around your school or classroom, there are probably devices on the ceiling or on a table all around that are constantly modulating and demodulating data for your computers and Wi-Fi networks. MOdulating and DEModulating, MOdulating and DEModulating, MOdulating and DEModulating. (Isn’t “modem” an exceptional portmanteau of “modulator-demodulator”?) Did you know that’s what your modem does? Radio waves and microwaves are the carriers of modern life. Technology doesn’t go anywhere without them.

Spoke 3: Microwaves

Microwaves do more than make popcorn or heat up that frozen burrito. With higher energy and higher frequency wave than a radio wave, a microwave can penetrate obstacles that radio waves can’t. Some of the non-food functions of microwaves overlap with the functions of radio waves and the daily utility of these may surprise you. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, satellite radio, amateur radio, weather radar, and some broadcasting and communications transmissions, to name a few, are all microwaves. See what I mean? Microwaves make life better, and the bag of popcorn popped in two minutes is truly a bonus.

A satellite dish receives satellite television over a Ku band 12–14 GHz microwave beam from a direct broadcast communications satellite in a geostationary orbit 35,700 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the Earth.

Spoke 4: Infrared Waves

Infrared is such a cool sounding word, science fiction level cool in my book. In reality, though, it simply means “below red”. Infrared waves are often associated with heat, especially the longer wavelength end of the spectrum. These heat waves are given off by fire, heat lamps, and the sun. On the opposite end, the shorter infrared wavelengths don’t give off much heat but do function in one of mankind’s greatest inventions—the remote control! Automatic doors, heat sensors, and night-vision technology are just a few ways we interact with infrared waves in our daily life. Now, where did I put that TV remote?

IR thermography helped to determine the temperature profile of the Space Shuttle thermal protection system during re-entry.

Spoke 5: Visible Waves

We are all familiar with the visible spectrum of electromagnetic waves. They’re the ones we can see and account for the rainbow of colors detected by our eyes. The different frequencies of visible waves are either absorbed or reflected by an object. If the reflected waves are at the longer wavelengths of the visible spectrum, 625-740 nm, the light is red. If the reflected waves are at the shorter end of the spectrum, 380-450 nm, the reflected light is violet. Everything we can see and the multitude of colors originate from the electromagnetic waves of the visible spectrum. You may also have heard about fiber-optic cables used for communication. Fiber optics contain light waves that carry data much like radio and microwaves. Without the visible wave spectrum, we would spend most of our time in the dark.

Spoke 6: Ultraviolet Waves

If the word “infrared” wasn’t cool enough for you, may I present “ultraviolet”? In reality, it’s just an awesome way to say “beyond violet”. Besides the level of word coolness, ultraviolet waves themselves are pretty dang awesome. UV waves are emitted by high-temperature objects, like stars, and help astronomers learn more about how the galaxies are put together. Just as “beyond violet” suggests a deeper shade of purple, ultraviolet waves have their own dark side. UV rays emitted by our sun are the cause of sunburns and prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation can cause cancer by changing our DNA.

Of course, there are also the UV rays of lower frequencies emitted from a blacklight bulb which we all know make the school dances spectacular events for white clothing clad individuals.

NASA image of Mira’s bow shock & hydrogen gas tail in ultraviolet, rendered in blue-visible light.

ROUGE WAVES?

There are two additional wave types in the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves, however, are ones you don’t want to expose yourself to regularly. 

X-rays are high-energy waves naturally produced by high-temperature sources, like the sun’s corona. We may be more familiar with medical imaging equipment that uses the power of X-rays to view bone structure. There’s a good reason the radiology technician wears a lead apron for protection while performing X-rays—too much exposure to X-rays can cause serious health problems.

The second waves to avoid are gamma waves. Gamma waves are such high frequency/short wavelength they can pass through the space of a single atom! Unfortunately, they can also destroy living cells. Gamma waves are mainly formed by high-energy objects in space and are absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Lightning, nuclear explosions, and radioactive decay are sources on Earth that can produce gamma rays.

Franquet T., Chung J.H. [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)]

Wrap-Up

The final waves needing recognition are the waves of middle-grade enthusiasm and, in particular, the waves of middle-grade enthusiasm for STEM. Keep riding the STEM wave and asking questions about how our world works.

Hopefully, I’ve given you at least six good reasons to appreciate the physical phenomenon of waves. They may not be the easiest thing in the world to understand but they are fascinating.  

Next time you switch on a radio or the TV or get your sprained ankle x-rayed at the hospital, think about all the invisible and visible waves swirling around us every second of every day. Appreciate the STEM-tastic wave and remember this:

Be curious. 

Think about the world around you.

Figure out what makes it tick and work to make it a better place.

CATCH A WAVE!!!

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/life/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 Bluesky under the guise of @mikehays64.bsky.social and @MikeHays64 on Instagram.

The O.O.L.F Files

This month on the Out Of Left Field (O.O.L.F.) Files, we take a trip around the internet to further investigate the awesomeness of radio and ultraviolet waves. 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory 

The University of Central Florida’s Astronomy coursebook chapter, The Electromagnetic Spectrum.

NASA’s Hubblesite

Studious Guy

Middle School, Experiment with Radio Waves Science Projects

GCSE Physics

  • Radio Waves #65

  • Visible and UV Light #67

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STEM Tuesday– Fossils– Writing Tips & Resources

By on January 21, 2025   /   Fossils, STEM Tuesday  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome again to STEM Tuesday! I’m Stephanie.

When you’ve been writing for a long time, coming across an old piece of writing is like finding a fossil—it’s a record of a bygone era: incomplete, stripped of context, languishing unstudied. The metaphor breaks down eventually, because I’m no paleontologist, but you get the idea. We all have tidbits of stories that we’ve never completely unearthed, or found all the pieces of. And in that spirit, instead of generative prompts, today we have revision prompts!

Revision Prompt 1 | Dig, Discover, Excavate

Pickaxes and rock hammers ready? It’s time to revisit a piece of writing, something you haven’t looked at for a long time. Where do you keep these things? I have discarded notebooks, a drawer of ideas jotted on paper scraps, a list of odd facts, and files scattered on two computers. Wherever your archeological dig site, take a good look, skimming and rereading…

(Teachers, have students select excerpts from classroom journals or past assignments. Define a scope for your students… do you want them to revise a single sentence, a paragraph, a story idea?)

  1. Look for something that catches your eye, for whatever reason. Select a dusty piece but one that seems to say, “I have more to give.” Maybe you thought nothing of it when you wrote it, but now you’re not sure where it came from. It could be strange, or funny, dark-humored or sentimental. Mysterious. Playful. Whatever you like, but something you want to spend time on: something with a hook.
  2. For at least 10 minutes, do some exploratory writing, examining what you’ve found. What’s the size of your “fossil”

    Whale skeleton on sandy land in a desert. Picture by Rachel Claire. Used with permission.

    (writing sample)? What’s its nature? What do you like about it? What does the language do: nail an authorial tone that you like? perfectly capture a universal truth? Where did it come from, within you? answering these and the following questions. Does your fossil want to tell a fiction story, or a non-fiction one? What motivates you to excavate around it? What do you hope to find?

  3. Write down as many revision options for yourself as possible—and make them differ widely in scope, tone, and even genre. Think mash-ups. Think metaphors. Don’t edit your options. Go for variety.
  4. Next, discuss your revision ideas with someone else. If nobody is available, say them aloud anyway. Talk through them. Pick any two significantly different ideas and write them out for 10 minutes each.

If you feel exhausted, it’s well deserved. You dug. You discovered. You excavated. Congrats on your findings! Maybe you’ll continue to revise this piece, or maybe a year from now you’ll dig, discover, and excavate again. After all, the writing process sometimes feels paced like the geologic eras.

Revision Prompt 2 | Fragmented Storytelling

Fossils are seldom found complete. It’s more common to find fragments, and I find memory to be the same way. With creative nonfiction such as I’ve been writing lately for my undergrad classes, while the setting, characters, and events must be accurate, the license to embellish covers a good swath of gray area, such as story structure. Where memory fails, creative nonfiction offers artful transitions. Where historical gaps exist, the genre says, (since know it’s creative) give us approximations of the truth, renditions of it. Give us stories based on true stories.

Sometimes constructing context requires this sort of fragmented, non-linear, woven storytelling. It requires a rhetorical look at sequencing. If that’s something you like, maybe take a look at Marbles on the Floor: How to Assemble a Book of Poems by editors Sarah Giragosian and Virginia Konchan. It’s a compilation of essays about how to organize poems, but not-so-secretly, I think the methods for motif layering are similarly applicable to prose.

  1. Print both of your revisions from above, double spaced. You may want to print more than one copy each, since this exercise is about experimentation, and there’s always more than one way to revise a sentence. Cut your “fossil” into white strips of paper—individual words, phrases, entire sentences or paragraphs. Now piece these together like the bones of a skeleton. Create a new story using fragments. The story should become both and neither of the stories it was before.
  2. There’s no “wrong” way to do this exercise, but the important part is to break sentences in search of better sentences, to braid metaphors from each version, to look for surprises buried in the words that are already yours. Perhaps you wrote an entire paragraph that’s perfect as it is… almost. Can you substitute a better word from your other story? Alternate sentences. Try reversing parts of the story, or parts of the sentences. Where might sentence fragments do a better job of communicating than a whole sentence would?

How much fragmentation is too much fragmentation? That’s up to you and the story you’re telling. This is, after all, just an exercise. If your new piece feels too fragmented, adjust as necessary.

Do you still like the paleontology metaphor for writing? I’ll be posting some of my extra fossil-themed writing prompts on my website very soon!

All my best,

Stephanie

 

A nature-loving creative, Stephanie Jackson writes poems, articles, picture books, middle-grade novels, and more. Her nonfiction has been published in Cricket magazine and her poems have been published in The Dirigible Balloon and various literary journals including Touchstones, where she’s been a contributing poetry editor. Professional affiliations include the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and The Authors Guild. This spring she’s graduating from Utah Valley University with her English degree, emphasis in creative writing. She interacts with the kidlit community on Twitter as @canoesandcosmos, and you can read more at StephanieWritesforKids.com.

 

 

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STEM Tuesday– Fossils– Book List

By on January 7, 2025   /   Fossils, STEM Tuesday  

Ancient Stories Cast in Stone

Every fossil tells a tale. It could be a story about an adventurous life in the ocean, before becoming buried beneath layers of sediment. Or it could just raise lots of questions, starting with: how did that get here?

Mary Anning and Paleontology for Kids: Her Life and Discoveries, with 21 Activities by Stephanie Bearce

Readers get to know Mary Anning as a child and, later, as she discovers her first skeleton. Mary did more than dig up bones, though. She cleaned them, figured out how to put them together in a complete skeleton, and drew detailed scientific illustrations about her finds. Scattered throughout the book are sidebars that dive into details about aspects of life in the 1800s as well as the hands-on activities.

Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Paleontologists: With Stem Projects for Kids by Karen Bush Gibson, illustrated by Hui Li

Paleontologists are the scientists who study fossils, from ferns to trilobites, dinosaurs to ancient humans. In this book, we meet five women in paleontology, beginning with twelve-year-old Mary Anning who, in 1811, found a dinosaur in the cliffs near her home. We meet Mignon Talbot who studied crinoids and is the first American woman to discover and name a dinosaur. There’s a field kit checklist, lots of hands on “field assignments” and plenty of text-boxes, along with short bios of other paleontologists not featured.

The Monster’s Bones : The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World (young reader’s edition) by David K Randall

The life of a paleontologist is filled with grit and heat, stone and hammers, and the occasional train robbery. After a nod to 19th century paleontologists, this book takes us into the fossil beds of Wyoming and Montana with Barnum Brown and the American Museum of Natural History. Wealthy capitalists fund fossil-hunters hoping to feature the largest, fiercest monsters in their museum halls.

Tales of the Prehistoric World: Adventures from the Land of the Dinosaurs by Kallie Moore, illustrated by Becky Thorns

How do stromatolites in Australia connect to Mars? Starting with the answer provided by these oldest known fossils (3.5 billion years old), we are led on an engaging journey forward through time. Detailed discussions of the life found in each period are sandwiched between captivating accounts of the intrigues, adventures, and conflicts of scientists, kids, farmers, and miners who discovered some unique and surprising fossils.

Kid Paleontologist: Explore the Remarkable Dinosaurs, Fossils Finds, and Discoveries of the Prehistoric Era by Thomas Nelson, illustrated by Julius Csotonyi

A great discussion of the field of paleontology is followed by an introduction to “10 Famous Paleontologists,” a list of “10 Famous Fossil Sites” in the world, and an engaging dinosaur classification chart. Stunning “true-life” illustrations and a conversational narrative first explore ten dinosaurs which defy classification (including one that was a burrower) and then examine many other familiar and lesser-known dinosaurs from the perspective of what their fossils, imprints, CT scans, and stomach contents have taught paleontologists about each species and what is still unknown. Highlighting where initial guesses or information has been corrected by subsequent fossil discoveries. A great book to inspire future fossil hunters.

Rhinos in Nebraska : the Amazing Discovery of the Ashfall Fossil Beds by Alison Pearce Stevens

Twelve million years ago rhinos lived in Nebraska – alongside horses and other grassland creatures. It was peaceful until… a supervolcano exploded, spewing tons of ash into the air and burying the rhinos. This book takes readers to the Ashfall Fossil Beds where they’ll look over the shoulders of scientists digging up the bones of more than 50 rhinos and uncover a few mysteries along the way.

The Illustrated Guide to Fossils & Fossil Collecting by Steve Kelly

Amazing photographs of fossils combine with reconstruction illustrations to give the reader a sense of what each animal or plant might have looked like. Following a discussion of fossils, geologic timeline, and reconstruction challenges, the detailed directory of 375 plant and animals fossils includes an additional fact file, and the relationship of the fossil to its current relatives and their role in the environment.

Fossils for Kids: An Introduction to Paleontology by Dan R Lynch

This photo-illustrated book dives into rocks, minerals, and fossilization. A vertical color-coded geologic timeline accompanies a lively, question and answer discussion of seventeen kinds of animal fossils, six plant and amber fossils, and an examination of microfossils, trace fossils, and pseudofossils. Advice on safely collecting fossils and avoiding fakes is followed by a list of fossil sites around the U.S.

Fossils for Kids: a Junior Scientist’s Guide to Dinosaur Bones, Ancient Animals, and Prehistoric Life on Earth by Ashley Hall

Written by a paleontologist with the goal of exciting future scientists, the book employs a conversational and lightly tongue-in-cheek narrative and great illustrations to explore fossil formation, classification, and identification and then dives into an examination of the fossils, stats, and discovery locations of dinosaurs, vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. Wonderful side bars expand upon the science, explore famous scientists, and offer a “make your own fossil” activity.

My Book of Fossils: A Fact-filled Guide to Prehistoric Life by Dr. Dean Lomax

This photo-illustrated, browsable hi-low book explores the creation and collection, excavation and discoveries of fossils. Interspersed with fascinating features and scientific discoveries about bacteria, plants, and animals, are gemstone fossils, famous paleontologists, reconstructing the past, and an awesome visual glossary/index.

cover image of "Outdoor School: rock, Fossil, and Shell Hunting"

Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil, and Shell Hunting: The Definitive Interactive Nature Guide by Jennifer Swanson

Divided into sections on fossils, rocks, and shells this book is designed to be used, not just as a guide, but as a detailed scientific log. Informative sections begin with very visual and easily accessible scientific descriptions, history, and classifications. They invite interactivity with graphs, charts, and “badge-like” places to record fun hands-on exercises, experiments, and discoveries. It also includes guides for storing and displaying collections and a check list of 101 possible achievements.

You can find more books about fossils over at the Geology book list: (https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/stem-tuesday-geology-book-list/).

This month’s STEM Tuesday book list was prepared by:

Sue Heavenrich is an award-winning author, blogger, and bug-watcher. A long line of ants marching across the kitchen counter inspired her first article for kids. When not writing, she’s either in the garden or tromping through the woods. Her books for middle-grade readers include Funky Fungi: 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens, and More and Diet for a Changing Climate. Visit her at www.sueheavenrich.com

Maria is a children’s author, blogger, and poet who is passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. She was a round 2 judge for the Cybils Awards (2017 – present), and a judge for the #50PreciousWords competition since its inception. Two of her poems are published in The Best of Today’s Little Ditty 2016 and 2014-2015 anthologies. When not writing, critiquing, or reading, she bird watches, travels the world, bakes, and hikes. Visit her at www.mariacmarshall.com.

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