STORY CIRCLES DEVELOP NARRATIVE INTUITION FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

The scientific community is constantly generating ideas – ideas that are new, fascinating, and important. But all too often, when we hear these ideas they come across as dull and uninteresting, even boring. Marine biologist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson suggests that by using the age-old power of storytelling, scientists can overcome their tendency toward the dry, and turn the dull into the dramatic. By incorporating basic elements of storytelling, scientists can turn their communication from the eye-glazing “And, And, And…” to the captivating “And, But, Therefore,” or ABT. The ABT structure establishes agreement (“And”), introduces conflict (“But!”), and provides resolution (“Therefore”) – the fundamental elements of a story.

It’s as easy as that!

…But of course nothing worth doing is THAT easy. Effectively using storytelling to communicate science is a skill, and therefore takes practice and repetition. Olson has developed a powerful workshop to train our brains to develop a narrative intuition; to make our communication instinctively more engaging. Story Circles gets small groups together weekly for structured, one-hour sessions to practice analyzing and rewriting abstracts for narrative strength. Forty Circles have completed their training, including six concurrently in the National Park Service, with more in the works.

If you’ve ever found yourself snapping out of a stupor in a session and asked yourself “Why isn’t this interesting? This should be interesting to me!” then this presentation is for you! I’ll briefly outline the narrative tools as identified by Olson in his book “Houston, We Have a Narrative,” and describe my experience and subsequent success in facilitating one of six concurrent Story Circles within the National Park Service in 2017.