Fictional Stories in Science
Using Fictional Stories as a Pathway to Science Content
Featured Book: “Float”
Book Summary: “A boy. A boat. A rainy day. An adventure.”
A wordless book that caused me to smile from start to finish. My mind quickly recalled my own newspaper creations, both while engineering on my own and as apprentice to my in-home expert, my brother. My mind also recalled my classroom days and the endless fascination and experiments a simple piece of paper held–something we often need reminded of in the land of tools and toys.
Science Topics
- Engineering
- Design process-sharing about the process
- Students as engineers-sharing about their creations to lead to a group or individual experiment or challenge. Potential connection to variables.
- Observing the cause and effect of a new adventure
Literacy Connections
- Story elements
- Storyboards
- Oral language development: giving words to the story, sharing about their own creations as a connection to both writing and science where they are the expert
Sociocultural Connections
- Ability to relate to the story: text-to-self connections
- Parent/Guardian-Child connections (or in my case sibling connections): bring the home experiences to school and school experiences back to the home
- Students as engineers: personal stories where they are the expert
- Following an adventure: redefining “play” as a positive learning time
Fictional Stories in Science 