Faction Finds

About Joanna Cole: https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/15/the-magic-school-bus-series-author-joanna-cole-has-died

Faction books have a foundation of fiction with factual information (Jennifer Graff, personal communication, July 23, 2020). While not truly nonfiction, these books provide information. The Magic School Bus series exemplifies this genre and to honor Joanna Cole's legacy I have created this blog post. I have identified books from the Magic School Bus series that connect to the 6th and 7th grade science standards. I believe that these texts may serve to grab the attention of middle school students. They may be surprised to see a Magic School Bus book brought out in the middle school classroom--but then they might be surprised at all the factual information they can now understand. As a former elementary school teacher, I tried using these books, which are illustrated to attract young readers, but found most of the text was too sophisticated for their comprehension. Books in the series that relate to middle school science standards are: Inside the Human Body, Inside the Earth, Lost in the Solar System, Inside a Hurricane, and The Magic School Bus and the Climate Change.

Use them to teach:

S7L2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to describe how cell structures, cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems interact to maintain the basic needs of organisms.

b. Develop and use a conceptual model of how cells are organized into tissues, tissues into organs, organs into systems, and systems into organisms.

c. Construct an argument that systems of the body (Cardiovascular, Excretory, Digestive, Respiratory, Muscular, Nervous, and Immune) interact with one another to carry out life processes.

S6E1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about current scientific views of the universe and how those views evolved.

a. Ask questions to determine changes in models of Earth’s position in the solar system, and origins of the universe as evidence that scientific theories change with the addition of new information.

(Clarification statement: Students should consider Earth’s position in geocentric and heliocentric models and the Big Bang as it describes the formation of the universe.)

b. Develop a model to represent the position of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy and in the known universe.

S6E4. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how the sun, land, and water affect climate and weather.

d. Construct an explanation of the relationship between air pressure, weather fronts, and air masses and meteorological events such as tornadoes and thunderstorms.

e. Analyze and interpret weather data to explain the effects of moisture evaporating from the ocean on weather patterns and weather events such as hurricanes.

S6E5. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to show how Earth’s surface is formed.

a. Ask questions to compare and contrast the Earth’s crust, mantle, inner and outer core, including temperature, density, thickness, and composition.

S6E6. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the uses and conservation of various natural resources and how they impact the Earth.

a. Ask questions to determine the differences between renewable/sustainable energy resources (examples: hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, biomass) and nonrenewable energy resources (examples: nuclear: uranium, fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas), and how they are used in our everyday lives.

c. Construct an argument evaluating contributions to the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

What Makes This Series Special? Sipe (2010) tells us that picture books are blurring the lines between different formats. This series mashes the fantasy of a school bus that can travel into--the human body, a hurricane, the earth--with informational text. The informational text features of the text are captions, diagrams and side bars of information. These books also resemble graphic novels with the characters speaking in word bubbles. These words sometimes provide additional information and sometimes provide humor. The mixture of features leads to what creates complex relationships between typologies, urging us to reread and revisit these books Sipe (2010). Each book has a different color scheme which engages readers into the setting (Maltulka, 2008)--the grays and blues of Inside a Hurricane--makes the reader feel like she is inside the school bus inside a hurricane--and the reds and oranges of Inside the Human Body--makes the reader feel like he is inside the body flowing on blood platelets! Aside from the color, each page makes the reader feel utterly involved in the action, this is due to what Sipe (2010) describes as "illustrations that bleed to the edge of the page (p.242)".