The importance of storytelling in science education

Anatolii Kozlov, science communication expert, writers about the importance of storytelling in science education, with examples. 

Storytelling in Science Education

Everybody knows that science produces scientific knowledge. But it is less common to think that science is a form of storytelling. Medical case reporting is a form of storytelling in the detective genre. Historical reconstructions are a form of storytelling. Even scientific experimental reports in some ways are stories – stories about what scientists did, what they observed, and what does it all suggest about the world around us. The important point here is not to mistake stories with fiction-making: stories in science is a way of capturing and presenting knowledge, questions, paradoxes. Take, for instance, some of the famous thought experiments:

“If I pursue a beam of light…”, begins Einstein.

“A cat is penned up in a steel chamber…”, continues Schrödinger.

All these sound like a beginning of an exciting novel.

Storytelling is crucial for science and medical education. It makes the education process more engaging and exciting. We get into education programmes to learn new things and to acquire new skills. And there is no lack of information sources these days. What really makes a difference is when what we learn makes us want to learn and to explore more, stimulating our imagination. Stories can do exactly that. At the heart of any story lies a narrative. Narratives are a way of structuring material into a cohesive unified streamline, which is basically a plot. That doesn’t mean that the material has to be distorted, not at all. It just means that the material is carefully arranged in a slick way, each piece bears a meaningful role as a part of an overarching story, and there is an overall sense of movement through the ‘world’ of the story. What successful narratives do is they take us by our hand and guide us through the prominent parts – episodes – of the narrated material in such a way that we understand these elements, but we also grasp the broader landscape of the problem we are hearing about. In this sense, the way we interact with narratives is different from the way we interact with descriptions, arguments, or just unstructured information. However, what is really neat is that each of the modes of discourse — description, information, argument — can altogether be a part of a framing narrative. Which makes narratives a versatile tool for any purpose your teaching process might need.

	The modes of Discourse (from Smith (2003))
	Situations	Temporality	Progression
Narrative	Primarily specific Events and States	Dynamic, located in time	Advancement in narrative time
Report	Primarily Events, States, General Statives	Dynamic, located in time	Advancement anchored to Speech Time
Description	Primarily Events and States, and Ongoing Events	Static, located in time	Spatial advancement through the scene or object
Information	Primarily General Statives	Atemporal	Metaphorical motion through the text domain
Argument	Primarily Facts and Propositions, General Statives	Atemporal	Metaphorical motion through the text domain

 

What makes for great storytelling?

You must be wondering by now, what does it mean to create a narrative, and what can be common between explaining the principles of cell respiration, benefits of vaccination, and some literary fables. The common point is that all these topics are about something: people, animals, cells, molecules, viruses. Plus, there are rules, laws, or mechanisms of how these actors interact. To explain a phenomenon, science tends to isolate specific actors (or causes) and describe the laws (or mechanisms) that guide the action. So, one simple way to explain a scientific topic would be to list the actors and logically explain their interactions. Voilà. Sometimes this is all that is needed. Just pure technical information.

But often this is not enough. In the teaching context, you want to increase the educatory potential of your explanations. You want to deliver them in a dynamic, captivating way. You want to invoke imagination.

Great storytelling is achieved by two means.

1. Structure of the story

First, by carefully selecting the most important elements of the explanation and by lining them up into a balanced progression. At the first sight, all the elements of your explanation might look equally important. But once you start picking them one by one, you might notice that some group together easier than others, while the third ones might seem redundant altogether. In its natural ‘habitat’ — labs, seminar rooms — scientists use very scrupulous language to discern incredibly nuanced possibilities. But when it comes to explanation outside of the day-to-day scientific process, half of those possibilities need not be even mentioned! When we talk about a specific explanation to a specific audience, the language really can be simplified without loss of rigour and meaning (see Dewitt example).

Besides, there would be a certain order of your elements, which would create a better ‘flow’ than the others. By flipping elements around and trying different combinations you could find the one that works the best. This is what scientists often do when they assemble their figures for publication or a talk.

2. Making the story come alive

The second element of great storytelling is animating your story. You want to make your explanation to be alive and breathing. You want to capture the audience’s imagination. Using small tunes and framing, you can bring your story into a broader context. Why this explanation is important to learn? How does it relate to the bigger picture? Are there comical, instructive, provocative examples that can illustrate the explanation? Perhaps, some resonating analogies or metaphors? Feel free to use your own experience, anecdotes you’ve heard, or inspiring examples you’ve read somewhere. Anything goes at this point, and there is only one rule – the rule of good taste. Don’t overdo it. Your embellishments should not steal the stage, but rathe be carefully incorporated into the scientific plot you’ve outlined. In this case, every element of your story would play a specific role.

While the first element of storytelling helps to settle the scientific backbone of the story, it is the second element that makes the story blossom. The framing and decorating elements can make the story relevant for your audience: students would find it easier to relate to what you explain. In this sense, thinking about whom you are talking to, anticipating their interests, aspirations, and values puts you in a winning position: you get more cues for your story.

Finally, any material has a story. And this is why there is no single perfect story to tell or a single perfect way to tell a story. That’s great because there is so much space to be creative.

Storytelling in Science Education: Breaking Down the Process

Any material has some story inside. So let your story grow from your material. Identify the key elements, ones that need to be explained no matter what.

Brainstorm for a bit: take a piece of paper and a pen, write down your core points and write down any related ideas and associations.

• Your points are linked scientifically, but what else links them, apart from your explanation?
• Have you encountered any real-life situation where the problem you are explaining made a difference?
• If not, could you imagine such a situation?

All the bits and pieces of the puzzle you are explaining, all the parts, units, episodes, stages, when arranged in a sequence, must create a sense of movement, of ease. If you notice it, it is a good sign. This means that some plot is already looming around. Creating a story is an exciting process, no matter if the story is big or small. In a story, each element prepares the ground for the next one, creating a feeling of anticipation. In this sense, creating a story is a really manual process. If you impose on your material some ready-made storyline from outside, you might miss some really exciting possibilities that your own material offers.

At this point, you might start making a proper storyboard. No need to be scared. Storyboarding is just fancy slang from the film production context. Storyboarding simply means making a map of your future story. It can be a sequence of frames or drawings if you are making a video. Or a set of titled slides if you’re preparing a presentation. It can also be a sequence of concepts or evocative phrases on the page if you are working to produce a text.

Formats and Channels

There are really immeasurable ways of providing online education these days, and all of them can deploy narratives and stories. The point is that the basic plot of a story can be similar across the formats. But different formats offer additional means of how the story can be told.

• We are all familiar with classical classroom lectures recordings. Their success depends on the speaker’s ability to articulate ideas and to capture listeners’ attention. Once again, the intonation and vocabulary are something to pay attention to. It is important to use natural-sounding phrases and intonations, and even if the text is read and not spoken from memory. PowerPoint slides are useful as a support, and many TED Talks are great examples of how slides can assist the narrative. But slides could also be distractive if they are not well-paced and break the flow of the narration. It can be very helpful to break down long lectures into smaller episodes. In this case, each episode can be a small story, which at the same time is a part of a bigger narrative.
• Animation and cartoons can be a really fun and exciting way of telling a science story for younger students. However, it can be also a serious medium for showing very sophisticated processes, especially if they are invisible to the naked eye (see, for instance, these incredibly captivating videos from Walter and Eliza Hall Institute).
• Podcasts are a very handy form for lectures. In this case, you don’t need to keep your audience in front of their computers: anyone can listen topodcasts on the go. The advantage is that there’s no pressure of making short pieces, and the immersion in the topic can be more slow-paced and profound. The style of podcasts can significantly differ, spanning from something more provocative like Science Vs to a more conversational style (e.g. The infinite Monkey Cage, or documentary-like (e.g. Radiolab).

Examples of Science Education Companies and their Products

Above all, the real strength of digital education lies in its ability to bring together different formats and channels. In studying online, we don’t have to choose “either/or”. These days, companies structure their courses in a multi-modal way, combining long forms with short ones, pre-recorded lectures with interactive problem-solving tasks, video content, music effects, and accompanying texts, all of this to cater to different students with different demands. This brings the storytelling to a new level of immersion, and we can learn about the world through stories in previously unimagined ways.

Some examples:

• Math Techbook   from Discovery Education uses video storytelling to show how abstract mathematics helps to learn about the real world.
• Digital experiment from Openscied.org. In the form of a game, it offers to test a scenario of sustainable co-habitation between farmers and orangutans
• Labster brings interactive learning to the next level, providing a 3D gamified virtual learning environment to learn practical skills necessary for biological research

References

• Smith, C. S. (2003). Modes of Discourse: The Local Structure of Texts. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
• Uri Hasson, on human communication

Need help to develop strong narratives and scripts for your science education videos? Contact science communication experts and scriptwriters on Kolabtree. View experts now>>