Science is an ever-changing world, and talking to scientists working on the cutting edge of knowledge is the best, and often the only, way to get the most accurate and up-to-date information.

I don’t usually include direct quotations from scientists in books, but I like sprinkle them liberally throughout my text when I write a magazine article. There are three great reasons to do this:

Excite readers, add fun
Here’s an example from my article “Body Science: The Art of Anatomy,” Odyssey, November 2001.

“[Even] if you have a love for this, you may be turned from it by disgust in your stomach; and if that does not deter you, you may be afraid to stay up at night in the company of corpses quartered and flayed and horrible to behold.”—Leonardo da Vinci

Show the humanity in your topic
Here’s an example from my article “Something’s Fishy,” World, National Geographic Society, July/August 2002.

“If a predator tries to eat a seahorse, it often spits it right back out. It’s too crunchy.”
—Dr. Jorge Gomezjurado, seahorse expert at Maryland’s National Aquarium on Baltimore

Put things into perspective for readers/bring authority to a piece
Here’s an example from my article “What Dinosaurs Left Behind,” Highlights for Children, April 2007.

“They [boys] had just the right amount of imagination to see this stuff and recognize it for what it is.” —Dr. Rich McCrea, dinosaur track expert University of Alberta in Edmonton

Your students probably won’t interview experts for the pieces they write. But they might enjoy interviewing older relatives and writing true narratives about the history of their families. Why not give it a try?