Engaging children in geosciences through storytelling and creative dance

Abstract

<jats:p>Abstract. Natural sciences have traditionally been disseminated in outreach activities as formal, one-way presentations. Nevertheless, innovative strategies are being increasingly developed using arts, gaming, and sketching, amongst others. This work aimed at testing an alternative and innovative way to engage non-expert audiences in ocean and coastal geology through a combination of scientific concept explanations and creative dancing. An informal education activity focusing on ocean dynamics was designed for 10-year-old students. It combines coastal science concepts (wind, waves, currents, and sand), storytelling techniques (narrative arc), and creative dance techniques (movement, imaginative play, and sensory engagement). A sequence of six exercises was proposed, starting with the generation of offshore ocean waves and ending with sediment transport on the beach during storm/fair-weather conditions. Scientific concepts were then translated into structured creative movements, within imaginary scenarios, and accompanied by sounds or music. The activity was performed six times with a total of 112 students. It was an inclusive activity given that all students in the class participated, including children with several mild types of cognitive and neurological impairment. The science and art activity aroused emotions of enjoyment and pleasure and allowed for effective communication between scientists and school community. Moreover, the results provide evidence of the activity's effectiveness in engaging children and developing their willingness to further participate in similar activities. </jats:p>

The role of art in coastal and marine sustainability

“…There are performances such as the 'Beach-dancing Day' in Wales, performed by Susanna Recchia (Olsen, 2018) that target smaller audiences, present at the time and place where they take place; while others, such as animated stories in an online map-based platform (Brennan, 2018), still currently accessible, that reaches larger audiences. Among the art viewers or participants of art projects, there are children (e.g., Matias et al, 2020), teenagers (e.g., Sanchez et al, 2020), young adults in education (e.g., Jacobson et al, 2016) or not (e.g., Trott et al, 2020), local communities (e.g., van der Vaart et al, 2018 and residents (e.g., Liburd and Derkzen, 2009), community representatives (e.g., Strand et al 2022), scientists (Paterson et al, 2020), and occasional pedestrians passing public art (e.g., Aragón et al, 2019). Overall, engagement is the most frequent outcome action (43%, n=56) reported by authors of the analysed papers (Figure 4B).…”

Reflections from the team: Co‐creating visual media about ecological processes for young people

“…Arts‐based methods can establish emotional connections with complex topics (Friedman, 2013) and build a deeper level of engagement that includes enjoyment and positive attitudes, rather than focusing solely on knowledge acquisition (e.g. Matias et al., 2020). The project presented in this article focused on integration of three arts‐based methods, and the co‐creation of lyric poetry, comics and visual media for engagement with young people.…”

Ten simple rules for designing analogue science games

“…In considering how best to develop such communications, a variety of media, ranging from poetry [ 5 ] and dance [ 6 ] to theatre [ 7 ] and comedy [ 8 ], have been explored. Similarly, research has been dedicated to the role that games might play in communicating scientific topics [ 9 – 12 ], including useful advice for game designers seeking to embed scientific endeavour within serious scientific games [ 13 ].…”