Introduction and aim
Once upon a time, teachers did not use fancy PowerPoint presentations, overhead projectors, or even chalkboards. They simply shared their knowledge through stories. Stories have inspired scientists and engineers for generations. The story of Issac Newton's apple. Thomas Edison's long quest to find the perfect material to use in the light bulb or the discovery of the structure of the benzene ring. The starting point for all of these stories was a question that needed to be answered. Science is the process of solving mysteries.
Modern storytelling has hit centre stage with storytellers bringing wonderful performances to various audiences (children and adults) as well as management skills to companies, with storytelling as the medium of communication. Storytelling is also used in game development and has been reinvented in the Digital Age.
This project achieves the same goal by bringing Science stories to children. Professional storytellers and scientists link up to bring the scientific method and the enchantment of scientific discovery to children of ages 7 - 9 in a lively and well-grounded show. The story has benefitted from Graeme Pullyen's and Walter Janssens' artistic direction.
Why storytelling?
Think back over your years of sitting in classrooms. What are the moments that you most remember? Chances are the knowledge is linked to a good story the teacher told. [1] Stories are how we learn. The progenitors of the world’s religions understood this, handing down our great myths and legends from generation to generation. Industry also hires storytellers to achieve compact communication of core management skills. Science can benefit equally by inspiring young listeners with stories that carry core ideas of the scientific method and inspire a similar approach to understanding the everyday world.
Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Consequently, stories often pack more punch than lectures and the best lecturers draw upon stories to convey new ideas. [2]
Ireland has a long standing tradition in storytelling and rich folklore, including the Seanchaí, the tradition of nightly visiting, the central role of lore, chat and stories in entertainment as well as the instruction in the values and ways of the community. Ireland currently offers yearly storytelling events, e.g. the Cape Clear International storytelling Festival. Ireland is not unique of course. Huge storytelling events take place in the US (Tellebration), all over the UK, continental Europe, and indeed all over the world.
Every culture has a rich heritage of stories. This project bridges Science and storytelling and brings the best of both worlds - scientific enchantment and storytelling teaching power - to enchant and encourage children to explore science. Often governments bemoan the drop in interest in Science. The place to start to turn the tide is in primary schools.
What type of stories will be brought?
To give an idea of the type of story which brings together aspects of mathematics, physics, biology and computer science among others, we include a small part of the pilot story below (not in storytelling format, simply in overview form), drawn from biology.
Recent research has shown that desert ants can measure distances accurately. Not by leaving the usual chemical trail, which is useless in a desert where trails are swept away by the wind. Researchers suspected the ants kept track of the number of steps they took, a natural "pedometer" lodged in their brains. But how could they prove it? This simple question, brought by an expert storyteller, sets children thinking. Packaged in the right way this type of story will convey the essence of the scientific method, including models, experimentation and verification.
Science is full of wonderful stories like these. Ants can solve complicated mazes (linked up with deep Computer Science problems), bee foraging inspired web developers to create better web applications. Nano technology mimicked lotus leaves with superhydrophobic materials, so water repellent it leads to self cleaning materials (like the lotus flower) and potentially to vastly faster boats. And "water bears" are creatures that can survive without air and in extreme conditions of radiation in outer space.
All of these are interesting facts, but when packaged as skillful stories, will convey the scientific method in an extremely memorable way. The current story, aside from examples from nature, focuses on balance (unicycles and gyroscopes that have applications to the wii-controller, iphone, helicopters), measuring the distance to the centre of the earth etc. During and after the stories children take part in interactive experiments. Online documentation is provided to make sure that children and teachers can follow up appropriately.