Science Storytelling: a powerful tool for outreach and audience engagement

It can be argued that our intelligence and overall cognitive development are strictly linked to our ability to devise and narrate stories. We are, after all, storytelling animals. Our most basic tools of communication and persuasion are built on our ability to tell stories that are more interesting than those of others. After all, time is a limited asset and so is our ability to pay attention and gain new knowledge.

With this understanding, it is hardly surprising that modern science communication is turning towards theatre and performing arts for creating emotional stories, empowering communicators and scientists with advanced storytelling techniques and therefore reaching and engaging new audiences,

This class will explore these ideas both from a theoretical as well as a practical point of view. The teaching modules will include:

• What is a story and how to construct one
• What are the basic rules to turn a good story into a very exciting one
• Creating a story starting from the given science topic
• Tuning your story to reach different audiences
• Storytelling as an educational tool
• How not to contaminate our stories with non-scientific or pseudo-scientific attitudes and claims
• Turning yourself into a narrator of science: practical tools
• Applying storytelling techniques to science communication