Today’s Rock Soup is devoted to storytelling and making topics in school relevant.

Over a year ago I created a storytelling presentation called, Traits of a Hero. This presentation has multiple objectives, one of which is to teach children how they can relate subjects they learn in school to everyday life. One way to accomplish this is by giving some interesting details through a story that can later be related to a particular area of science.

In my research, I learned that each elementary grade level is devoted to various scientific topics. According to their age and maturity level, kids are taught. Such things as:

3rd grade: earth rotation, day night, friction.

4th grade: evaporation, weather, soil erosion, fossils, trees & plants.

5th grade: physical properties of matter, erosion, magnets, electricity.

6th grade: moon cycles, orbit, solar system, astronomy, microorganisms .

So, to make these topics relevant, I first tell the stories Voyage across the Ocean and War with Grandma.

Voyage across the Ocean tells the adventures of a brother and sister and their adventures while on a two-month voyage.

The second story War with Grandma shares the adventures of a child who is having a water balloon fight with his grandmother.  Since his grandmother is being sneaky in the battle, he must use ingenuity to win.

With both of these stories, I’m able to cover the following science topics.

For third grade, I touch upon friction when I mention how a rope on the ship is lubricated with tar. I also touch upon how a captain must think of the earth’s rotation while plotting out a course.

For the fourth grade, I talk upon the weather and bad storms during the sea voyage. Bad weather can also touch upon the topic of evaporation and how it contributes storms. I also have the chance to touch upon currents.

For the fifth grade and physical properties of matter, I find the story War with Grandma to be of use. One scene that touches upon the projectory of the water balloons during the battle. This is also a good story to touch upon gravity.

And finally, for the six grades, I touch upon how many sailors would eat a biscuit made of flour, water and salt called hardtack. This could touch upon avoiding mold or the decay of the food, which could touch upon the topic microorganisms. Plankton stirred up from the surface of the ocean by the passage of a ship can act as a food source for fish. Plankton is an additional illustration of microorganisms.

These are just a few ideas of how to combine a story to science.