With over thirty years teaching science and facilitating professional development experiences, author and educator, Merrie Koester, Ph.D, is motivating elementary and middle school students to read, enjoy, and actively DO science. The Agnes Pflumm series of science education novels are the product of decades of academic research, writing, and curriculum development on teaching STEM through the Arts (or STE[A]M). These novels are also the cornerstone of Read for Science,  founded by Dr. Koester for the purpose of showing how youth can use STEM knowledge/skills and creative problem solving to READ THE WORLD and understand and mitigate situations that are directly impacting them.  Teachers nationwide are using her novels and research to incorporate more reading, reflective writing, critical thinking, drawing, and other creative arts into empowering  STEAM curricula. 

Dr. Koester, a Charleston, SC native, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Furman University, completed her master’s degree at University of Hawaii, Manoa and her doctorate at the University of South Carolina. She serves as a STEAM curriculum and science literacy and communication specialist for the University of SC Center for Science Education and is founder/director of the Kids Teaching Flood Resilience program.  Her text, Science Teachers Who Draw: The Red Is Always There, narrates the journey of five middle school science teachers, who explored with Dr. Koester the impact of teaching science through drawing and visual thinking with students who struggled with reading.