 A former student of Baxter Elementary returned to her old stomping grounds while visiting from Germany where she now lives. Erin Twomley talked with students about her career as an author and her children's books on renewable energy and climate change. A reporter Rachel Johnson has more. Erin Twomley attended Baxter Elementary, graduated from Brainerd High School, and has since lived on three continents and written two books. I was working mainly with teachers and teaching them on energy literacy and how to teach kids about energy and was approached with an opportunity with my co-author, a middle school science teacher to collaborate on a book. Her books are geared towards middle school age students and put a fun spin on climate change and renewable energy. So those are really two important topics for our future. It's really about creating the next generation not only of learners but of leaders who can make sure that our planet is green and healthy. Her books are funny, they take on you know topics of burps, farts, and greenhouse gases, so both kids doesn't love that and love learning about that and talking about that and being allowed to laugh about that. Every year the PTO at Baxter Elementary sponsors an author to come in and speak to the students. To see someone who's gone through school have a career and a job in life that they love and enjoy and that relates to some of the very things that they're doing here every day. Twomley talked to the students about renewable energy and also the steps that go into writing a book. After the presentation the kids did an activity where they created their own energy saving superhero. They were thinking about how somebody could save energy, what energy is worth saving, and how a superhero could help do that. This one says sun. This one makes rain for flowers to grow. For the staff at Baxter Elementary in addition to learning to take care of the environment it is important to show the students where their future careers could take them. We read books and we see pictures and we don't realize that there's actually a person that's writing those words. That's their ideas we're now reading somebody else's ideas and those people could be in our community they don't have to be from a faraway place or a big city they can come right from our little Baxter Elementary School. Reporting from Baxter Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News. Twomley also visited Lowell Elementary and by the end of her stay will have spoken with around a thousand students in the Brainard School District. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.