Scientific Poetry - Whatever next?!

Several years ago I started writing poems relating to the science curriculum.
I wrote poems to use in my lessons, I wrote poems to engage my students, but most of all I wrote poems for fun!

I took topic areas of the curriculum which were often viewed as a bit 'dry', and tried to make them at least a little more interesting by adding a splash of creativity, a dash of poetic licence, and a generous dose of humour, while also including some valuable scientific information along with as many key words relating to the given topic as possible.

I started to develop the poems into worksheets, which I trialled with my students (without telling them that the new resources were in fact written by me - I wanted impartial feedback!). Amazingly, the majority of students from each group, regardless of ability or literacy level, said that they enjoyed working with the poems, and doing the associated crossword or activity. In fact, those that found the poetry approach of greatest benefit appeared to be those with lower levels of confidence in terms of literacy, as the rhyming nature of the information helped them to remember key words and phrases. I think they also enjoyed the general silliness of many of the poems!

I approached an educational publisher, and had my efforts published under the title 'Poems and Puzzles for Key Stage 3 Science'. Then I waited for the accolades to roll in...
Sadly, uptake of my resource was not as spectacular as I would have liked!

Despite this, my commitment to the idea of communicating science through the medium of poetry is undiminished, and I have continued to write science themed poems, but I now have a different audience in mind. My poems were always written for children. Children don't buy worksheets - teachers do. Children buy funny books (or at least they get their parents to buy them!). This has given me a sense of new found freedom, and has allowed me to write poems about science related ideas and concepts, but without the need to cram them full of  key words. It's so much more fun this way!!

Take, for example, one of my latest poetic masterpieces:
Would a teacher buy an educational resource containing a poem entitled 'Do You Poo Too?' - Probably not.
Would a child like to read a book containing the poem 'Do You Poo Too?' - You bet they would!

And so, just today, I have e-mailed a sample of my work to a well known children's publisher in London, in the hopes that one day soon my poems will sit proudly on the shelves of every book shop in the UK, and who knows... maybe farther afield? That way, every child would have the chance to enjoy the sciencey silliness of poems such as 'Know your Nose', 'Atomic Party', 'My Cheese Sandwich', and of course, not forgetting 'Do You  Poo Too?'.

Here's hoping that the publisher can see the potential, and that they find my poems worthy of spreading to the masses!