The Stories of Science

Foreword by Karen Worth

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Power of Story in Science

Chapter 2: The Essential Elements of Good Science Stories

Chapter 3: Finding the Story

Chapter 4: Using Model Stories to Inspire Deep Thinking and Effective Storytelling

Chapter 5: Identifying Purpose, Audience, and Setting to Choose Storytelling Tools

Chapter 6: Explanatory Stories of Science

Chapter 7: Informational Stories of Science

Chapter 8: Personal Stories of Science

Chapter 9: Instructional Stories of Science

Appendix A: Science Talk Planning Resources

Appendix B: Model Science Stories

Every science story starts with a question. In this book, we’re seeking to answer this question: How can we teach students to communicate about science effectively? There’s a lot to unpack within this overarching question:

• What are the stories of science and why should students tell them? (Chapter1)
• What are the features of effective science stories? (Chapter2)
• How can we help students find questions that they want to tell stories about? (Chapter3)
• How can we use model stories to show students what exemplary science stories look, sound, and feel like? (Chapter 4)
• Why is it important for students to consider the purpose, the audience, and the setting behind each story? (Chapter 5)
• Why do scientists craft explanatory stories and how can we help students do this on their own? (Chapter 6)
• How can students create informational science stories to teach and excite others about what they’ve learned? (Chapter 7)
• What are the personal stories of scientists? How can we draw students into the content via these stories, teach them to craft the personal stories of science, and engage them in creating their own science memoirs? (Chapter 8)
• How can we thread instructional science stories into our curriculum to create a coherent and meaningful structure for learning? (Chapter 9)

In this book, we share our stories, strategies, and experiences with integrating science and literacy—practices that are having a strong positive impact on our students and our teaching. Our goal is to foster a generation of students who understand science (how it is done as well as the people who do it) and can effectively communicate about it. We hope to inspire you to try out some of these strategies on your own.

"This book offers a new lens that increases the power of inquiry-based teaching."
—Karen Worth, science instructor at Wheelock College; coauthor of The Essentials of Science and Literacy

"The Stories of Science is an excellent resource for teachers interested in incorporating more cross-disciplinary skills into their science teaching. This book shows the power of storytelling in science, while also providing some sample lesson plans so other teachers can implement the strategies successfully. The insights from this book are powerful to teaching and learning!"
—Meaghan Cells, chemistry teacher at Brookline High School

"The Stories of Science will be a valued addition to professional libraries of teachers seeking to make their science teaching and nonfiction writing more engaging and accessible. This book offers a variety of suggested strategies, lessons, and resources to make this happen, along with stories that can make science teaching more meaningful for all involved."
—Jeff Winokur, science education instructor at Wheelock College; coauthor of The Essentials of Science and Literacy

"Communicating effectively with science stories is a powerful approach that educators will want to apply and use with their students immediately!"
—Marianne Dunne, former science educator, Boston Museum of Science

"You can feel the passion that the authors have for their craft of teaching science and that it is their mission in life to share this passion with students.This book will become commonplace not on bookshelves in teachers’ classrooms, but open, annotated, and used again and again on their desk through the year."
—Karen Mesmer, science education consultant