Mt. Pleasant educator pens children’s books on energy, motion and force

By Curt Swarm

Martha Wiley of Mt. Pleasant loves teaching — with more than 30 years of teaching advanced math, physics, calculus, statistics, trigonometry, engineering and programming at the high school, and teacher preparation at college level. She also served on the Mt. Pleasant Community School District Board of Education. When working with future teachers she asked them to find children’s books to supplement science lessons. She looked everywhere. There was plenty of material for grades kindergarten through second, but for grades three to five, the library shelves were almost empty for physical science. She wanted to find engaging stories with subjects like energy, motion and force.

There was only one thing for Martha to do. She sat down and wrote her own advanced elementary books that matched science standards. With her undergraduate degrees in math, education and English, and her master’s degree in effective teaching, she was well-equipped to write these books.

Then began the arduous task of trying to find an agent and publisher. She sent out hundreds of query letters, to no avail. But Martha is a hard worker and doesn’t give up. She knew nothing like her books was out there for teachers, home educators or students. These books needed to get into the hands of children. She would become her own publisher. Voila! MowTomorrowBooks LLC was formed. The website is www.mowtomorrowbooks.com. Check it out. Books can be ordered through Amazon. (Mow Tomorrow means mow the grass tomorrow, read today.)

Then she needed an illustrator. Fortunately, her daughter, Michelle Mirakian, said, “Put me in coach.”

The three books I reviewed (there will be a total of 10), “Making Friends with Water,” “A New Way of Looking at Things” and “My Magic Carpet” are quite simply stated, outstanding. The illustrations are fun and attract attention. If I were a kid, these books would make science interesting. Martha’s philosophy is simple: she wants to promote concept building. She wants the kids to have experiences with science and feel it. Martha likes to see lessons start with a story, engaging characters who are doing something with whatever the topic is. Kids can do more than memorizing terms. Every one of these stories start with a science standard and grade level. They’re not abstract. The experiments are not something that comes in a kit, that the kids have never seen before, and will never see again. The characters form an investigation team, pooling ideas.

Martha loves to relate her science examples in practical, everyday terms, that the kids can identify with. For example: “Divide the speed of light (300 megameters per second) by the FM frequency on your radio dial (in this case 105.5, KILJ FM) and you have the wavelength of 2.84 m, roughly three Radio Flyer wagons.”

In a “New Way of Looking at Things,” she shows in a simple example how to find the blind spot in your vision.

“Gravity Wins”, the sixth book which will launch in November, gives permission to drop all kinds of things, running free-fall races. Gravity goes toward the center of the earth. The kids make plumb bobs with a string and a nut and go around checking “verticality” of objects.

There are many types of waves, not just water. There are mood swings and emotions, sound and brain waves, weather waves, and migration patterns. Students can worry about curve-fitting to sinusoidal graphs in advanced math later. In grade school they need strong concept building.

These books work best if an adult is reading with the children. Every experiment can be, and has been, field-tested with children. Try them with yours. Just in time for Christmas!

Contact Curt Swarm at curtswarm@yahoo.com