A child who cannot recite the stages of the water cycle from a diagram in a textbook will frequently tell you, in detail, what happens to a raindrop on its journey from a cloud to a river. Storytelling in science education allows children to create a mental image of an abstract process; many teachers have found that incorporating stories into lessons helps children internalize a confusing subject. Why is storytelling an effective tool for teaching science to children?
Using Stories to Teach Science to Kids Through Everyday Examples
Although scientific information tends to be taught as discrete units of information, photosynthesis and the water cycle are processes that benefit from being understood as a whole. This is not necessarily an issue for older children or those with prior knowledge of the subject, but a young child may have trouble connecting new information to anything they already know. A story provides context, a timeline, and frequently a character to relate to; rather than memorizing that water evaporates, a child can identify with a character who has gone through several stages of the water cycle. Storytelling in science education does not replace the information being taught, but it provides a framework in which a child can place it.
Children likely already know what a simple story requires: an inciting incident, a climax, and a resolution. Storytelling in science education can take advantage of existing tropes and make scientific principles easier to grasp. Weather patterns shift, a seed grows into a plant through a number of stages, food travels through the body in a specific order, and space travel covers great distances in pursuit of a goal. Turning any of these subjects into a story makes identifying the cause and effect of each easier for the child to identify; the storm isn’t simply dropping rain, it has built up the moisture until it could hold no more. Simplifying the science without changing its meaning makes it easier for a child to absorb the information being presented.
Stories Can Help Children Remember Scientific Concepts
When using stories to teach science to kids, practical applications are generally best. A child can relate to a raindrop character learning to fall from a cloud to the ground, and then evaporate back up again; the same applies to a seed growing roots and a stem, or a bit of food traveling the length of a digestive tract. Using stories to teach science to kids is most successful when the events of the story maintain a close relationship to what actually happens. A cloud becoming heavy enough to release rain is one thing, but a cloud with a personality releasing the rain may confuse the child unnecessarily about the mechanics of weather patterns.
A well-told science story provides an association to help a child remember a principle. They are unlikely to forget the events of an interesting tale, and this can be coupled with an expectation that they will remember the science related to it. Even if the story is not something the child would choose to read on their own, the mere act of presenting scientific information in a new and interesting way can make it more memorable for the duration of the lesson. This is not to say that storytelling in science education is a guarantee, only that a child is more likely to retain information they found interesting the first time, rather than something they memorized and then had to repeat for a test.
How Parents and Teachers Can Use Science Stories
Parents and teachers alike do not need any special training to take advantage of this technique. There are some basic guidelines that can be followed, however, to ensure that the value of the story is not lost in the presentation.
- Read science-themed children’s books aloud, and pause to allow the child to predict what might happen next.
- Connect events in the story to the actual scientific principles in the same order that they appear.
- Ask the child to retell or summarize the story, or explain the science involved, in their own words.
- Follow up on the story with a related observation, if possible. After reading about the water cycle, for instance, a child might examine condensation on water left out overnight.
- Ask the child to invent their own brief story about a scientific principle just learned.
Using these guidelines, adults can help reinforce that a science story is a tool to help understand real-world principles, rather than a replacement for learning about science in the first place. Below is a list of recommended books that incorporate elements of storytelling in science education; the titles have been selected to demonstrate a variety of approaches to teaching science through stories.
Featured Books That Use Storytelling in Science Education
The following books were chosen because each uses narrative, character, or sequence to introduce a real scientific concept, rather than simply featuring animals or nature as a backdrop.
The Story of Walter Waterford By Sarah Leach
Walter is a rather eccentric raindrop who serves to educate young children on the water cycle; the story is the product of the author’s time spent as an elementary teacher, and was written in conjunction with a song that her students continued to sing to her years after writing it.
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body By Joanna Cole
Ms. Frisbee and her young charges shrink down and travel through the digestive tract of one of the students, observing the various functions of the human body along the way.
A Seed Is Sleepy By Dianna Hutts Aston
An account of the germination and growth of a seed provides a gentle introduction to the processes involved, as well as the various parts of an emerging plant.
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein By Jennifer Berne
A picture book biography chronicles young Albert Einstein’s development of an early understanding of physics, focusing on the wonder of the discoveries rather than the math involved.
Diary of a Worm By Doreen Cronin
A worm maintains a journal of his observations regarding life in the soil, introducing concepts related to the life cycle and ecosystem worms exist in through humor and an accessible viewpoint.
Conclusion
The value of storytelling in science education is difficult to overstate; children are quite capable of remembering an interesting story, and this can be coupled with an expectation that they will have to explain or discuss the science presented afterward. Storytelling in science education does not replace the information being taught, nor the opportunity for further learning. A child might ask questions about the accuracy of a story told, and these can be fielded with appropriate follow-up information. This is not an argument against scientific literacy, only an observation that a child can absorb the basic principles of a scientific process through a story without needing to understand all of the details at first. Taken together with opportunities for firsthand observation and experimentation, storytelling in science education makes an accessible introduction to any number of fascinating subjects.