Studying Science Processes with Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record Setting Dive of the Bathysphere

BY ERIKA THULIN DAWES & MARY ANN CAPPIELLO on behalf of The Biography Clearinghouse

Over the last nine months, many of us feel as if we have had a front row seat to a global scientific conversation. Since the first news reports of a new virus in Wuhan, China in early January, our knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 has been steadily developing. 

For the first time in history, scientists around the world are working concurrently and urgently on the same challenge: creating viable vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. Early on, scientists did not believe the virus spread from animals to humans. For months, scientists debated whether or not the virus gets transmitted from both droplets and aerosols. Various treatments for the virus have been developed, undergone clinical trials, and been either adopted or rejected. We’ve heard news reports about peer-reviewed publications making announcements about new understandings of the virus. None of the progress that we have made on fighting COVID-19 would be possible without scientists collaborating around the world, sharing information with one another and the public. 

The world is doing its best to keep its people safe, through collaboration and the scientific process. You can’t look at a newspaper, glance at your phone, or watch the evening news without hearing the latest information that scientists have hypothesized, tested, or concluded. For young people - indeed, for all of us - this overload of information is overwhelming. It’s also fascinating. The amount of information we are receiving is staggering. We are watching “science” happen in real time - the processes and the methods, the dead ends and the real results. 

How do we make these processes and methods visible in elementary and middle school? What are some of the ways children’s literature can provide our young people with a window into the scientific process so they can better understand what thousands of grown-ups around the world are doing to try and beat this virus? 

One small way is to explore the scientific process and the collaboration made visible in the picturebook Otis and Will Discover the Deep, written by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Katherine Roy. Operating within the Investigate, Explore, and Create Model of the Biography Clearinghouse, we designed teaching ideas geared toward literacy and content area learning as well as opportunities for socio-emotional learning and strengthening community connections.

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Investigate

Investigate focuses on authors’ and illustrators’ craft and structure. Suggested mini-lessons, writing opportunities, and talking points invite students to take composition-focused “closer looks” and “tryouts,” accentuating the importance of authors’ and illustrators’ craft from multiple perspectives. For Otis and Will Discover the Deep, we call students attention to the craft of developing narrative tension though words and illustration. We also note the variety of engaging verbs employed by Rosenstock and her precision with language. We suggest an examination of the back matter augmented by listening to Rosenstock’s discussion of the role of back matter in our interview with her. 

Explore

Explore offers resources to connect ideas, historical events, and scientific discoveries and inventions within the featured biographies to our world. These resources are selected to help readers deepen and extend their understandings of and connections between historical events and eras, scientific progress and modern conveniences, and to illustrate the interconnectedness of life across geographical places/spaces and disciplinary perspectives. Otis Barton and Will Beebe were driven by their curiosity about the ocean depths - what kinds of life would they find in the deep regions? We offer a collection of resources to help students research their own questions about deep-sea animal life. We also suggest a broader exploration of contemporary scientific research about animals and their habits. What kinds of organizations are sponsoring research? Who are the people who are carrying out current investigations? What can be learned about the process of science by learning more about their work? This section also includes ideas to explore social and emotional learning. We offer suggestions for using Dramatic Tableaux as a tool to explore the lived experiences of characters. We also invite teachers and students to consider how personal passions and interests in childhood shape who we become as adults.

Create

Create invites readers to apply what they learn and know from the biographies to their current communities and contexts. Acutely aware of time and resources, our suggestions are typically designed to meet educators where they are and offer additional opportunities. For Otis and Will Discover the Deep we suggest engaging students with the history of ocean exploration, the creation of a timeline of key people and key exploration vehicles along with an opportunity to explore the life stories of contemporary oceanographers. We also suggest a focus on the theme of collaboration, inviting students to consider the effective elements of collaborations and the ways that we can all benefit from collaborations that include multiple perspectives. 

Artifacts from Barb Rosenstock & Katherine Joy's Creative and Collaborative Process

Bathysphere Log Cover. Image Credit: WCS Archives Collection 1005J.

Barb Rosenstock's original idea.

Katherine Joy's mark-ups on the Ottis and Will manuscript.

Posing for Katherine Joy's 100,200 feet illustration.

CREATE with Otis and Will Discover the Deep. 

​Featured here is one of the teaching ideas inspired by Otis and Will Discover the Deep: 

Unlikely Collaborators: Researching Collaboration
When we interviewed Barb Rosenstock about researching and writing, Otis and Will Discover the Deep, we were so surprised to discover that Otis and Will didn’t like each other! Given the incredible teamwork displayed in the book, we were a bit dumbfounded. But as Rosenstock points out, getting a job done does not always require that people like each other. It’s about the commitment to the task at hand and the sharing of talents and information to make it happen. How does teamwork and collaboration happen? Why is it so important? ​​

If you have 1-2 hours...	If you have 1-2 days...	If you have 1-2 weeks...
Discuss the ways in which Otis and Will, along with an unnamed team of workers, refined their process of collaboration within the book. Next, listen to our interviews with  Rosenstock and Katherine Roy. How did each collaborate with other people in order to research and create the book?  What collaborations take place in your classroom on a regular basis? In your school? Have students brainstorm additional ways that they might be able to collaborate across the school day. ​	Compare and contrast the collaborations you discussed previously and consider the collaborations within the following picturebooks:    Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown, illustrated by Joe Cepeda  Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson, illustrated by David Shannon Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney  Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama by Hester Bass, illustrated by E.B. Lewis  Those Rebels, John and Tom by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham	Have students identify people in your community who collaborate with one another. For example, your local grocery store might collaborate with a local food bank. A local church might partner with a homeless organization. A local artists’ collective might collaborate with a restaurant to display work.  Have students generate interview questions and then conduct in-person or virtual interviews with them about the importance of collaboration. Students could commemorate these collaborations through art and poetry.  Or, students could brainstorm a list of new collaborations that might be beneficial to the community, that they can share with local leaders ​

By investigating biographers’ research and writing processes and connecting people and historical events to our modern lives, we hope to motivate change in how readers engage with biographies, each other, and the larger world. To see more classroom possibilities and helpful resources connected to Will and Otis Discover the Deep: The Record Setting Dive of the Bathysphere, visit the Will and Otis entry at the Biography Clearinghouse.

Additionally, we’d love to hear how these interviews and ideas inspired you. Email us at [email protected] with your connections, creations, questions, or comment below if you’re reading this on Twitter or Facebook.

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Erika Thulin Dawes is Professor of Language and Literacy at Lesley University  where she teaches courses in children’s literature and early childhood literacy. She blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.

​Mary Ann Cappiello teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy methods at Lesley University, blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf, a School Library Journal blog, and is a former chair of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8.