Welcome to Lesson #4 of the SciComm Society “Making An Impact” email course!
Yesterday was probably a very emotional day for your SciComm journey. Did you manage to include some curiosity, confusion, wonder and awe in your posts? I would love to hear how that went for you. Hit reply and tell me about it!
In this lesson, you’ll build on the foundation you’ve created and now draft an engaging and logical story about your research.
Just like emotions, stories are a way for our brains to process information. Stories have always been part of human life. Through stories, we make logical connections and process the world around us.
That’s why storytelling is such a powerful tool for science communication. Our brains do not need static facts. They want engaging stories with connections and a logical flow.
There’s one simple way to tell a story from your research: the hero’s journey.
For this, pick one simple fact from your science, one idea from your post inbox or the result of one experiment and take a step back from it. Within this concept, try to find one key player—one component in your research that is actively doing something.
Now, tell its story:
What is your key player struggling with?
The key player needs to somehow change or transform its way of being to overcome the struggle. And your experimental result shows you exactly what that transformation looks like.
This is the solution to the challenge for your key player. At the end, your key player lives happily ever after because of its transformation.
With these story parts, you can explain your research project in a simple yet somehow dramatic and interesting way.
Brainstorm
Now, choose one basic term, concept or process from your field and pick the story components: