THE UNDERSEA INNOVATORS CREW
I unwrapped the clay artifact and held it out to her. She took it carefully, turning it this way and that.
She nodded. “Okay. I will keep it in our locking file cabinet until fourth period. It should be safe there. Can you do a brief presentation to the class and talk about how you acquired it?”
“Yes. That would be fun.” I wasn’t one to stress and freeze up when asked to speak to a group.
The bell rang and we headed off to first period. I wasn’t feeling very algebraic, but such is life.
- SeaPaths #3 - "Now You See It", Ch. 5
Favorites
Sport: Basketball... Soccer
Food: Grilled Grouper
TV/Streaming: Don't have one
School subject: Marine Science
MALACHI WARNER
Merc looked at me. “Any other questions, Mal?”
I looked down, back up at the new friends around the table. “Just the big one. Why would somebody or bodies want to take out coral reefs?”
Josh said, “Here there be monsters.”
Merc grinned, shook his head. “This sounds like a task for Minh Le and the Villain Chasers.”
Minh nodded. “We are on it.”
- SeaPaths #2 - "Good Grr-Reef", Ch. 4
Favorites
Sport: Free Diving
Food: Bánh xèo
TV/Streaming: All Creatures Great and Small
School subject: Marine Science/Math
MINH LE
“Here’s my night running light. I cut the green – starboard side - out of a plastic Mountain Dew bottle. The red side – for port – came from a red bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil that my dad got through using.”
“Cool,” I leaned in.
“Yeah. Then I glued them together, ran this piece of one-inch metal tape down the middle, and epoxied the whole thing to this old flashlight. All I had to do was attach this clamp to the flashlight and voila.”
“You’re a mechanical genius, dude.”
He chuckled. “So they say.”
- SeaPaths #6 - "Blood Bots", Ch. 4
Favorites
Sport: Soccer
Food: At Last! Pizza
TV/Streaming: BattleBots!
School subject: Marine Science
LUIS RENFROE
BIO
For many years, I've wanted to bring this series to young readers. I so appreciate that there are innovative young minds that enjoy these stories!
In eighth grade, the “authorities” informed me that I qualified to participate in a self-study Science course. Rather than meet with my classmates in the standard class, I could work one-on-one with an advisor on a project of my choosing.
They asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”
“Build submarines,” I immediately answered. This was not as weird a reply as it may seem. My dad was a Rocket Scientist. (I grew up near Cape Canaveral, the son of a NASA Engineer.)
The Authorities frowned. “You cannot make a living doing that. What is another thing you are interested in?”
“Being a farmer,” I said.
“Hey,” they said (sounding a lot like Charlie Brown’s teacher), “what about hydroponics?!”
I ended up staying in my eighth grade Chemistry class.