Science shapes our daily lives, yet it is often misunderstood or lost in translation, especially in today’s media landscape. This gap makes science communication more important than ever. At SJS, we’re teaching the next generation of science communicators, giving them the skills and experience to tackle large-scale scientific concepts and make them accessible and relevant to everyday life.
A recent Grade 9 project did just that with climate change. Initially inspired by Dr. Gregory A. Cajete’s work in reconciling Indigenous perspectives in sciences in academic settings, students were tasked with creating a narrative story to pitch a climate solution to their peers and a panel of expert judges in an exciting interdisciplinary intersection of English and science.
An Interdisciplinary Foundation
The science went hand-in-hand with the Grade 9’s work in English class, where they focused on story structure and writing. The students learned about:
- Freytag’s Pyramid, which outlines the core storybeats for a dramatic narrative.
- The STEAL method for indirect characterization to bring their non-human characters to life: speech, thoughts, effects on others, actions and looks
The students also enjoyed an interactive workshop from Brittney Townrow, a Heiltsuk educator, research practitioner, artist and PhD student. She guided the students through hands-on activities to both visualize and interact with the energy cycle as a foundation for their upcoming projects.
Finally, to get started on the project itself, the students were introduced to Project Drawdown. This initiative is the world’s ultimate climate solutions platform, offering substantive solutions for climate change. Each group picked a climate solution that spoke to them to feature in their project.
The Power of Storytelling in Science
Storytelling plays a crucial role in science. Often scientists will have to pitch their work to audiences, whether that’s to the general public to market a product or idea, or to a committee to earn funding. Or they are distilling down global concepts, like climate change, into accessible information for museums or science centres. This makes science communication a powerful interdisciplinary skill. This project was designed to give students an introduction to this kind of work.
In a ten minute presentation the students created a narrative that featured a central character to tell the audience about their proposed solution. Many students found characters in the solution itself, such as taking the perspective of an orange to explain the production cycle of food and the impact of food waste, or a cow to highlight the benefits of eating less meat. One group used the perspective of a seagull to discuss the pros and cons of using wind energy, while another group tackled water usage and data centres through the perspective of the data centre itself.
The students had to present their story in front of a panel of judges including their science teacher Ms. Frost or Mr. Dhakal, Ms Hunter the Senior School Digital Facilitator and Teacher Librarian, and even Mr. Addley the Head of School.
Grade 9 parents with applicable skills in science communication and climate sciences were invited to attend, and we were joined by Linda Wang (Amy’s Mom), Nestor Muller (Noah’s Dad) and Linda Lu (Hanson’s Mom).
We also welcomed two external experts to the judging panel; Dr. Poh Tan, PhD in Experiential Medicine and Education and Founder and CEO of STEMedge Academy, and Dominic Ramirez, Director of Sustainability at Lundin Mining. The judges provided constructive feedback for the students, giving them the opportunity to learn from experts across disciplines.
The students were also challenged to ask strategic questions of each other, focusing on questions that started with “how” and “why” to create thought-provoking discussion as opposed to “yes” or “no” answers. This was a great practice in active listening as well as a chance for the presenters to really showcase their knowledge beyond what was in their speech.
Congratulations to the students for tackling this innovative project head on and presenting some very interesting and practical climate solutions, and thank you to our community of experts for supporting their learning.
