Posts Tagged writing tips

STEM Tuesday– Natural Disasters– In the Classroom

By STEM Tuesday on May 13, 2025 / Natural Disasters, STEM Tuesday / Leave a comment

While this month’s theme is natural disasters, I focused on just one: wildfires. The books I read all had a lot of overlap. They were:

Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires
by Jessica Stremer, illustrated by Michael Garland

Of the books I read this month, Fire Escape covers the most material and has the highest word count. Topics include how plants and animals survive wildfires, how animals are treated after being injured in a fire, how goats act as a fire prevention tool, and much more. I suspect everyone will find at least one topic that interests them in this book. The numerous Fire Fact! factoids provide lots of interesting tidbits for trivia-minded readers.

They Hold the Line: Wildfires, Wildlands, and the Firefighters Who Brave Them
by Dan Paley, illustrated by Molly Mendoza

They Hold the Line packs a lot of information in a relatively low word count. It’s a great book for visual learners. I really loved reading the illustrator’s notes about how they chose the colors to use for the illustrations.

I also read two other books about wildfires that were not on the monthly theme list.

Wildfires
by Georgia Beth

Of the books I read this month, Wildfires has the most in-depth coverage of the chemistry of fire. It packs a lot of information into a relatively short format.

Book title overlays a raging wildfire - trees silhouetted against bright orange and red flames with sparks flying overhead. Inset pictures show a campfire, a firefighter preparing to repel out of a helicopter, and a plane dumping a red substance onto a forest near a fire.

All About Wildfires
by Alessandra Potenza

All About Wildfires does a great job of combining text with visuals to get points across. There are quite a few graphic representations that are great for illustrating how to communicate information or data in different ways. There is a nice experiment at the end to explore the relationship between trees/vegetation and landslides.

Over the past year, wildfires have been rather prominent in my life. New Jersey – where I live – had a near record drought last year. This brought on almost daily wildfires, all over the state. Recently, a fire burned along the Jersey Shore, making its way onto the state’s most destructive fires list. This “Jones Road” fire was spotted April 22 and reached 100% containment just before I started writing this post on May 12. This fire was one of many around the U.S. that have garnered lots of attention in the news due to their severity.

So, on to activities that can connect readers with these books.

Explore Fire Science

In addition to activities given in some of the books, there are some great science experiments that explore fire. Here are a few.

See first-hand the role oxygen plays in fire using tealight candles and different sized jars. Here’s one version of this activity on Education.com: https://www.education.com/activity/article/candle-snuffing-contest

Fire Extinguisher Experiment from Science Explorers: https://scienceexplorers.com/diy-fire-extinguisher-experiment-for-kids

There is a lesson plan, including links to videos and other resources, along with a matchstick forest fire demonstration on the Headwaters Science Institute web site: https://headwatersscienceinstitute.org/wildfire-science

Explore Fire Data

Fire data is provided in the books in different ways. Look into data that’s available and consider creating your own.

Check out the National Risk Index from FEMA: https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/wildfire – explore the map to determine what the fire risk is in your area.

If you want to do a deep dive, the USDA has a website called Wildfire Risk to Communities (https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/wildfirerisk). You can put in your state or other community name and explore different wildfire risks, like the risk to homes. This website describes how it calculated risk, as well as ways to reduce that risk.

If you want to create some graphs, here’s one source of data. You can graph the number of fires and/or the number of acres burned in the U.S. over time using data from the National Interagency Fire Center: https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/wildfires. You could also do some calculations, like figuring out the average number of acres each fire burned each year.

Explore Stewardship

Many of the books discuss stewardship of the land. This year, I enrolled in the Rutgers Environmental Steward program (https://envirostewards.rutgers.edu), so this is something I’ve thought a lot about lately.

What does land stewardship mean? You could explore this topic individually, in small groups, or as a larger group. It might work best to do a combination of all three. A good place to start might be to read a definition of stewardship. Then think about what this means in relation to land. How does land stewardship impact natural disasters like wildfires? What is each individual’s role in the stewardship of our shared lands?

Explore More

There are other places where you can explore wildfire topics in more depth. One is a website from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fire/fire-in-depth.htm, which is part of an even broader topic: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fire/wildland-fire-subject.htm. This is an incredible rabbit hole you could dive into, learning about wildland fire careers, fire ecology, fire behavior, and much more.

If you want to learn more about the different causes of wildfires, check out this page from the National Interagency Fire Center: https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/fire-prevention-education-mitigation/wildfire-investigation. If you want a real challenge, see if you can find out the causes of the past year’s wildfires in your state. Then think about how you can present that information using graphs and charts.

Explore headlines and other news sources to see what wildfires are making the news today.

There are lots of other resources out there. Pick a topic and see where the exploration takes you.

There are endless activities that could be tied into this topic. Hopefully the few listed here inspire you to explore more.

Janet Slingerland has written over 2 dozen books for young readers. To find out more about Janet and her books, check out her website: http://janetsbooks.com

Crafting Purpose: Why Writers Need Mission and Vision Statements

By Susan Koehler on May 9, 2025 / Articles, For Writers, Writing / Leave a comment

Writer sits at a desk writing with pen in hand beneath a desk lamp

Successful businesses often refer to their companies’ mission and vision statements as foundational to their success. These statements help companies define purpose, stay focused, and set goals. If you’re a writer, you probably realize that purpose, focus, and goals are important to your writing life. But have you considered defining them with your own mission and vision statements?

The Mission Statement

A mission statement defines your creative purpose. There are a lot of distractions in the writing world, and it’s easy to find ourselves with multiple unfinished projects or on a path we did not intend to travel. A mission statement will narrow the focus of your work to only that which you have identified as important and will help you establish your “author brand.”

When defining your mission, it’s important to ask yourself a couple of questions. These questions will guide the development of your mission statement and help you maintain focus.

What do I most like to write?

Identify the genre and style you gravitate toward. Finding joy in the creative process will yield a more authentic voice and produce stronger motivation. Your passion will sustain you through the tough times and will shine through to your readers.

What is my creative purpose?

Maybe your creative purpose is very personal, like writing stories that record your family’s history. Maybe your purpose is larger, and you want to make a positive impact on the social and emotional development of young children. Or perhaps you are driven to bring science to life in ways that draw kids into STEM. Articulate your greater purpose and allow that purpose to guide you.

Once you’ve answered both of these questions, you’re ready to craft a mission statement that defines your creative focus. Identify that focus and be very selective with the action verb(s) you use. Here are a few examples of possible mission statements:

My creative works will shine a light on the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ youth.

I write to preserve the stories and personalities that shaped our family.

My books will engage young adult readers in imaginative worlds where diversity is celebrated and good triumphs over evil.

Two images -- one with an a person sitting at a desk writing on a laptop and the other of a woman sitting in a casual chair with her feet on an ottoman and a laptop in her lap

The Vision Statement

A vision statement gives you a trajectory toward an ultimate destination. It’s less about what you will do and more about who you will be.

To craft a vision statement, picture what success looks like for you. This isn’t a wish or a dream; it’s a realistic image of your future self that will help you generate specific goals. Ask yourself these questions:

What impact do I hope to make with my writing?

Your impact is about the effect you want to have on your readers. Some writers want to bring humor and joy to childhood. Others want to reveal untold stories from the past or make sure kids from marginalized groups find themselves represented in books.

What do I hope to achieve?

You might define success in a personal way, like presenting your family with bound copies of family history, complete with photographs, descriptions, and meaningful stories that shaped generations. Or, maybe you aspire to see your books on the shelves of bookstores and in the hands of readers.

Your vision statement declares your aspirations. It’s about your creative legacy and the long-term impact of your work. As the name suggests, this is something visual, so many writers find it helpful to create a vision board. Whether you create a visual display or not, articulating your vision is a powerful step. Here are a few examples of possible vision statements:

To create thought-provoking poetry that addresses social justice and creates change in my community

To bring history to life for elementary-age children through engaging reading material published in educational resources.

To build a body of work that helps young readers from marginalized populations feel seen, valued, and empowered

Setting Goals

Once you have your mission and vision established, your writing has a focus and a destination. Now you are able to set measurable goals that will get you to that destination.

One goal might focus on your work habits. Many writers like to set a specific number of words, pages, or minutes they will write each day. Another goal might focus on building your craft, like attending three craft workshops within the calendar year. If you seek publication, you probably want to set some goals involving your connection to writing communities, submissions to literary agents, and the establishment of your online presence.

Be sure to avoid setting goals that rely on the responses of others, like securing a literary agent within six months or winning a Pulitzer prize. These are great aspirations to work toward, but your goals should focus on what you can control.

Once your purpose, focus, and goals are established, you can weed out the activities that don’t serve you and make a plan for achieving your goals. Now there’s only one thing left to do….Write!

STEM Tuesday– Naturalists– Author Interview: Danna Staaf

By STEM Tuesday on April 22, 2025 / Author Interviews, Earth Day, STEM Tuesday / 1 Comment

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

Today we’re featuring Danna Staaf, a marine biologist and author of several science books. Her book The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biology garnered these reviews:

Notable Award Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2023
Booklist Top 10 History for Youth, 2023
Booklist Top 10 Science and Technology Books for Youth, 2023
Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choices, 2023
Booklist Top 10 Biographies & Memoirs for Youth, 2023
School Library Journal Best Book of 2022

Andi Diehn: I love your sidebar in the first few pages about historic accuracy and doing our best with what we know until we can add to that knowledge. Why include this?

Danna Staaf: Honesty really is the best policy, especially when talking to children. Both the historical and the scientific record are intrinsically incomplete—there are open questions, missing data points, ambiguous findings. I felt it was very important to acknowledge that uncertainty up front, and not to pretend that I had all the answers. At the same time, I spent years researching this book, and I did have a lot of information, which gave me the ability to make guesses in good faith about missing pieces. This is how we build a trusting relationship with readers, by saying, “I don’t know everything. I’ll tell you what I do know, and how I know it. When I have to make guesses, I’ll tell you why those guesses are reasonable. And I’ll admit that they might turn out to be wrong later.”

I think about all the dinosaur books I read when I was a little kid, and the old misinterpretations of what dinosaurs looked like and how they lived. Most of those authors were doing the best they could with the available research—and they inspired the next generation of scientists to go out and do more research, to show which guesses were right and which were wrong. That’s the iterative nature of knowledge. It’s beautiful.

AD: I like how you made it clear that Jeanne was able to study and practice science because of her privileged position as a married woman with no children – why is this important for readers to be aware of?

DS: It’s a really interesting topic! When I first began to read about Jeanne, I thought her story would be strongly impacted by sexism, both during and after her life. And she absolutely did have to contend with sexism. A man who wasn’t even a scientist tried to take credit for her work, and although she managed to join several scientific societies as their first female member, the Royal Society (the UK’s national science academy) refused to admit women until 1945! Sexism likely also played a role in how quickly her work was forgotten after her death. However, as I read more of her writing and her peers’ writing about her, I became very impressed by how successfully she advocated for herself. Now I think that the reason we know as much about her as we do, and indeed the reason I had enough material to write this book, was her own determination to publish her research and get credit for it.

But Jeanne’s ability to research and advocate effectively was greatly enhanced by her privilege. In addition to being married and childless, she was white and wealthy. Before her marriage, she struggled to support herself and couldn’t devote time to natural history, but afterward, she had the resources and the leisure to pursue her curiosity. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone had that freedom? How many more wonderful discoveries and inventions could be made? I hope it helps readers think about who has been left out of history, and why, and what we can do to create a more just society.

AD: I love your phrase on page 43 about studying “marine life instead of marine death” – why does this distinction matter?

DS: I actually think about it even more now than I did while I was writing this book! When Jeanne started working in natural history, especially in the field we now call marine biology, most people were very focused on studying dead specimens. They killed and dissected animals; they preserved skeletons and furs and shells. Even setting aside the ethics of doing science like that, they missed so much by not looking at living animals. Especially in the ocean, an animal can look completely different when it’s alive in its natural habitat—think of a jellyfish swimming gracefully through the water, which dissolves into goo if you kill it and try to preserve it. And behavior! The only way to really see how animals move, hunt, court, mate, and so forth is to observe it.

Science has come a long way from the days of pickling and dissecting everything in order to study it, in large part thanks to people like Jeanne and inventions like her aquariums. And yet there are still some stubborn remnants of this attitude. To describe a new species, it’s generally accepted that a dead specimen needs to be put in a museum somewhere. Now, I don’t want to discount the importance of museum collections in any way—those historical specimens are absolutely vital to our understanding of life, and even to the conservation and protection of living organisms, because scientists use the knowledge from those specimens to figure out things like which species are left in a coral reef or a rain forest, and how many are new to science. But now that we have high-resolution video capabilities, 3D scans, CT scans, and so forth, maybe we can shift toward identifying species without needing to kill individuals so often.

AD: She’s a scientist but also an inventor – how does scientific inquiry and invention go hand in hand?

DS: Scientists are always inventing gadgets to help them figure out the answers to their questions, from high-tech to low-tech and everything in between. When I was in graduate school studying squid, I wanted to know how temperature affected the development of squid eggs, so I worked with a really skilled technician to design a little incubator that could keep dishes of seawater at a range of different temperatures. It had a bunch of carefully machined metal pieces, all very precise. Then I took it on a research boat in Mexico in very hot weather, and I had to improvise a combination of bubble wrap and a desk fan to keep the whole assembly from overheating! Then, I also learned how to write computer programs to analyze the data I gathered. I’d say those are both forms of invention. Sometimes scientists’ inventions are very specific to a particular need, like my incubator, and sometimes they find more general applications, like Jeanne’s aquariums. You never know!

AD: What was your favorite thing you learned from your research?

DS: How can I pick just one?? I learned that that the tides in the Mediterranean Sea are more impacted by the local geography than by the moon, so when it’s high tide on one side of the Strait of Messina, it’s low tide on the other side, just a few kilometers away. I learned that an engineer named Charles Condert developed a type of scuba gear a hundred years ahead of Cousteau’s Aqua-Lung, and made many successful dives before dying in a tragic underwater accident–the first known scuba fatality. I learned that Benjamin Franklin carried around a little container of oil in his walking stick, so he could impress people by pouring it on rough water and calming the waves. But, if I have to pick, I think my favorite research gem was learning about Anna Thynne. She’d studied geology for years, and fell in love with corals because she saw them as living rocks. I love her account of collecting corals, which I didn’t have room to include in the book: “With a needle and thread I fixed the Madrepores [corals] on a large sponge, that there might be no damage from collision, and then placed them in a glass jar filled to the brim with water, and tied down with a bladder….During the journey [home from the seashore], I had the great pleasure of seeing them expand their tentacula most happily; and they arrived both at Clifton and London in a most flourishing state.”

AD: What did you like best about writing a biography? Was there anything frustrating about the project?

DS: I have to confess that history was my least favorite subject in school. I struggled to memorize the names and dates of monarchs and battles, while I had no trouble memorizing octopus species. So the historical research for this book was the biggest challenge for me. I had to read the timeline of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars over and over again to make sure I was getting everything right.

That said, it might also be the thing I liked best. I found that world events became much more interesting to me when I could link them with Jeanne’s life. Writing a biography actually kindled my interest in history, and helped me see how seemingly abstract monarch names and battle dates affected real people’s lives, even impacting the course of science. Now I can remember that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815, because it led directly to Jeanne sewing a royal wedding gown in 1816, which led in turn to her meeting her future husband, and the beginning of her career in marine biology!

Danna Staaf is a science communicator and marine biologist who earned a PhD from Stanford University with her studies of baby squid. Her writing has appeared in Smithsonian, Nautilus, Atlas Obscura, and Science, and she is the author of Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods (named one of Science Friday’s best science books of the year), The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biology (a best book of the year of the School Library Journal and the Children’s Book Committee), and Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World (hailed as “a gobsmacking delight!”). Her newest book is The Lives of Octopuses and their Relatives: A Natural History of Cephalopods. Staaf lives in San Jose, California, with her husband, children, cat, and innumerable plush octopuses.

Andi Diehn

Andi Diehn works as an editor for Nomad Press and has written many STEM books for kids!