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My painting, Double delight, reflects how I feel. A chocolate dipped strawberry is just about as good as it gets for a double delight of flavor. My double delight for my love of painting and science are put together in the children’s books that I am writing and illustrating. I have never considered myself a writer, in fact, just the opposite. I have never felt like I explain very well what is in my mind, through writing. Fear of failure looms over me when I write. Now, I have just made one of my published books into an eBook. It is written and illustrated as if a young girl is explaining how her grandparents miss her very much because they live so far away. She sees them through visits by webcam and she thinks that they are trapped in their computer. My first granddaughter said a couple of things to me when we were visiting that inspired this book, Grandma and Grandpa are trapped in the computer! Although computer science wasn’t the science that I studied, I wanted to include it in my books on science.

Since poetry is a style of writing that I like, I decided to write my books in a rhyming format. Reading to my three boys, sometimes all three on my lap [well, actually they were on my lap and beside me] was something that I will always treasure. The rhyming books were their favorites as well as mine. Sometimes I would talk in rhyme long after I was finished reading a Dr. Seuss book!  I have had a passion for reading since before I can remember. My mom told me that I came home crying from kindergarten because they didn’t teach me how to read the first day! 

As I mentioned in my first blog, Combining art with other careers, I became a scientist then taught myself to paint while staying home with my three sons. When I started teaching high school science several years ago, I was shocked at how minimal the exposure of science seemed to be in the elementary grades in our school. I had students tell me at the beginning of each year that they hated science! I told them that I hoped to change their minds during their year with me. Science should be taught in a way that encourages students to explore and seek out facts to sate their curiosity. It should be the best class of the day! It was distressing to see how few students liked science. I grew up in an era when men tried and succeeded in walking on the moon. I heard planes fly over as they broke the sound barrier. Computers have evolved from being the size of a room to now being able to use on my phone [talk about a Dick Tracy moment!] Science is fun for me because it explains how things work. It explains about all of the wondrous things on our planet and beyond. How could students not find it fascinating? How was science being taught in the elementary grades that students were so turned off by it? Like a pyramid, students need a broad base of science knowledge when they are young, so they can build on those basic science skills as they proceed into the higher grades. They can get a broad base of knowledge if they are taught in ways that instill a love of learning instead of a loathing for it.

When my children were young I told them that their talents and abilities would be better than some people, worse than others and the same as the rest, depending on which talent or ability that they were examining. I also told them that they should learn what their strengths are, to know their weaknesses and to figure out what they love to do. That way, they could combine what they are good at with what they love to do and find a job that they would enjoy. My science students were also told this many times, as well. To get them to get away from their fear of science, I made science fun to learn. I tried to inspire them to try new things and not to be afraid of failure.

Now that I am no longer teaching in school, I want to teach through books and the Internet with eBooks. I have written about ten books about science, so far, and have illustrated and published two. I am almost finished with illustrating my third one, and I am sketching out ideas for the fourth.

There are so many topics to choose from in science, so where was I to start? Like writing these blogs, I just picked a topic and went with it. My bio 2 students really loved learning about the mammals that are the monotremes and marsupials because they are so different than us. Do you know what those mammals are and how they are different than us? My first science book about baffling, bizarre beasts is called, The Peculiar Platypus. I hope to soon be making an eBook of it. The next book for which I am finishing the illustrations is called, The Enchanting Echidna. If I can get children interested in learning more about a topic that I write about, then I am accomplishing my goal. I want them to have the desire to know more about it, whatever the “it” may be. These books will hopefully be a catalyst that will encourage them to love science. I want reading books to be a pleasure as well as informative, tapping into a child’s innate desire to learn.

I am having so much fun illustrating these books. The way I have illustrated them is totally different than how I paint my studio pieces. To create pictures that are extremely dissimilar from my studio work is an interesting challenge. If you have been following my blogs, you have discerned that I like trying new things. Controlling my fear of failure is an on-going process, but one that I gladly tackle. How can someone have artist’s block when something fascinating is always on the horizon?

As I told my children and students to evaluate their abilities, I have appraised my own. I have combined my double delight of science and art to create books that will hopefully create a spark in children that will ignite their love of learning.