Bringing science to life (and to Micanopy)

“Do you have everything you need?”
Daphne looked at the items in front of her and ticked them off on her fingers.
“I gathered the driest wood and plant shreds I could find. Here is your piece of char cloth. I have my twigs ready and more dry wood. I prepared the firepit.”
“Then stop humming and listen, Miss Farnham.”
She couldn’t help it. She was so excited at learning how to make a fire that the humming was springing out of her like the water burbling up to the pool. Why had no one ever realized how much she loved learning new things? Why had she never realized it? She vowed when she returned to England, she would make it her goal to learn one new thing each day.

--Castaway Dreams

Yesterday I learned about gender differences in identifying colors, training cats, preserving flavor in salsa, and earworms. I was a guest judge at the Micanopy Academy Science Fair, and it was fabulous. Students presented entertaining and unusual research and I had a glimpse into where some of these young men and women could be in 10 years.

I'm a liberal arts major, but when I'm researching my novels I love learning new things: how to remove bullets, hiding pirate treasure, surviving a shipwreck--these are just a few of the tidbits I've used in my work. Seeing the student projects in the fields of behavioral science, physics, environmental science and other fields was inspiring. Even more, the school is on a dirt road in a tiny hamlet where the teachers and staff struggle to find the resources to help their students reach out and achieve their goals. Kudos Miss Andrea and the others for all their hard work! I appreciate being a part of it and I learned stuff, just like Daphne.