The Internet of Things (IoT) Conversation
The Science of Submarines
I really enjoy teaching The Science of #Submarines to the young readers of ‘Submarine Warriors.’
As a writer of children’s books, I get to take kids, tweens, and teens on an underwater submarine adventure with elements of fantasy and science fiction. What you may not know is that I teach the science of submarines in addition to reading passages from my latest novel. There’s a whole world of learning to be found beneath the waves and I’ve brought many of the facts found at http://submarinewarriors.com into the classroom.
For example, I take the following submarine-related topics and make them understandable to kids:
- How to generate energy through nuclear fission > Split those atoms to create heat
- How to get oxygen from seawater > Must find a way to keep breathing when staying underwater
- How to separate freshwater from saltwater > Can’t drink the saltwater that surrounds the sub
- How to remove carbon dioxide from the air > There’s no trees underwater to absorb what humans exhale
- How a nuclear reactor works > Heated water makes steam to spin turbines which creates electricity
- How a submarine dives and surfaces using water and high-pressure air > It’s easy to sink, but harder to surface
- How a Trident II missile uses a gyroscope > A rocket must sense that’s it’s falling into the ocean so it can ignite
- How to ‘see’ with sonar > Our ears must become our eyes underwater
Kids are surprised to find the crewmembers sleep between nuclear missiles and that a Trident submarine is as tall as the Space Needle in Seattle if you stand it on end. Learning that submariners often walk on floors of canned food until they eat their way to the real floor is an unusual tidbit.
There’s lots of bright, young Einsteins to be found in our schools with an eagerness to learn! Teaching our children in the classroom is definitely one of the most rewarding things in my life.
– Rob
It’s Time to Discover the World of the Submarine Warriors
Looking to find out more about everyone’s favorite undersea adventure novel for young adults?
It’s time to check out http://submarinewarriors.com/.
This is the place to join your fellow shipmate readers and learn all about your favorite characters. Find out the inside story behind the young Submarine Warriors, the Submariner fathers they’re trying to rescue, the Navy SEALs, Admiral Connery, the President, and the dreaded Underworlders.
Need help with a school science project or paper you have to write? Learn all about the ocean, sonar, water, nuclear propulsion, how drinkable water and breathable air is created from seawater, and how submarines work. With this vast source of knowledge at your disposal, you’ll be ready to earn your Dolphin pin and join the elite group of underwater scientists and adventurers.
The Submarine Warriors adventure takes place in the Pacific Northwest of the United States in various bodies of water including the Hood Canal, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Pacific Ocean. Learn more about this amazing and beautiful part of America that is home to Trident and Seawolf submarines, not to mention ‘Torpedo Town USA.’
Purchase the book and support the efforts of Matt Damon and Gary White at Water.org. Water is the world that Submariners live in, and clean water is getting harder to find for roughly one billion people struggling to survive. We’re doing our part by donating 10% of all profits from the sales of Submarine Warriors to Water.org. When you purchase a book for yourself or a friend, you’ll be providing a better future for those in need.
I look forward to seeing you in the new community of Submarine Warriors.
Stay in touch!
-Rob
I Love what Matt Damon is doing to bring Clean Water to the World
You might not believe it, but while two-thirds of the Earth is covered by #water, only 3% of it actually is drinkable.
This means that roughly 1 billion people are unable to find the clean drinking water they need to survive. When you add inadequate sanitation to the equation, the number of people put at risk more than doubles. This culminates in the heartbreaking stat that over 3 million people die yearly from water-related diseases.
I don’t know Matt Damon, but I’ve watched his films for years. I especially like his screenwriting and acting in ‘Good Will Hunting.’
What really struck me has been the numerous articles I’ve read in magazines and newspapers over the last year about the work Matt and his partner Gary White have been doing to bring clean water and sanitation to the people who need it most. Their water.org has joined with many other individuals and NGOs trying to accomplish the same daunting goal.
As a Submariner who has lived in an undersea world surrounded by water, this issues really hits home for me. ‘Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink’ goes the familiar ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ My fellow sailors in the Navy often thought of this as the saltwater that surrounded us that we didn’t dare drink. Since my submarine could turn saltwater into freshwater through desalination, I thought we had this problem licked. Obviously, I was wrong.
Can you imagine people that spend large parts of their day searching for clean water for their family to drink? Why should girls mortgage their future by spending their day collecting polluted water instead of learning in school?
I thought sharks only lived in the sea. Again, I was wrong. Modern-day water pirates force some people living in slums to pay between 5 and 10 times more per liter of water than the wealthy folks who live in the same community. We’re all so accustomed to having water pipes coming into our homes that the idea of buying daily rations of water from unsavory characters never occurs to us. Matt’s water.org provides micro-loans called WaterCredit to help communities take ownership of their water and sanitation needs. As always, teaching people how to fish is always more sustainable than giving them handouts.
I know these water issues may seem really far away from your current reality, but you never know when the next big drought will bring it home to you. I don’t have to look any farther than Texas to see the devastation that a sustained lack of water can bring. Perhaps we should work harder at finding ways to make the same kind of desalinization that I experienced on my submarines less exensive and more scalable in order to bring water from the oceans to the people, crops and livestock that are doing without. Can you imagine the U.S. Submarine fleet pumping freshwater from the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico through a network of pipelines to drought-stricken parts of the country? Food for thought…
In the meantime, I encourage you to visit http://water.org/ to help Matt, Gary and many others make the world’s most abundant resource safer and more accessible to the billions who need it. I’ll be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you as I donate 10% of the profits of the ‘Submarine Warriors’ books to water.org. When you read ‘Submarine Warriors,’ you give:
Remember, 2/3 of the Earth is covered with water. Up to 2/3 of the human body is made of water.
People are water.
-Rob
Submarine Warriors: The Enemy Beneath is now Available in Paperback on Amazon
I’m thrilled to announce my exciting new underwater adventure #novel for middle-grade and young adult readers is now available in paperback!
Follow literature’s next generation of young heroes as they take command of a nuclear submarine to brave the ocean depths and battle the deadly Underworlders to save their fathers. “The Enemy Beneath” is the first volume of the “Submarine Warriors” series where a group of middle-school friends from the Pacific Northwest must transform into submariners when they are confronted by an enemy threatening the survival of mankind.
I’m so glad I was able to publish this in time for the Holiday Season so you can purchase the book for yourself and all the readers on your list over at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Submarine-Warriors-Enemy-Beneath-1/dp/0979891248/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1320678688&sr=8-20 for just $9.99!
Like to read your books on e-readers?
You can get Submarine Warriors on the Amazon Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/Submarine-Warriors-Enemy-Beneath-ebook/dp/B005OT3VD0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320683044&sr=8-1 for just $2.99.
If you own the Barnes & Noble Nook, you can get the book at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Submarine-Warriors-gt-The-Enemy-Beneath/Rob-Tiffany/e/2940013356153 for just $2.99.
I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Rob
Submarine Warriors > The Enemy Beneath is available on the Kindle
After writing many non-fiction books on #mobile app development, I’m happy to say that my novel, Submarine Warriors: The Enemy Beneath is published and available on the Kindle.
The first book in my new middle-grade, adventure series takes what you love most about characters like Hermione Granger, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter and plunges them into the dangerous underwater world of ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and ‘Crimson Tide.’
The fathers of twelve year-old Caroline Connery, Nick Wyatt, and their friends mysteriously disappear during a top-secret submarine mission. Not long after, Caroline receives a secret text message revealing the government’s story that their fathers died in an accident was actually a cover-up. The two kids enlist the help of Caroline’s grandfather – a retired Navy Admiral – and their friends to rescue all of the dads. A daring submarine theft results in the entire Pacific fleet chasing down the children with orders to sink them on sight. Upon finding their fathers, Caroline and Nick are confronted by an even greater terror when they come face to face with the Underworlders, a previously unknown species living beneath the ocean floor that are bent on the complete annihilation of mankind.
As one 5-star reviewer put it: “I bought this and couldn’t put it down. Great Clancy-like details of the real tactical and functional operations of a submarine, real and engaging characters, and a roller coaster ride of a story. Also a great setup for (hopefully!) future stories of the battle of humanity against the Underworlders.”
Today, you can download it for your Amazon Kindle for only $2.99. It will be coming out next week for the Nook, and soon afterward for iBooks and paperback.
Hold on tight for the next great adventure series!
-Rob