August 08, 2006


Science as Storytelling
Department of GeologyBrigham Young University

D. A. Grandy
Department of PhilosophyBrigham Young University
November 2005
This essay parallels in interesting ways Revisiting Science in Culture: Science as Story Telling and Story Revising, was sent to Paul Grobstein, who wrote that article, and is made available here by permission of Barry Bickmore and David Grandy as a contribution to ongoing discussion of Science as Story Telling in Action.

Explaining the origin and intent of the essay, Barry Bickmore wrote

One of my specialties is Geoscience Education (I'm also a geochemist), and for the past few years I and my graduate students have been testing some educational strategies on my Earth Science class for elementary education majors. The major problem we have been trying to tackle is that these particular students (in general) don't like science very much, and their negative attitudes get passed on to their own elementary school students ...

I have been crystallizing some thoughts about teaching the nature of science to my students, and trying to make them see it as relevant to their own lives. I remembered a comment by Paul Feyerabend that modern scientists serve a function equivalent to court jesters in earlier times, and came up with the idea that science is a form of storytelling. I thought that if I could effectively explain this idea, and adopt this "Science As Storytelling" theme throughout my course curriculum, maybe this would serve to enhance my students' attitudes toward science even further. Furthermore, I have also noticed that in the Evolution/Creationism/Intelligent Design debate that has been going on, science educators often complain that, "If they could just understand the Nature of Science, they would see that ID is not science!" But then, when they go on to explain their concept of the nature of science, it turns out to be demonstrably false, and usually patronizing towards religious students. Therefore, I set out to write an essay that will form the basis of class discussion on the Nature of Science ... and designed to help students see science as thoroughly human and non-threatening.

For a conversation among Bickmore, his collaborator David Grandy, and Grobstein see Science as Storytelling or Story Telling?. Your thoughts about science and science education are welcome in an on-line forum.

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