This weekend was our first two-day bird count as part of Project FeederWatch. Our first day on Saturday turned into one of the best days ever with the kids, watching them grow more and more excited about birds and then venture into wildlife photography as the day unfolded. Full disclosure: as a girl, I wanted to be a journalist and wildlife photographer for National Geographic Magazine. After sixteen years writing for nonprofits, I’m now dusting off my childhood dreams to also pursue science writing and STEM children’s book writing professionally, as well as to start learning outdoor and adventure photography just for the joy of it.
No one pointed out to me as a kid that I loved science, so I didn’t really understand this about myself until I started writing children’s books this year. As part of that work, I realized it while reading countless beautifully illustrated children’s nonfiction picture books, like Jason Chin’s Caldecott Honor and Sibert Honor winning Grand Canyon. I always thought I was an English class kid, a quiet book kid who loved writing poetry and reading classic literature. I thought of myself as a writer, not a scientist, and so that was my path, my identity, my “track.” Since I didn’t think they were for me, science classes never really seemed to hit home, even though we were lucky to have some talented and dedicated science teachers at my small rural school. Looking back now, it’s crystal clear: I also loved animals, growing things, reading National Geographic and Discover, hiking, and learning about exotic wildlife around the world and about protecting endangered species and wildlife habitat.
Choosing to pursue these passions later in life, I find myself wondering: why would any child need to choose just one path? When we as adults, whether parent, teacher, or coach, mentally place a child in a box as an artist, an athlete, a “bookish” kid, a beauty, a social butterfly, or other such labels, are we really seeing the whole child? How can we instead approach education so that all children fall in love with learning without limit: about science, math, history, the arts, athletics, the world?
I believe that science literacy can be as simple as helping more children and adults understand that love of nature is love of science, and that both can improve our quality of life. I also know that connecting children with scientists who look like them will help them imagine themselves in STEM careers. Citizen science is a great way to accomplish all of these.
I aspire as both a writer and as a parent to help curious kids become curious adults who love reading, music, art, math, science, natural history, and spending time outdoors in nature and in physical activity. And I see myself starting to become a citizen scientist, to identify as someone who can nurture that love of the outdoors in children by honoring all the interests of the girl I was, without limit.
