Graphic Novels as Gateways: Sparking STEM Discoveries with Jason Burns

Explore the integration of storytelling and STEM with Jason M. Burns. His comics aren't just for fun—they're gateways to learning and discovery!

In a world where education is constantly evolving, graphic novels have emerged as a potent tool for teaching complex concepts in an engaging way. Jason M. Burns, an innovator in the educational comic book industry, is at the forefront of this transformation. Throughout his career, Jason has seen graphic novels evolve from being considered mere entertainment to being pivotal educational tools, especially for reluctant readers. By integrating STEM concepts into familiar fairy tales, Jason has found a way to make learning an enjoyable experience for children.

During the podcast, Jason talks about his transition from an entertainment journalist and screen writer to a key player in the educational comics scene. His approach to teaching through storytelling is simple yet profound. Instead of presenting dry, technical information, Jason  twists classic narratives into adventures that teach children STEM concepts in a seamless and fun way. His series, which includes titles like Jack and the Beanstalk's Cloudy Close-Up and Hansel and Gretel and the All You Can Eat Sweet Buffet, offers children lessons in meteorology, plant growth, nutrition, and survival skills without them realizing they are learning!

Jason's commitment to education goes beyond the creation of graphic novels. His own experiences as a parent have shaped the way he approaches storytelling. By running his material by his children, he ensures that his work resonates with young readers and provides them with valuable takeaways that they are eager to share with friends. Check out some of his most recent creations like The Crocodingo That Loved a Flamingo and The Yeti Who Coughed Up Confetti.

With the Frog Boy series, Jason delves into the realm of social and emotional learning, again demonstrating the versatility of comics and manga. Though Frog Boy doesn't include specific educational callouts, the series is designed to provide life lessons through storytelling, which can be just as impactful. Jason also touches on the technical aspects of creating graphic novels, such as the challenge of lettering manga, which reads right to left, rather than left to right as is common in Western literature. This adds a layer of complexity not only to the creation process but also to the reading experience, offering children a unique opportunity to develop their cognitive flexibility.

As graphic novels continue to gain recognition as educational tools, it's creators like Jason M. Burns who will lead the charge in sparking STEM discoveries for young minds everywhere. Also, be sure to check out the What About? podcast that Jason co-hosts with Danny Nucci.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Wonder Curiosity Connection. Where will your adventures take you? I'm Dr Diane, and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Adventures in Learning. So welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast. I'm your host, dr Diane, and I am so excited to welcome this week's guest. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I love multicultural picture books, but I've also really fallen in love with the idea of the graphic format because I love what it does for the reluctant reader. Our guest today has spent more than 20 years working on graphic novels and comic books. He's even met or at least his books have been read by my very favorite Sesame Street character, mr Snuffleupagus. Welcome to the show, jason Burns.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 0:56

So, jason, before we start, I'm going to ask you the question I ask everybody Sure, which is tell us a little bit about your adventures in learning. How did you get to where you are today?

Speaker 2: 1:05

Well. So I came out of high school wanting to write film and television shows, so I thought a great way to do that living in Massachusetts and not Los Angeles was to get involved in entertainment journalism and open some doors. So I was working on a story for a publication about independent comic books Companies not Marvel and DC that were at this time hitting it really big. One of those companies was called Viper Comics. They were out of Texas. I had interviewed the publisher for the story and we stayed in touch. He had read one of my film scripts and said this would make a great comic book.

Speaker 2: 1:48

20 years later, I am now working in educational comics. During the pandemic, I actually went back to school to get my degree to become a teacher in some capacity, although I haven't started using that yet because I always say, well, I'm going to get into that soon and then I've just been so busy that I haven't yet to do it. But so my goal is to not only educate people but also continue educating myself, because every day I love learning and I hope that others will enjoy learning through my writing as well.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Well, and we've seen such a growth in the use of comic books and graphic format in schools, particularly over the last 20 years. It used to be that, oh, that's the hidden, dirty secret reading yeah. Now it's front and center and people have recognized this is a fabulous tool to engage reluctant readers. What are some of the things that you've seen change in the industry?

Speaker 2: 2:50

Well.

Speaker 1: 2:51

I can use them.

Speaker 2: 2:52

Yeah, I can't even say from the perspective of a fan. So I grew up reading comic books and my parents always said don't, why do you do reading those, they're going to rot your brain. And, granted, at the time they were not used for educational means. I was reading mostly superhero comic books, but what they do and I love that you touched on this in the beginning was reluctant. Readers are more likely, like me, who's a visual person to first fall in love and get engaged with the images, and then I don't want to say trickery, but there's a way to help kids learn. I have an 11 year old and a seven year old and I see it firsthand. I'll run a lot of my material by them, first, because they end up learning in a fun way, without even realizing that they're learning. And then I will hear them give a fun snippet to one of their friends about something that they learned through one of the graphic novels.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Well, looking at your stuff, I fell in love with your STEM fairy tales, because one of the things I do is help teachers connect stem and steam with diverse picture books multicultural fairy tales. I'm definitely adding your series to this mix.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:58

They were so much fun. But, like in Jack and the Beanstalk, the cloudy close-up you were using. I love the Once Upon a Facts and I love sort of the little gnome narrator who popped in and added some science and you did it so seamlessly that it became I would never have thought about clouds and weather with Jack and the Beanstalk.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Well, it's interesting you mentioned that, because I grew up in the 80s and I don't know if you remember, there were science shows on Nickelodeon and stuff like that, where a scientist would like a Bill Nye type of experience where they would teach you not only about the science but the things that revolved around there in the periphery. So with this particular book we wanted to find subjects that were not so obvious to learn about. So because Jack and the Beanstalk you're planting a seed requires you know sun and weather and all of these other things we built, it was a great opportunity to lean into the science side of that.

Speaker 1: 4:57

And are there others in the? What else is in the series? What are some of the other ones?

Speaker 2: 5:01

So there's Hansel and Gretel and the All you Can Eat Sweet Buffet, and so that one is all about teaching kids, you know, healthy eating habits, and not necessarily eating what is of immediate interest to them but what is going to be good for their body. I'm going to lean away from the microphone, real here, to grab some of these we have, from tadpole to frog prints, and that one is teaching a lot about, oddly enough, weight and how, buoyancy and a lot of things like that. The three little pigs in the big bad building problem, that's all about bridge building.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Which again doesn't seem like something you'd-.

Speaker 1: 5:41

I was just gonna say wait a minute, hold on. So bridge building in the three pigs. You have to elaborate.

Speaker 2: 5:47

I'm sorry, not bridge building. I jumped up that was for bridge building was the badly built bridge. Yes, so the three little pigs is all about engineering the proper building structure, because otherwise the wolf can blow it down. So it's about building correct, and the pigs in the story the ones that didn't wanna build it correctly were being a little lazy and they just wanted to go and have fun. So it's also throwing in some responsibility lessons as well.

Speaker 1: 6:12

So no cutting corners on the job.

Speaker 2: 6:14

No cutting corners, yes. And then the goats gruff and the badly built bridge that one leans very heavily into engineering and science and mathematics really teaching kids how to properly build the bridge so that they can get across that bridge and then move on to where they were headed.

Speaker 1: 6:31

That is so cool and I know I love to be able to connect, like the fairy tales, with real life stories. So like with the bridge building. I love being able to tell real stories of people who are bridge builders to sort of open their eyes to people they wouldn't have known about, cause there's so many stories out there to share.

Speaker 2: 6:48

Yes, and one of the fun things for that particular book series in general is that because they're already established characters and brands, essentially that kids have an easy in road into them and don't have to learn about new characters because at somewhere along the line they heard about the three little pigs or the goats gruff, and now they're seeing it in a different light.

Speaker 1: 7:11

So, in that sense, you're starting with established characters. Talk about creating your own stuff with brand new original characters, because you've got some cool series coming out and that are just out right now.

Speaker 2: 7:24

So one of my favorites is called the magical pet vet and that is by Cherry Lake Publishing, which a lot of libraries and classrooms are familiar with, and that is the story about a group of kids who run a veterinarian's office for magical creatures so unicorns, trolls, anything you can imagine and within that series you're not only learning about STEM but also social and emotional learning.

Speaker 2: 7:52

So we combine both of those in that particular series. So I've a little background on me is I am a lover of all animals and for the last like two years I've been spending one day a week working at a vet here in Massachusetts. I've been going to my personal vet for over 20 years and during the COVID shutdown she was really understaffed. So she said you want to come in and learn how to do stuff? And I said absolutely yes, I do. So that goes back to my own desire to continue learning. So so many of the stories from that although we don't see unicorns to trolls come out of my experiences in a vet. So I've been trying to tie some of my real life experiences for kids as well.

Speaker 1: 8:35

That's really cool and thank you for sharing the Yeti who coughed up confetti with me that one is coming out soon, right.

Speaker 2: 8:42

So that one is out now. So this series is in stores and is available for librarians and teachers to get their hands on, and all of these books come in library binding. So they have a nice hardcover, so they're going to stick around and not give you a long life. Yeah, I think a lot of people think comic books and they think like a floppy book, but these are built to last.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Well, and these were so much fun because the characters are relatable. I mean, they were kid-aged. But what I really loved is, as you were going through, you had these little side notes where you define vocabulary or you talked about feelings or a little bit about what is an x-ray machine, and so that was an unexpected little nugget of learning. You sucked me in with the story and then I found I was learning as I was going and I was totally imagining kids who were like in third and fourth grade eating this up.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Yeah, so this is my daughter's favorite series that I've worked on and definitely a large part of it is me putting it together was her love for animals as well, and watching her read it for the first time was so fantastic because, just like you mentioned, she wasn't stumbled up by the educational call-outs. They were just part of the flow for her, so she could read the panel of the story and then move seamlessly into the educational call-out and learn about an x-ray without feeling like she had to stop and come ask me what something is.

Speaker 1: 10:05

And what I thought worked for me with this is I remember reading the Magic School Bus books, both as a classroom teacher and as a parent, and with those they were sort of the forerunners to the graphic format today. But they were difficult to read because it was sort of do you follow the story? Do you follow the science? How much of it do you read before your three-year-old loses attention?

Speaker 2: 10:27

and runs away. Or just having to explain, like you said, like again, growing up reading comic books, I would have to show my parents how to read a book because there's so many bubbles on the page and there's so many panels on a page. But with these books we really try to simplify it as well and try to keep it to three or four panels so that kids don't look at the page and go, oh, where do I begin?

Speaker 1: 10:47

And that's what I thought really worked is it was simple and it was clear, but it wasn't tripping up the story. You were able to really integrate the facts in with the fantasy and it was a fun read.

Speaker 2: 10:57

Oh, that's fantastic, and I got to give props to the artists on these books. In fact, so much of that comes down to their ability. I put together the script, the script goes off to the artist and while I explain what is going on in the panel, it is their job to pull it all together and give it a nice flow. So with STEM Fairy Tales, that was Dustin Evans, who I've been working with for 20 years, and then Renata Garcia is the artist on Magical Pet Vet and she's located in Mexico, and I just love the time frame that we're in now where we can work together. I'm in Massachusetts, she's in Mexico, the publishers in Minnesota, and we're able to make it all work.

Speaker 1: 11:36

You know that's one of the joyful benefits of being a global society is that we really can collaborate in ways we never could before. I found that with the podcast where I'm talking to people in Massachusetts and Australia and it's just amazing.

Speaker 2: 11:51

It is, and as much as sometimes the idea of technology frightens me as somebody who is still trying to catch up, I can't imagine how I would do my job, because I've worked from home for 20 years now. I literally can't imagine how I would do it. In fact, when the COVID shutdowns happened, I really didn't see any sort of change because I've been always doing it. Meanwhile, my wife then moved home and started working from home, and that was the biggest change.

Speaker 1: 12:22

I was going to say being on top of each other was probably the biggest challenge yeah. So you said you have a seven and 11 year old. How do they inspire your work?

Speaker 2: 12:33

So much In fact you might have seen in a magical pet that we had a page where it was written and produced by a kid. So I've been really trying to bring that element in. In fact, my son is going to be working on a new series with me for Cherry Lake. That hasn't been announced yet. He's 11. And so he's already shown an interest in being creative and being able to basically pay that creativity forward.

Speaker 2: 13:02

And my daughter is in love with art. She does art all the time and I see that she is a very visual learner. She is so fascinated by nature and biology and anatomy, and so I think she's going to lean towards more of the art side and my son is going to lean more towards the writing side. But at the end of the day, everything I do now is really sort of in their realm. I started out in comic books, working more in the traditional comic side of things, with whether it was superhero books or even mysteries, all that kind of stuff. And in 2016, I believe, I started working with a company called Ape Entertainment and that is when I started running the Sesame Street comic books and the DreamWorks Animation stable of character comic books, and from there I stayed in this world and have been doing it ever since.

Speaker 1: 13:57

And I saw on your website that one of your books was being read by Mr Snuffleupagus and I have to say I totally geeked out about that. As a child of Sesame Street I was like that has got to be one of the coolest feelings in the world to know that you're making that kind of an impact.

Speaker 2: 14:13

There was. I did a panel for Sesame Street at New York Comic Con that year that it came out and I got to meet Murray the Muppet and I took a picture with him and I brought him home and at the time my son was really young and he was like his mind was blown. But the great thing about that picture too is that Mr Snuffleupagus is there but also Rachel Ray was reading the book. They brought it on her show, on the daily show, and we're plugging the books there. It was awesome, it was really cool.

Speaker 1: 14:43

That's hilarious. I didn't even notice Rachel Ray, I was so caught up with Snuffleupagus.

Speaker 2: 14:49

I don't even know if he is imaginary anymore, but when I was a kid- when I was a kid, nobody believed the big word. Yes, that's right, but I think he's real now. Well, I'm glad he finally was able to be seen.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Poor Snuffy, are you tired of same old, same old professional development experiences? Check out what recent workshop participants have to say about doing a workshop with Dr Diane's Adventures in Learning Great hands-on session that included real ideas to incorporate in the classroom. Wonderful, lots of great ideas and fun science experiments. It was great to be able to see how to make connections between the stories and science. If you are looking to raise your game and have a professional development experience that will leave your educators feeling rejuvenated and ready to directly apply ideas into their classrooms, reach out to Dr Diane's Adventures in Learning. We offer half-and-full-day workshops that examine ways to build connections between multicultural picture books and STEM STEAM experiences for gains across the curriculum. All programs can be tailored to your specific needs, so find out what audiences across the country have been experiencing. Check out Dr Diane's Adventures in Learning at wwwdrdianneorg. We hope to be in your school soon so you have a new book coming out or a new series. I do the Frog Boy books. Tell us about those.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Yes, so Frog Boy is my first foray into manga, which is a traditional Japanese-style reading format for comic books. So this is where it gets a little tricky about how we talked about reading a book on the page, because this, instead of reading left to right like we would normally read here in the States, it reads right to left, and that does not only pertain to the book itself, but also the panels on the page and where the bubble sits on the page. So the first thing we do in that book is, if you were to open it left to right, it says stop, don't go any further, flip this book over and start reading the other way, because we wanted it to be a traditional Japanese reading format. So that is a six-book series. It's 48 pages each book and although those don't have educational callouts Like these other books that we've been talking about too, the idea is that it's still in gonna be used in classrooms and library Libraries, but more for a social and emotional learning experience.

Speaker 2: 17:35

There's no hey, this is, this is what a frog is that. There's no definitions in there. It's all story, but done in a way that Will hopefully move people and give them Life lessons, as opposed to specific lessons to the, to the story very cool, and when you say reading right to left, I'm.

Speaker 2: 17:56

I was trying to do it myself and it would definitely do my brain a little bit well, I'm gonna even throw you further, because I letter the books and so I bring the art into the computer and I Put the letters on the page. And it took me a while to even figure out how to letter the book, because I'm so used to not only Lettering books left to right but reading everything left to right.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Wow, that had to have been a huge challenge.

Speaker 2: 18:19

It was. And now I go back and I letter a traditional, you know US book that we would know how to read left to right, and I have a difficult time doing and I'm putting stuff in the wrong place. So it's a. It's having to get the brain right before you sit down to do that.

Speaker 1: 18:33

You know, it's kind of like driving on the other side of the road when you go someplace like Australia. Yes, and then you come back home and you finally have gotten used to it.

Speaker 2: 18:40

Now you're like oh, and then you just go back, yeah, yeah, and you know, our brains are flexible.

Speaker 1: 18:46

We can train them, but we often don't right.

Speaker 2: 18:50

Well, and that's why kids have such an easier job at learning an instrument correct, because their brains are more flexible, more willing to take that information in.

Speaker 1: 18:59

So if you were talking to teachers and librarians who maybe are feeling Reluctant or you know, kind of looking at graphic format and comic books the way that our parents might have looked at?

Speaker 2: 19:10

them Hmm.

Speaker 1: 19:11

How would you persuade them that it's okay to use them in the classroom?

Speaker 2: 19:14

I Really feel like it's a gateway book to reading larger books. It was for me, like I said. My parents said, oh, what are you doing reading that? And and I believe what they do beyond the educational callouts and these particular books is that they also teach us how to speak to people. Comic books and graphic novels are mostly dialogue, and so they are essentially communicating in a way to kids that show other people how to communicate to each other. So what I have found a lot is that there isn't a lot of reluctance anymore.

Speaker 2: 19:49

I've been going into classrooms, I've been speaking to classrooms and reading these books to kids, and the warmth that I have received from teachers has been amazing because they are giving, giving them inroads to teach about things like bridge building, that I don't think a kid would pick up a bridge building book that is strictly technical and allowing lesson plans in a way that that may be sort of circumvent the normal routine. I don't think they're ever gonna replace anything but being able to look at the images in a story, especially for those visual learners. It just helps break down, I think, a wall of reluctance from a reader who is not comfortable with the process. That's what else I found too. My son was never a comfortable reader. It took him a while to find his niche, as in terms of speed and readability, and these have helped him in a way that I couldn't ever perceive, even before I started writing specifically educational comic books. He was reading others in his younger days.

Speaker 1: 21:01

So I just think there's such a great tool for giving teachers another tool in the toolbox not replacing- I agree with you and I think when we can give them sort of a variety of texts, a variety of genres, it makes the whole learning experience so much richer.

Speaker 2: 21:21

It does.

Speaker 1: 21:22

And the graphic lends itself to writing lessons as well. I mean think about when we're trying to get kids to write dialogue. What a cool way to have them sort of think about beginning, middle and end, about storyboarding, and give them another way to express and to share things.

Speaker 2: 21:38

So we've actually done experiments like that in the past when we were doing the Sesame Street books. We would take the art, we would remove all of the text and then give the empty bubbles to kids, almost like mad libs, to have them fill it in. And then it's amazing to see the creativity. Whatever art is on the page, you give it to 10 kids, they each have a different story out of that sequential storytelling.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Oh, I love that. So what other cool things are on the horizon for you in terms of working with education and graphic format?

Speaker 2: 22:12

So I have a number of other graphic novels coming up this year. The publishers haven't announced them yet, so I can't get too deep into it, but I've been really enjoying the manga and I've been working on those beyond Frog Boy. So there's some other manga series coming out, and those are out by Abdo, and Abdo is just one of the big players in the educational book space. So there's usually a 12 to a 14 month window from the time that I sign on to a project to the time that we are finished, and that isn't even when they're in stores yet. So right now I'm working on stuff that is due out in 2025. Well, late in 2025, yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:56

Very cool, and you also have a podcast on top of all of this.

Speaker 2: 23:00

I do have a podcast. It's called what About I have been? As I mentioned at the start of the podcast, I had wanted to write for film and TV since I was a kid Danny Nucci, who starred in the Titanic, the Foster's on ABC Family and all of these other projects, films and TV shows. He and I connected many years ago. I was directing a TV show and pilot. We stayed in touch and started writing together and then we would just be talking about the craziest subject and we said we should just start recording these because there's something here. So we started the podcast back in October.

Speaker 2: 23:37

It is the idea is we find somebody who is passionate about a subject or has a strong opinion on that subject. We spend the first half talking about how they went about their career and then the second half is about that subject. So, for example, today's episode is comedian actor Ron Funches and we're talking about sweaters with him because sweaters are part of his look. And then we'll have an episode on acorns with an acorn expert. So there's all these. We'll literally run the gamut of whatever is of interest to us and why we want to learn more about it, and then it's just us learning. We did a great episode yesterday that we recorded It'll be out in a couple of weeks about nightmares with Dr Raj, who's a established doctor but also a television personality, and I learned so much about the dream state and why nightmares occur, and I literally get so excited. Every day we're recording an episode, and when we're not recording an episode I get a little bummed out because I just wanted to learn more.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Well, and I love your enthusiasm for discovery because I think that that kind of childlike wonder is what keeps us from aging and it also passes on to our kids' models it's okay to ask questions and clearly translates into the work that you're doing with your writing as well.

Speaker 2: 24:52

Well and I really try to do that with my kids If my kids have a question about something and I don't have the answer to it, I say I don't know, let's find out, let's go look for that information, because instead of steering them wrong, I'd rather steer them right and then learn something myself along the way.

Speaker 1: 25:06

I love that. So my last question for you today and it's a question I love to ask everybody is what brings you joy or what brings you hope right now?

Speaker 2: 25:17

So for me outside of my family it is animals. I get such a joy out of being around dogs or cats or whatever it is. So, like I said, I do that once a week at the vet. And I always say at the vet because I don't have a medical background, I am an emotional support human and I'm just there to hug the dogs whenever they need a hug. I love that, and then I have three dogs myself. So every time just seeing their little faces happy to see me, it makes me happy.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Well, Jason Burns, thank you for being our emotional support. Human today.

Speaker 2: 25:56

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 25:57

I have loved learning more about the work that you do and about the graphic format, and I'm going to drop links to your stuff in the show notes and make sure that everybody knows where to find your books. Seriously, guys, go check out the Frog Boy series, check out the magical pet vet series and definitely check out STEM Fairy Tales as well.

Speaker 2: 26:16

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 26:23

You've been listening to the Adventures in Learning podcast with your host, Dr Diane. If you like what you're hearing, please subscribe, download and let us know what you think, and please tell a friend. If you want the full show notes and the pictures, please go to drdianadventurescom. We look forward to you joining us on our next adventure.