Brooke C. Standifer for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering presented on June 6th, 2006

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Brooke C Standifer for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering presented on June 6th, 2006 Title: Writing Educational Picture Books to Inspire Young Women to Pursue Math and Science Abstract Approved: Deborah Pence In order to combine my passion for creativity, my love for children, and my engineering background, I decided to create a very personalized thesis project Princess Catie Goes to College is a children’s book about a young girl whose older sister leaves for college I chose to write about this conflict because it was a conflict that I was forced to deal with as a child Instead of merely helping a child deal with conflict, the purpose of this story is also to inspire and educate young girls to learn and become excited about the thrilling possibilities that math, science, and engineering hold for the future The process of writing a children’s book is a very complicated and difficult path but is well worth the effort This document contains a brief history of children’s literature, a synopsis of why I chose to write about math and science, and my motivation for the design of the story and characters Key Words: engineering, kids, math, science, children’s book, picture book Corresponding e-mail address: brooke.standifer@gmail.com Copyright by Brooke C Standifer June 6th, 2006 All Rights Reserved WRITING EDUCATIONAL PICTURE BOOKS TO INSPIRE YOUNG WOMEN TO PURSUE MATH AND SCIENCE by Brooke C Standifer A PROJECT Submitted to Oregon State University University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering (Honors Scholar) Presented June 6th, 2006 Commencement June 2006 Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering project of Brooke C Standifer presented on June 6th, 2006 APPROVED: Mentor, representing Mechanical Engineering Co-Mentor, representing Human Development and Family Sciences Co-Mentor, representing the University Honors College Dean, University Honors College I understand that my project will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University Honors College My signature below authorizes release of my project to any reader upon request Brooke C Standifer CONTRIBUTION OF CO-AUTHORS My co-author is not an author in the traditional sense, but rather the illustrator of my children’s book, Princess Catie Goes to College Raquel Standifer, my sister, dedicated many hours to the creation and perfection the characters and scenes in the book Without her insightful and artistic input, the book would not have been a success Raquel breathed life into my existing ideas, and together, we were able to make the story come alive TABLE OF CONTENTS PROBLEM DEFINITION STATEMENT OF PURPOSE BOOK SUMMARY KNOWLEDGE IS POWER A BRIEF HISTORY WOMEN, A MINORITY IN ENGINEERING PERSONAL TOUCH MEET CATIE: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE CATIE’S BIG SISTER CHOOSING AN APPROPRIATE AGE GROUP 10 CONTENT 10 Algebra 11 Chemistry 11 Physics 12 Astronomy 13 WRITING FOR TWO AUDIENCES 14 CONFLICT: CONCEPT/PROBLEM BOOKS 14 HUMOR 15 WRITING WITH PICTURES 16 SUMMARY 17 FUTURE PLANS 17 APPENDIX A: PRINCESS CATIE GOES TO COLLEGE 20 WRITING EDUCATIONAL PICTURE BOOKS TO INSPIRE YOUNG WOMEN TO PURSUE MATH AND SCIENCE INTRODUCTION PROBLEM DEFINITION Women are a minority in engineering As a woman in the engineering program at Oregon State University, I have faced some challenges and seen many of my female classmates come and go Thinking about (and researching) this topic led me to believe that it is not a lack of mental capacity that causes women to avoid and/or leave technical programs, but rather a problem of social similarity and acceptance Women seem to lose interest in math and science at around the time that they reach puberty (see Women, A Minority in Engineering) Placing a stronger emphasis on these skills at a younger age may help to remedy the lack of women in technical fields STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The goal of my thesis project was to write, illustrate, and print a children’s book about engineering and the true fun that lies within math and science curricula The book is primarily geared towards young girls between the ages of four and seven BOOK SUMMARY Princess Catie Goes to College is about a typical five year-old girl named Catie She is not actually a princess but, like most children, her wild imagination often gets the best of her Catie struggles with the fact that her big sister (who recently left for college) is not around much anymore and is delighted when her parents allow her to attend her sister’s college for a day Catie becomes excited about math and science while attending her big sister’s pre-engineering courses and learns a great deal in the process The majority of the story is set at a university Catie has the opportunity to attend college level classes such as algebra, chemistry, physics, and astronomy while still managing to be creative and have fun The resolution comes when Catie realizes that sometimes her big sister has to study instead of play blocks so Catie decides that she should study too and does so by pulling out her favorite coloring book Please reference Appendix A: Princess Catie Goes to College to see the book in its entirety CHILDREN’S BOOKS: A WHOLE NEW WORLD KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Children are like sponges; everything they see and hear is somehow absorbed into their minds and stored for later use This is why children’s literature is and has been so important in society Besides parental and family influences, books are a child’s earliest portal into the uncharted world Children see books as an adventure to be explored and a treasure to be discovered (Rossi 7) It is important that we quench this thirst for knowledge with educational and exciting literature for children of all ages A BRIEF HISTORY Children’s literature has been around since before Columbus discovered America Folktales, myths, and legends have been in circulation since the beginning of oral language In the same way that children today gather around a librarian for an afternoon story, children of the early fourteen and fifteen hundreds gathered around an elder or community member to hear a cleverly told tale With the invention of the printing press, books became more popular and children’s books began to thrive The popular Mother Goose Rhymes were first created in 1697 when Charles Perrault released The Tales of Mother Goose The Romantic Movement in Europe in the early 1800’s spawned the Grimms’ German Popular Stories including “Cinderella” and “Hansel and Gretel.” Illustrations also became popular during this time period It was not until the late 1800’s that childhood was seen as an adventure and not just a training ground for adulthood The late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds brought such stories as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868), Jules Verne’s TwentyThousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883), Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), Johanna Spyri’s Heidi (1884), Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901), and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908) The Newberry Metal was first awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in 1922 and the Caldecott Medal was presented to the illustrator of the most distinguished picture book published in the United States in 1938 With the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 came a boom of educational non-fiction books for children The sixties proved to be a wonderful time for the development of new, exciting, and fantastic children’s books with the publication of C.S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1961), Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963), and Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day (1963) In the seventies, authors, illustrators, and publishers alike became more aware of the representation of ethnic minorities within their stories and a new major contribution to children’s literature was made (Norton i) Many stories today are even published in more than one language The past few decades, with the influence of technology and computer-aided drawing, 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 (The End) 45 (More Information) 46 (Inside Cover) 47 (Back Cover) ... University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering (Honors Scholar) Presented June 6th, 2006 Commencement June. .. Commencement June 2006 Honors Baccalaureate of Science in Electrical Engineering project of Brooke C Standifer presented on June 6th, 2006 APPROVED: Mentor, representing Mechanical Engineering Co-Mentor,... WHY WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK WOMEN, A MINORITY IN ENGINEERING As a woman in engineering, I have seen firsthand the lack of women in the engineering sciences at the university level But what causes