Storybook Science
UD’s Danielle Dixson and Delaware Sea Grant provide virtual story book readings for pre-K through first grade children
With the COVID-19 pandemic limiting the possibilities for in-person events, Delaware Sea Grant was looking for ways to engage younger students while at the same time exposing them to the research taking place at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment.
One of those ways was to host a series of virtual read aloud workshops, titled “Sea Story Time: Marine Science Through Storybooks,” where a UD researcher would read a science-themed children’s book to the participants.
Once they thought of the idea, David Christopher and Chris Petrone, director of the DESG Marine Advisory Service, reached out to Danielle Dixson to see if she would be interested in reading her books as part of the workshop. Dixson jumped on the project immediately.
“This was a perfect project for Danielle because she had already written a few children’s books about her research,” said Christopher, a marine education specialist with DESG’s marine advisory service. “There seems to be a real interest in how to communicate science in different ways, and students reading authentic books based on science is a trend that I see so it seemed to be a natural fit.”
Over the course of three Zoom sessions, Dixson, associate professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy, read three of her books—which are available on the sea story website—to children ages pre-k through 1st grade:
A Butterflyfish’s Journey to Find Delicious Food;
How the Tiny Gobies Saved their Coral Home; and
A Clownfish's Home Gets Into Hot Water
Participants included individuals, classrooms, education centers and libraries. Christopher estimated that there were around 300-400 participants in each of the sessions with people registered from locations as far away as Hawaii, California, England and Bali among others.
“It was phenomenal to think that here we are in Delaware and someone in Bali or Hawaii is watching our webinar,” said Christopher. “That’s one of the interesting parts of doing this virtually.”
In addition to those virtual participants, Dixson was joined on screen by her daughter, allowing her the opportunity to read the stories to an in-person participant.
Dixson said that she loves doing outreach events targeted towards a younger audience and exposing participants to science at a young age.
“I think it’s part of science education that is sort of missing,” said Dixson. “I think teaching a first-grader about science is really difficult. To go into specifics is hard and to go into marine science is even harder, especially if you’re not a state that is around the ocean or coral reefs.”
Reading the books and getting to hear the questions from the participants was a highlight of the spring semester for Dixson, and she said that she was heartened by how engaged the children were during the sessions.
“The questions were so good that the kids asked and they were so engaged,” said Dixson. “A lot of the questions were focused on how they could help. That came up quite a bit—about how they could help the oceans. We even got a comment from someone at UD who left a light on by accident and their son said ‘Daddy, you have to shut the light off. We have to save the corals.’ So it did resonate with kids.”
One question, in particular, even stumped the experts.
“One of the funniest comments we got was they wanted to know why it was called a goby and I didn’t know,” said Christopher. “That was a question we’d never been asked before.”
In addition to the three workshops geared towards children, there was also an event held for educators that went into Dixson’s research more deeply and had a discussion centered on ways to bring marine science into elementary classrooms, home schooling and informal education environments.
During that workshop, Dixson presented on the research behind the “How the Tiny Gobies Saved their Coral Home” story and explained how she was able to take the complex research and break it down into a children’s book.
The education participants seemed particularly interested in learning about an undergraduate course Dixson taught a few years ago at UD called Science Through Storybooks, a class where Dixson had her students turn their scientific findings into storybooks for young kids.
“Honestly, to create a story book, you have to understand the science. That is why I use this method in teaching,” said Dixson. “If I give undergrads or graduate students a scientific paper and tell them to turn it into a story, they need to really understand it to be able to dial it down to a kid level. So I do think it’s helpful in learning the science and it’s also helpful in teaching the science.”
Article by Adam Thomas