The Brainstorm 61: Science & Math Reads for K-12

Here’s a few great books we’ve acquired in the past year that focus on math and/or science topics and could be of use from Kindergarten all the way up to High School. And of course, they don’t have to be used just in math or science classes.


Picture Book Rescources

Tree of Wonder: the Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree by Kate Messner, ill. by Simona Mulazzani  
One almendro tree in the rainforest hosts a great number of other creatures in its branches. Each page spread features a different creature living in, on or under an almendro tree, and the numbers double with each spread, culminating with 1024 leaf cutter ants. Each number is written numerically as well as shown visually with that number of critters.

A great combo science and math book with a topic that makes both fun.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Ecosystems: If you’re studying ecosystems, this book provides a great visual of how an ecosystem is made up of the community of organisms living in the same area. You could easily use the organisms highlighted to also make a food web for this ecosystem or talk about bio mass (especially with the numbers highlighted).
• Biomes/The Rainforest: Many classes study the various biomes of the world or due rainforest units at some point. This is a great nonfiction book to include. And the illustrations are not too childish for even upper grades.
• Symbiotic Relationships: If you’re studying the interaction of species, this book provides a wide variety of species who interact in different ways.
• Patterns/Multiplication/Exponentials: Each new spread multiplies the previous number highlighted, but the book doesn’t tell you that’s what it is doing. See if students can catch on to the pattern and then see if they can correctly name the next number to be featured before you turn the page. Those of you teaching higher math could chart the numbers and use them to talk about exponential growth.
• Big Numbers: For some little readers, this could be the first book they are read that introduces them to hundreds or thousands. You can use it to introduce the hundreds place and thousands place.
• Word Problems: Word problems are often dreaded and feared, but here’s a sneaky way to make word problems more interesting. There are word problems of varying levels of difficulty in the back of this book featuring the critters and numbers highlighted in the book. It’s a way to make word problems a little less painful and a bit more relevant.
• Animals: If you’re doing a unit on animals or just have an animal lover, this highlights some unusual ones that don’t often appear in picture books. There’s further information on each critter in the back of the book.

Lifetime: the Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives by Lola M. Schaefer, ill. by Christopher Silas Neal
In one average lifetime...animals can do some amazing things. Schaefer and Neal tell and show kids some of the average numbers for the lives of common and uncommon animals.

This book is simple, but informative. And it could be used with a wide age range. The illustrations are simple, but eye-catching. Animals definitely make "boring" old average finding a bit more interesting.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Counting: For little ones just learning their numbers, here’s a unique counting book featuring animals both familiar and strange.
• Averages: In the back of this book the author does a fantastic job breaking down how to find averages and how she figured out the averages featured in the book. Let this book do your instruction on averages for you. There’s even further practice problems in the back for students to try out on their own. And all of them involve facts about animals, which makes it a bit more interesting and fun.
• Rounding: In the process of explaining how she figured out the averages about the animals for the book, the author includes a little information on rounding. She also provides a great practical example of when rounding is useful.
• Applications of Math to Real Life: In an answer to that ever present question of math students everywhere “When will I ever use this in real life?” the author demonstrates how an author used math to make a book, how animal researchers use math, how math helps satisfy curiosity, and more. 
• Animals: If you’re looking for a book that features interesting facts and figures about animals, this is a great one.
• Curious Readers: There’s a whole group of readers out there that can’t get enough information. They love those random facts. This is a good one for those insatiably curious readers.
• Art: Art teachers may want to have classes look at the art style of this book, which is minimalistic but works for this book.

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman, ill. by Beth Krommes
With simple text and gorgeous colored woodcut illustrations, Sidman & Krommes invite readers to find spirals in the natural world around them.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Patterns: Spirals aren’t featured all that much in pattern books, but they are interesting and they are all around for those who look. (See below for one specific pattern that relates to spirals, the Fibonacci sequence.)
• Design Complementing Function: In the back of the book, it mentions a little bit how the spiral shape is beneficial for various creatures/plants featured. Design teachers could use this to inspire design class students to have design complement function of furniture or other inanimate objects they are producing. Science teachers could challenge students to brainstorm other oddly shaped organisms and how their shape might benefit them.
• Fibonacci Sequence: Spirals follow the 1,1,2,3,5,8, etc. pattern of the Fibonacci sequence in the way they grow larger. A great book to use when talking about this sequence in math classes.

An Egg is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston, ill. by Sylvia Long
An exploration of the form and function of eggs for all sorts of creatures.

This is a spectacular survey of eggs, their coloring, their variety (in structure and creatures who lay them), and their purpose. A great science resource, which if you just read the main text and not all the little side info is quite poetic. But who can resist fantastic little tidbits of information? Also the illustrations are quite eye-catching. You can definitely tantalize young readers and learners with this nonfiction book.

Activity Tie-ins: 

• Design Complementing Function: See the ideas for Swirl by Swirl. You can also use those for this book. Use both books in conjunction to give further examples of the ways design complements function.
• Birds: If you’re studying birds, this covers a lot of different birds, including the biggest and the smallest species.
• Animal Classes Similarities/Differences: Not all of the egg-layers in this book are birds. It provides a good opportunity to talk about similarities and differences of the organisms in the five classes under Kingdom Animalia’s Phylum Chordata.
• Compare/Contrast: The eggs in this book are quite varied, but many of them share similarities as well. Pick some from the ones highlighted and have students use their observation skills to compare and contrast.
• Poetry: The main text of this book is quite poetic in the way it talks about eggs. It provides a poetry example that is both entertaining and informative.
• Nonfiction Read: If you're looking for a nonfiction book that will captivate the class or an individual reader, this could be a good one.

Superhero School by Aaron Reynolds, ill. by Andy Rash
Leonard is super excited to start Superhero School. He can't wait to practice stopping speeding trains and flying. So it is an incredible disappointment for Leonard and the others to realize that their teacher, the Blue Tornado, seems to want them to practice fractions and division more than using superpowers. School is such a bummer, until the day the ice zombies kidnap all the teachers and the students finally get to use their superpowers to rescue them. What they don't realize though, is how much they're also using those math skills too.

A very funny way to show kids how math does get used in everyday or superhero situations. The Blue Tornado is one smart teacher.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Judging a Book by Its Cover: Only show students the cover of this book, and ask them to predict what the book will be about. Then read the book and ask them to evaluate how much of their prediction was correct and how much of the book was missing just based on the cover. (I’m guessing no one will predict the book is about the importance of math.) You can use this to talk about ways to better evaluate books before they read, or you can just use it to reinforce to not give up on a book just based on the cover or assume too much based on the cover. And of course, you can apply that little lesson to people too.
• Fractions: Students frequently struggle with fractions. This book can help make them a little more fun, show them the value of fractions, and help students realize they aren’t alone in the struggle.
• Division: Like fractions, division skills are proved important to the main characters even though they may be hard. Use this to help encourage students in their division skills.
• Math in Real Life: Ok, so I’m guessing most of your students aren’t superheroes, but have them brainstorm ways they might use math skills in real life somewhat like the characters in the book.
• Superheroes: Who can resist a good superhero story? And if readers learn a thing or two about math along the way, all the better.
• Fun Read: If you’re just looking for a fun read, this is a good one for entertainment value alone.

Millions, Billions, and Trillions by David A. Adler, ill. by Edward Miller
Let’s face it. Numbers followed by a train of zeros are really hard to picture. What does a million or billion even look like? You hear these numbers in news reports and science figures, but do you really understand them? David Adler and Edward Miller do their best to take these great, big, huge, monstrous numbers and put them in terms and pictures even young readers can understand.

Activity Tie-ins:

• Math: This really helps students visualize these huge numbers and put it in terms they can understand. If you’re covering these large numbers, this is a great resource.
• Science: If you’re talking about scientific notation and why we use it, or population figures, or any other science topic dealing with huge numbers, this is a good book to help students visualize the numbers.
• Current Events/Economics/History: News reports and historic facts tend to contain a lot of these huge numbers. Help students better visualize just what these numbers mean and put the stories into terms they can understand with this book.