Monday, October 29, 2007
stories in biology
storytelling doesn't really have a huge role in biology, but it does play some part. i would say the place it has the biggest role is when it comes to the actual scientists who have made various discoveries. sometimes when we're reading about these people in a text book we forget that they're actual people who lives sometimes colorful lives. once i got to college i learned a lot more about people such as james watson & francis crick (credited as discovering the structure of DNA and received the noble prize for it, when in actuality they were working with everyone else's data and never did any data collection of their own). the real discoverer of DNA's structure was Rosalind Franklin. this is just an example of how story telling has a place in the biology classroom to give the students a deeper connection to the material.
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4 comments:
When I first read this blog about stories in biology, I thought to myself that there is really not any storytelling in biology. However, once she started discussing how you could storytell about scientists it was definetly interesting and I was actually a little surprised about the fact she slipping in about Watson and Crick never actually collecting their own data. I think in Biology there could be story telling through the elementary grade levels when introducing a new concept, like it may sound childish but the "Magic School Bus" always has a interesting and great story to tell kids about science. High school and even middle school students may not really have a storytelling element, unless it is like she mentioned and about discoveries.
Hello Erin,
Another way to incorporate stories into the sciences is to have students read articles from magazines. In my high school biology class, for example, we had to do oral reports on articles we read in Popular Science, Discover, etc. I thought it was great because the articles presented us with new information we wouldn't normally find in a textbook (e.g., the latest discoveries/inventions or new perspectives on old ideas).
Another way to incorporate stories into the sciences is to have students read books (their choice, as long as it's related) about the lives of scientists or about particular ideas. The reading of scholarly articles from scientific journals is another idea (for more advanced students). When I used to be a biology major in college, I had to do both of these things alongside my regular classwork. While it was difficult to find time to do all of these things, I ultimately found these experiences to be very rewarding and worthwhile (but then again, I'm a nerd, so maybe that's why).
I agree with your opinion on story telling in biology because I aslo think there is no story telling in biology except for scientist's discoveries. But there could story telling when you work with small children that don't anything about science. You could actually start a science topic with a story about a scientist or a discovery.
I originally agreed with you that there are not really too many stories in bio, but as you went on you showed us that there are stories you just have to dig a little to find them. i guess if we dig deep enough we will find stories in any subject. I liked Laura's ideas of reading magazines and possibly even having students read about scientists.
I guess we all must dig deep and find stories in our areas that will interest our students.
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