By Bri Brands

When College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty member Brandon Waltz sent out a class-wide email to his students at the beginning of the spring 2025 semester, he was unaware that he was taking the first step toward writing and publishing a children's book. 

Waltz, an assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Biology, asked his students if anyone would be interested in being a note taker for his diversity of form and function class. These notes would be used as a tool for students with disabilities. 

Third-year biology student Lilly Froehlich volunteered, sending her notes to Waltz following each class. 

While taking notes, Froehlich would doodle visual aids and include cartoon drawings of material being taught as a way to keep herself focused on the learning topics.

To Froehlich, the drawings weren’t meant to be anything but a means of focus—she had no idea Waltz had noticed them and taken an interest in them. 

“I remember looking through her notes and always thought the drawings were really neat,” Waltz said. “They were a very specific style, and they did a good job of taking the heavy course and lightening it so that it alleviated some of the weight on students reading them.” 

Inspired by her drawings, Waltz reached out to Froehlich about the possibility of her illustrating a children's book with him.  

Waltz and Froehlich published Water Bear Don’t Care! on June 19. The book is a fun, educational dive into the life of a tardigrade and their incredible survival skills in extreme situations. 

Educating a younger generation 

For several years, Waltz had been considering writing a children's book about tardigrades, also known as water bears, a microscopic creature known for their resilience and adaptability to extreme conditions.  

The idea really clicked when he showed his daughters a video of tardigrades under the microscope for the first time. 

“It started growing into more of a realistic possibility that I might be able to take this interest and spin it into a children's book to help educate the younger generation so they can learn fun facts about science at a much earlier age than I was able to," Waltz said. 

Before approaching Froehlich with the idea, Waltz wrote a rough draft, spending his time finding the best rhymes and running it by his daughters, ensuring the story was child-friendly. 

The pair spent the next few months touching up, editing, and refining the book while looking into the publication process, leading them to self-publish with Amazon.  

Though it was a challenging process, Waltz said he loved getting to see the concept in his brain become a real, tangible thing.  

“When Lilly sent the first illustration, the project felt like it was a real thing, and that feeling made me realize this is definitely something we can finish, and it can be a good piece of work,” he said.  

For Froehlich, designing the characters was the best part. 

“Designing a character that appeals to both children and their parents while maintaining scientific integrity is a fun challenge and conceptualizing the world of Water Bear Don’t Care! was a great exercise in scientific communication,” she said. 

To make the book more accessible to children, Waltz explained scientific terms as simply as possible, used rhyming words and phrases that resonate with children, and had Froehlich incorporate simpler pictures next to more complicated phrases. 

Early childhood educators have told Waltz that their classroom kids enjoy the story; it’s a perfect early learning story that isn’t too similar to a textbook, and it keeps the audience engaged with the drawings. 

Using inspiration to inspire others 

Following the positive feedback from Water Bear Don’t Care!, Waltz and Froehlich are joining forces again to work on a book about Amazonian biodiversity. 

Although the book is still in early planning stages, Waltz wants the book to be about the ABCs of Amazon biodiversity.  

With both books, Waltz’s ultimate goal is to reach as many kids as possible. 

“The more kids this can reach, the more this can show them that there are crazy life forms out there that are really interesting,” he said. “Hopefully, that will encourage them to question things, pursue things more, and just explore their surroundings to learn more things.” 

Waltz owes a lot of his inspiration to his father, who was an officer and wildlife technician for the Department of Natural Resources while Waltz was growing up. 

Going on wildlife surveys and watching his father work kickstarted Waltz’s love of the natural world, and his father encouraged his passions well into adulthood. 

“I didn’t become a DNR technician, but I still retained a lot of the values that he shared and did in his work,” he said. “The whole reason why I was interested in biology in the first place, I would attribute to him, because I was exposed to the natural sciences at such a young age.” 

Froehlich also hopes to encourage young children to pursue and learn about STEM. 

“Even for children who will never end up going into STEM careers, maintaining an interest and love for the world around us is one of the best parts about being a human,” she said. “Especially during times where public education is under attack, I really wanted to remind kids and parents that science can never truly be erased.”  

Waltz wants his collaboration with a student to serve as an example of the many unique ways students and faculty can collaborate outside of conducting research. 

“There are really cool collaborations that can happen between faculty members and students,” he said. “A lot of times in biology, students think this is in the form of high-level research, but I wanted to show them that this can expand to other realms of biology.”