Author: Janice VanCleave
Located in: Riesel, Texas
Submitted: February 16, 2010
Tell us a little about yourself. I love science and spend much of each day creating pages for my science website. Sometimes I am answering someone's question, but often I find some exciting tidbits about science and want to share it. Since I am not teaching, I share stuff with readers of my books and website. YEA!
FYI: When I am working on my computer, my Maltese puppy sits on a pillow behind me.
If you have a question about the book featured on this page or about science in general, you are invited to contact me directly via this email address. ASKVANCLEAVE@AOL.COM
Wife of Wade VanCleave-50 years August 29, 2009
Mother of threeTwo boys and One Girl
Grandmother of sixTwo boys and Four Girls
Great Grandmother of 6-- Three boys and Three girls
Teacher--Secondary classroom science for 27 years.
Author Science and Math - Fifty two publicationsscience and math experiment books for kids and educators. While my teaching credentials allowed me to only teach secondary level, I have books for all ages, K-12.
Author Bible Activity Book- I am very excited about this publication. When working with kids as well as adults at church, I often explain Christian principles via science demonstration.
What was your motivation behind this project? First of all, I never wrote a book and submitted it to a publisher. I was asked by a publisher if I would like to write a book. UUM! I've never doubted that my writing career has been orchestrated by God. I wrote one book for my original publisher and then through no work on my part I was passed to another publisherJohn Wiley and Sons where I have written 52 books. I tell you this so that you know that my writing career has not been normal. I had contracts for multiple books which my editor and I decided on their content when I was ready to write the book. Generally the discussion when something like thisEditor: Can you write a book about the different seasons? Me: Yep!! Then I had the freedom to pick and chose the experiments for the book. Often the name of the book was decided on by my editor. In other words, we all worked together and VOILA' you get a fun book with activities that relates to the different seasons. I do love this book. But, then I had so much fun writing every one of my books.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I want my readers to be more informed about nutrition. Please don't get swept up in different fad food--fad diets--fad terms, such as organic. As a scientists, I dislike how the word organic is so misused. New definitions have been given to this word--all meaning its good for you. Just becareful--the truth is that anything that was alive==plants or animals are organic. Know that the word CHEMICAL does't mean the food is bad, or natural chemicals doesn't mean the food is good for you--water is a chemical and so is arsenic and both are natural chemicals.
What's with trans fat?
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I discovered that for every book saying that vitamin supplements are the only way to be healthy there are an equal number of books negating this idea--both sides of the issue have very impressive scientists supporting their view. So, my suggestion is to go with the adise of your doctor.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I am very motivated by educators--I love corresponding with classroom as well as homestudy educators. I learn so much from parents, kids, and teachers who honestly ask me what they think are "dumb" questions. It is this kind of correspondence that helps me to create material that really meets the needs of my readers.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: I want to know what does and doesn't work for you. I want to know if you had difficulty with any of the experiments or just didn't understand my explanations.
Of course, I would appreciate your adding a "spoonful of sugar" with the negative reviews.
