Blog Post Written by Author/Illustrator Bethany Barton:
As an author/illustrator I get to visit students all over the world. And while reading my books and shooting kids with my toilet paper cannon are a blast (more on that later) my favorite part of each visit always remains: when kids get to ask questions.
In my opinion, the most exciting thing to come out of more STEM in the classroom is an increased curiosity from students. More questions. More tinkering. More wonder. When I was small, I believed that my teachers had all the answers— but I’d never stopped to think about the questions that they’d had to ask to get there. I would even sometimes be scared to ask questions; worried it might make me sound stupid. Thankfully STEM topics welcome questions and love curious minds. I’m seeing that shift in the students I visit, and trying to encourage it at every turn.
I make books that ask kids to face their fears using superpowers like facts, critical thinking, empathy and humor. I seek out topics I personally find icky or off-putting— topics like Math, Spiders, Bees, Geology & Garbage— and then see if learning more about them makes me view them differently. (Spoiler alert: it totally does.)
Here’s a quick trip through the STEM topics I researched to make my books, and where my curiosity led me:
I’m Trying To Love Spiders:
Arachnophobia is one of the more common fears, and this book was born out a desire to squish a spider that ambled across an illustration on my desk. Thankfully I paused and asked myself some questions instead: “What if I learned why spiders look and act the icky way they do? Once I know the reason… will that take away their power to scare me? Could I even start to love them?”
Guess what? I can. And once I let students know just how cool spiders are: that they have eight eyes and billions on tiny hairs on their body, I discover them wanting to get closer to examine these 8-legged marvels, in lieu of making them go squish.
Give Bees A Chance:
Bees get a bad rap because of the whole stinger thing. I’ve personally been stung by bees loads of times (I get too close— don’t be like me) but still manage to adore them. I wanted other people to get the warm fuzzies from these little buzzies, and once again facts came to my rescue.
If students aren’t won over by bees’ wacky anatomy (five eyes! two stomachs! four wings!) then learning all about pollination and our food supply (scientists say bees are responsible for a third of all the fruits and veggies we eat) quickly makes kids realize that bees are nature’s essential workers!
I’m Trying To Love Math:
If you had told me in 5th grade that I was going to write a math book one day…. I’d never have believed you! But if facts could make me love spiders, I figured every topic was fair game. Researching this book made me realize how omnipresent math is. Baking? Math. Music? Math all over. How about sailing or rocket ships? Oh, there’s math in there too!
Finding math in and around all the things we love, leads to a curiosity about where we’ll find it next. It also helps reframe math in the reader’s brain. Instead of confining math to quizzes and tests, math becomes a fresh new language we get to ask questions in! As Margaret Wertheim put it, “Mathematics, in a sense, is logic let loose in the field of imagination.”
I’m Trying To Love Rocks:
I used to think rocks were boring. Boy was I ever wrong. When a co-worker from my day-job in television left Hollywood for geology, I thought he must be crazy. But once I learned about the types of questions geologists get to ask, I was hooked!
Rocks may not look like much, but they’re constantly and very slowly changing into new and different types of rocks. (I heart The Rock Cycle.) They also act like clues, helping scientists
answer big questions about our earth; about what’s under the surface, and what earth looked like long ago. (And don’t even get me started on minerals and gemstones— so shiny!) Because rocks are everywhere, students can hold these clues in their own hands, turning every schoolyard into an earth-science detective agency.
I’m Trying To Love Garbage:
I already knew that humans make lots of garbage… but what happens with nature’s garbage? Where do all the fallen leaves and dead bugs go? Asking these questions led me to learn all about nature’s garbage collectors— critters like scavengers, detritivores and decomposers. If it weren’t for them, we’d be knee-deep in yucky stuff. Humans can even work with these clever critters to do something positive with our trash through composting and vermiculture (a fancy word for using organic garbage as worm-food!)
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While discussing garbage I get to remind students just how long humans have been burying our trash (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and even Ancient Sumeria!) and discuss better solutions, like recycling and re-use. Clever young brains always seem to come up with fresh ideas about what we can do better, and how we can solve a stinky problem like garbage.
I’m never going to grow tired of asking questions about the world around me. And with more STEM in the classroom, students are learning how to ask their own big questions, research ideas and test their theories. A future where every question is faced with facts, critical thinking, humor and empathy sounds downright awesome to me, so…
Let’s get STEM-tastic together and watch curiosity grow.
-Bethany Barton
