Speaking at TEDxSalford, Lucy Hawking, best-selling author and influential populariser of science, talks about the importance of using adventurous stories that explain science, and creating engagement through dramatic story-telling.
Lucy describes how these ideas came about during a moment when a child asked her father – astrophysicist Stephen Hawking – what would happen if he was sucked into a black hole. Lucy had three revelations: first, that children are fascinated by this subject matter; second, adults can give answers to complex questions that children can relate to; and third, children ask questions that can be turned into engaging stories.
With this in mind, Lucy suggests that to get children excited by science we need to create an emotional connection between them and the subject. This is especially important, she argues, because there are major challenges facing the world, which can be tackled better if everyone was included in the debate. However, people need to be scientifically literate to achieve this.
Although the use of storytelling to explain the natural world around us is not a new idea, Lucy couldn’t find this technique being used to teach science. It became her mission to fill this void.