Karen Blake

​

The children’s book, The First Birthday Party Ever!, creates a story world where children can learn to think about the natural world – biology, geology, and physics, through an engaging story about something young children are already excited about and that is birthday parties.

The book is rich with opportunities to explore science. Geology is close to my heart. I fell in love with it as a child being exposed to it in long car rides as my father moved from Air Force base to Air Force base.

The First Birthday Party Ever! offers a view of the world from its pages and through the Party Pals Play app:

• Biodiversity jumps off the page with "Augmented Reality". Dinosaurs galore! Comparisons, used in mathematics and science. Here, it is also a literary device. The good dinosaurs versus the bad dinosaurs.

• The story models the natural world. Modeling, both spatial and temporal, begins to build the foundation of modeling for young readers. A similar understanding is used in mathematics.

• Geologic forces are explored in the book. Through the story, children learn the earth is dynamic.

• The addition of the Party Pals Play App, children develop an understanding of cause and effect.

  Not just that causes precede effects, but how certain kinds of causes are linked to specific kinds

  of effects.

• The story offers a lot of opportunities to develop hands-on activities that test the laws of

  physics.  Flight is the obvious example. The classic egg drop is another one.
  Engaging STEM education is needed in K-6 to keep our children interested in science as they enter high school and college. I believe The First Birthday Party Ever! provides this level of engagement.

   

• Karen Blake
  State of Texas, Professional Geologist #5936