A Fauquier County fifth grader didn’t find himself between a rock and a hard place when he spotted a scientific mistake in his school textbook — he’s getting national recognition.
H.M. Pearson Elementary student Liam Squires found the flaw a few weeks ago after a lesson about the rock cycle.
The textbook they were using, Exploring Science All Around Us by Five Ponds Press, had messed up labeling sedimentary rock and igneous rock.
“They’re flipped,” Squires told NBC Washington. “The labels are flipped.”
He pointed the error out to his teacher, Serena Porter.
“It was just baffling. … I didn’t even know what to do at that point,” Porter said.
She told the school administration about what Squires had discovered.
He got kudos from the superintendent and the Fauquier Times picked up the story. Soon after, Squires got recognized by The New York Times as well.
The icing on this geological cake might be the handwritten letter Squires received from the textbook’s publisher, Five Ponds Press, thanking him.
“Maybe one day you will be a geologist studying the Earth,” the letter read.
Featured photo courtesy WRC/NBC4 Washington
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