Education

Children's Book Venture

New LTER book teaches ecological literacy to children

Shelly Sommer
Outreach Coordinator, Information Center, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder

Michelle Kelleher, Science Assistant, NSF BIO/DEB, contributed
to this story

Outreach efforts at the Niwot Ridge (NWT) LTER site in Colorado—the only LTER site in an alpine tundra environment—have inspired a children’s book about the water cycle. My Water Comes from the Mountains explores the ecosystems along Boulder Creek as snowmelt flows through the mountains, becomes the water supply for the City of Boulder, and moves into prairie habitats as the irrigation supply for farmers, plants, and animals.

The author, Tiffany Fourment, began this project while participating in the Schoolyard LTER program at Niwot Ridge. NSF funding supported production of the book and enabled its distribution to local elementary schools. The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) of the University of Colorado, which oversees the Niwot Ridge site, distributed the book to local elementary schools in May 2004—a requirement of the contract between NWT and the publishers.
Ms. Fourment is an environmental educator who took the course “Alpine Ecology and Experiential Learning” taught at the Niwot Ridge LTER site. The course is held each summer for in-service and pre-service teachers. For three weeks, teachers learn alpine ecology in a field setting, lead field trips of children from local K-8 programs, and create curriculum projects they can use in their own classrooms.

Colorado University grad student Nataly Ascarrunz reads the book My Water Comes from the Mountains to a fifth grade class at Fireside Elementary School, Boulder, CO. Photo: Patrick Kelley

My Water Comes from the Mountains began as Fourment’s final project for the alpine ecology course. She completed the material after teaching third grade students about the Boulder watershed the following year. Dorothy Emerling, a well-known children’s book illustrator who lives just a few miles from Niwot Ridge, illustrated the text with scenes of animals and habitats found along the creek. She got plenty of help from Ms. Fourment’s third graders, who contributed drawings and their impressions of the field site. Roberts Rhinehart signed on as publisher.
Designed for third to fifth grade students, My Water Comes From The Mountains is consistent with the science standards for those grades. Its strengths include its focus on the local environment and its integration of material on natural and human-influenced systems. Diane McKnight, the INSTAAR fellow and professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado who conducts the alpine ecology course, said: “We feel it’s important to help local children understand the connection between the lives they lead and the alpine tundra.”

The process of preparing the book involved extensive consultation with the City of Boulder Water Department, and it can be used in the classroom in conjunction with materials available through their K-12 outreach program. Graduate students affiliated with INSTAAR distributed classroom sets of the book to every elementary school in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts. The book will also be sold in bookstores and U.S. National Park stores.

Another children’s book, The Lost Seal, is already in the works at the Antarctic LTER site. It focuses on the harsh environment of the McMurdo Dry Valleys through a story about researchers, encounter with a live seal in 1992. Currently, the LTER Network (through the efforts of McKnight), NSF, and Roberts Rhinehart, are exploring the possibilities for a series of children’s books inspired by LTER work.

 

MUCH ADO ABOUT CHILDREN’S BOOKS More LTER sites express interest in publishing books for K-12

According to Phil Robertson (Chair, Education Committee), an informal email survey of the LTER sites shows there is considerable interest in pursuing LTER site-level children’s books. The survey shows that at least 10 sites currently have definite interest in publishing a children’s book, while two indicated tentative interest. But the process will not be easy, Phil says, as Diane McKnight—who facilitated the publication of Niwot Ridge’s My Water Comes From The Mountains and is currently working on a similar project for McMurdo—discovered. The process will require concerted effort and coordination to get off the ground. However, Phil says, “The fact that we already have contacts with an established publisher is a huge plus in this intensely competitive market, and we should captitalize on the groundwork already laid by Diane and colleagues.” The activity will also need good resources. In addition to a few thousand dollars paid to the illustrator and author (not counting royalties), Niwot spent $15,000 to purchase copies of their book for local elementary schools—a stipulation in the site’s contract with the publisher. Phil suggests that the process might work better if the sites treat it as a network-wide initiative, thus enabling them to join forces to seek external funding for the activity. He suggested further that the LTER executive appoint an ad hoc committee, with representatives from the publication and education committees, to take the process through the next steps.

Children’s Books and Ecological Studies: Long-Term Processes

My Water Comes From The Mountains has captured LTER imagination and prompted reflection on the many ways sites could get involved in book series projects

Beth Simmons and Karen Baker
PAL LTER

The writing and publication of a book is a long-term process that becomes more complex when a book project involves capturing the stories of ecological science in remote sites or the research activities of an LTER site. Superintended by an author with a vision, the book process involves multiple steps such as identifying resources and themes, gathering contacts and materials as well as coordinating staff including photographers, artists, educators, and editors.

Books provide a unique avenue for an LTER site to share elements of ecological research with children and young adults. Participation in the design and production of books for primary and secondary aged readers evolves over an extended time period and may be done in synergy with other programs supporting writers. One example is the opportunity afforded the Palmer LTER Education Outreach Program to work with the Artist’s and Writer’s Program of the NSF Office of Polar Programs. This program annually selects participants who are deployed to polar regions to experience the environment they have chosen as a project topic. Those deployed to Palmer Station, Antarctica, often interface with Palmer LTER field participants who share their field experiences and provide material about the study of a polar marine ecosystem, local factors such as the warning signs of global change, and life cycles such as of the Adelie penguin. Books such as Science on Ice: Research in the Antarctic by Michael Woods (1995) for grade levels 9-12 and Antarctic Journal by Meredith Hooper (2000) for grade levels 3-6 have benefited from such interactions.

Palmer Station LTER participants have contributed to other steps of the book production process such as editing on topics related to the Antarctic environment (Life Under Ice by Mary Cerullo, 2003) for grade levels 9-12 and creating discussion forms for authors going into the field as with Lucy Bledsoe (Antarctic Scoop, 2003; see Fall 2003 Network Newsletter) for grade levels 4-8.

A book author’s writing project is often a long-term collaborative process. As Niwot Ridge’s and Palmer’s experiences illustrate, LTER sites may be able to engage in some of the multiple phases of design and development of books for children and young adults as part of their education outreach programs.