Last month I had an email exchange with Molly Bang who wanted to know whether any teachers were using Pamela Turner’s excellent book The Frog Scientist to explore the herbicide atrazine and watershed issues. Everyone who knows Molly’s recent books is aware that she is concerned about environmental issues. I love that this concern goes well beyond her own books. She emailed me about this particular issue after reading this New Yorker article about Dr. Tyrone Hayes, the subject of The Frog Scientist.
I know a teacher in central Massachusetts who does a watershed unit with a combined 4th-5th grade class, and I’m hoping she will tell us more about that unit in the comments below. Pamela Turner, responding to Molly’s email, said she thought watershed issues might come up in middle school and high school science classes. She also mentioned that some recent blog posts have been critical of Dr. Hayes’s work, adding that Syngenta (the company that makes atrazine) has had to admit that they pay journalists to write pieces that discredit him.
What a mess! So the question is, are any of you tackling this in your classrooms? Do you use The Frog Scientist and/or other trade books?
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© Betty Jenewin
Last week, Erica Zappy, the editor of my ‘Scientists in the Field’ books at Houghton Mifflin sent me and author Pamela S. Turner, a link to this video of a dolphin in distress approaching divers in Hawaii, apparently for help. “What to you guys make of this?” she asked.
Pam is an experienced scuba diver, and has just written a new SITF book, THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY. This is what she had to say about the video.
I’ve written a book about ocean trash, and so my thoughts got a bit preachy. But I stand by them. How can the average at-home viewer do anything for that poor dolphin? By changing the way you think about plastic, by making tough decisions about when to use it. By getting real, refusing that plastic straw, and drinking your restaurant soda directly from a glass.
In a beautiful coincidence, I had an email over the weekend from a woman I’d never met, but who is doing work I admire. Sara Bayles has taken the ocean plastic issue into her own hands. Literally. For 365 non-consecutive days, twenty minutes at a time, she has cleaned thousands of pounds of trash off the beach near her home. And she has inspired people around the world to start doing the same thing. Visit Sara’s blog and her website and you are very likely to be inspired, too. In Sara’s words: “One person makes a difference. That one person is you. Together we are an unstoppable solution.“
Amen to that.
(A word on the photo: My friend Betty Jenewin took this photo on Grayland Beach in California when I was writing and researching TRACKING TRASH.)
Pamela Turner received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts, by Pamela S. Turner, received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.
Pamela thanked George Schaller, the scientist who allowed her to profile him in her book. He was a scientist who first observed gorillas in the wild. He's now 75 years old and an active scientist and conservationists.
Pamela is donating the prize money and the profits from her book to conservation projects. How wonderful! Go great beasts!
POSTED BY ALICE POPE
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I attended Pam Turner's photography session with Andy Comins. Together, they led nonfiction authors through the process of producing and selecting high-quality photos for our nonfiction projects. I was thrilled with the wealth of information and the detailed handouts Pam and Andy provided. They also gave excellent advice on negotiating with editors regarding photo illustrated books. A must-see for nonfiction authors!