School Visits
Presentations:
Kids Inventing!
When I demonstrate the inventions created by the kid inventors included in Kids Inventing!, students seem to get very involved. Suddenly inventing doesn’t seem to just be an activity of inventors listed in a book. Some of the products I show are for sale in stores. I also show slides of kids who have created inventions for competitions. In the process I explain about inventions, patents and trademarks and about competitions open to students. Depending on what teachers want I can present in different ways. I can do a slide show presentation. I can also make it an interactive session. Students can act as judges at an invention fair by watching a movie of kid inventors and evaluating their inventions, brainstorm ideas for inventions, and use paper and tape to make models of their ideas for inventions. My goal is to have students think: “I can be an inventor, too.”
Women Invent!
When I’ve presented at schools, students are often surprised to discover how interested they are in finding out about America’s women inventors including Bette Graham, creator of Liquid Paper, Maria Telkes, inventor of the Solar heated house, Madam Walker, creator of hair care products and the first African-American female millionaire, Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar, the material used to make bullet-proof vests and others. I tell stories about the inventors while showing slides of photographs of them, their inventions and patents or trademarks. I also show students how read a patent and identify a trademark. I tell them about competitions they can enter and encourage them to become inventors.
Non-Fiction Writing is Fun and Interesting!
Before becoming an author, I was a photojournalist and I still write a lot of articles with accompanying photos for magazines. I’ve written and photographed for articles on topics ranging from foreign travel to adventure sports to the construction industry. I talk about non-fiction writing and how I do my research. While I show slides of images from my published stories, I engage the students in describing the images they see, guide them to form sentences based on their observations, then share with them the stories I wrote based on the images. I try to show them that any non-fiction piece evolves and that any two people would write a different story based on their reaction to what they see. Students learn about writing non-fiction and that research for non-fiction writing involves not only background research but also on the spot experience and interviews with real people.
Please note that Presentations can also be a combination of all three topics.
Past Appearances:
Ellis School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hathaway Brown, Shaker Heights, Ohio
Dublin High School, Dublin, CA
Castro Valley Elementary School, Castro Valley, CA
Monarch School, San Diego, CA
California Authors Fairs and schools including:
Long Beach Unified School District Authors Fest
Newport Beach Authors Fest
Huntington Beach Authors Fest
Westminster Authors Fest
Alhambra Authors Fest
Fullerton Authors Festival
Dublin High School
Castro Valley Elementary School