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You
are here: Providing Meaningful Learning Through Story
and an Inquiry Approach to Science Education
Looking back on my undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Dr. Hans Furth, a protege of Jean Piaget, I realize now that I believed in the constructivist approach to education long before I heard the term. I started teaching: elementary science in 1972. It has always been clear that giving students hands-on experiences and opportunities to construct their own meaning from these experiences results in deeper learning than spoon feeding information. Constructivist approaches also develop thinking and process skills and nurture a love for learning. These are essential habits for lifelong learners.
Another understanding, developed through years of working with children, has been the power of story and the necessity of a context or "trigger picture" where learners can hook their new learnings. Dr. Renee Fuller calls story "the basic engram of all learning." Reynolds Price, the Southern writer, claims that the human need for story is as fundamental as the need for food and water. Storytelling (including narrative song) was the principle medium for passing on a culture's knowledge and traditions for many thousands of years in human history. Story gives meaning and importance to learnings which could otherwise be perceived as dry, uninteresting facts.
Discovery, learning and story both affect emotion as well as cognition. Dr. Paul MacLean, former Chief of the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior at the National Institutes of Mental Health has pointed out "that the limbic system, this primitive [emotional aspect of the] brain that can neither read nor write, provides us with the feeling of what is real, true and important." The thrill of personal discovery and the joy associated with a funny song, rap or interesting story connected with science study can also provide a positive emotional environment which motivates students to want to learn more.
The book and audiotape, Sing a Song of Science is an outgrowth of my understanding of the need for story, along with hands on investigations, in teaching science. Sing a Song of Science demonstrates the use of story (through song, rap and narrative) which teachers can use after students have had concrete experiences with scientific phenomena and reflected on the experiences, themselves. Sometimes an inquiry approach used alone can leave students with a fragmentary knowledge of content. Lacking the words to express the concepts they have begun to understand. The stories, raps and songs in Sing a Song of Science provide students with the vocabulary and context they need to express the concepts they have been constructing through their investigations and to understand where the new concepts fit in the larger scheme of things.
Years of experience with my own students and enthusiastic reports from teachers around the country who have used Sing a Song of Science leaves me confident that this approach works with students.
Sing a Song of Science II is in the works. It will be ready by late spring, 1997. Sing a Song of Science II will have duplicable discovery lessons which can be used to introduce scientific concepts as well as songs, plays, narratives and other activities inspired by the multiple intelligences to help reinforce the learnings. Following are some examples of its contents:
- A series of experiments which help students discover the necessity for controlling variables along with other key concepts followed by the "Scientific Method Blues" song and a funny play help introduce students to scientific methodologies.
- "Hey, Ain't it Great to be Alive!" "Adaptations", the "Story of a Plant" and the "Dandelion Song" make up parts of a series of lessons on living things.
- Some simple but effective experiments with sound followed by the song "Vibration is Moving Back and Forth" and the story of Sarah the Sound Wave cover the basic principles of sound.
- Hands-on activities with measurement, followed by the "Metric Song', provide some interesting experiences and fanciful mnemonics for remembering the relationships of quantities in the metric system.
Kathleen Carroll is an internationally recognized consultant on brain-compatible strategies to enhance learning. A twenty year veteran of inner city schools, she has received numerous awards including Learning Magazine's Professional Best Award (1989) and the National Science Teachers Association Ohaus Scales Award for Innovations in Science (1988) for this approach to science teaching.
Contact Dr. Carroll directly for information on obtaining a copy of Sing a Song of Science:
Kathleen Carroll
6801 -6th St NW
Washington, DC 20012
(202) 723-2233
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