Essential Question: How do stories of cataclysmic events help inform students about geosciences and cultures?
Storytelling is a method of communicating events using language, pictures, or sounds. Every culture on the planet has used stories to entertain, educate, teach moral values, or preserve pieces of indigenous cultures. It is one of the oldest and best forms of teaching. Stories are a great way to inform students about geosciences and cultures for a number of reasons:
1. Stories are basic: In every culture there is a story of how the world began, how people came to be, and how to behave. In cultures that live surrounded by the possibility of cataclysmic events, there are stories about why there are earthquakes, volcanoes, or tsunamis. It is the most basic way of explaining a particular phenomenon. Although the stories are not always accurate explanations for why an event has occurred, the story itself provides insight into the culture telling it and how they are shaped by the event. An example of this is a group of Indonesian people that refuse to evacuate the area around an erupting volcano, Merapi, because of their belief that an ogre living on the summit must be appeased.
2. Stories are memorable and highly accessible: The way stories are told makes them easy for students to remember. Making the student wonder what happens next is a very easy way to keep them interested and engaged. Stories of cataclysmic events are very accessible due to the Internet. A good example of this is the Alaska earthquake of 1964. There are various websites collecting personal accounts of the earthquake. Alaska is packed full of local resources that have experienced, or know someone close that have experienced an Alaskan earthquake, volcano, or tsunami. Growing up in Sitka, I remember hearing stories about the tsunami that was a result of the 1964 earthquake. A good friend of the family, John Littlefield, told me of how the water was removed from the channel between Japonski Island and Baronof Island in front of Sitka prior to the tsunami reaching the town. He said it looked like an extremely low tide. Then the tsunami arrived, not in a wave, but washed in high enough to flood some basements. This story was told to me once, and I have never forgotten it.
3. Stories can provide local insights: Stories provide scientists insights about the geologic activity of a particular region. A good example of this is the story told by the indigenous people of the Columbia River Gorge area of a “bridge of the gods” that spanned the Columbia River. In the story the bridge collapsed due to a conflict between two male mountains in the area, over a female mountain. Scientific evidence tells that there was in fact a bridge that was created by an enormous landslide, but later collapsed due to the most recent Great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes.
Stories are one of the oldest and best ways to convey events to our students. It is no different when informing students about geosciences and cultures. Stories are a basic way to explain a phenomenon, they are memorable and highly accessible, and they can provide local insights.
Storytelling is a method of communicating events using language, pictures, or sounds. Every culture on the planet has used stories to entertain, educate, teach moral values, or preserve pieces of indigenous cultures. It is one of the oldest and best forms of teaching. Stories are a great way to inform students about geosciences and cultures for a number of reasons:
1. Stories are basic: In every culture there is a story of how the world began, how people came to be, and how to behave. In cultures that live surrounded by the possibility of cataclysmic events, there are stories about why there are earthquakes, volcanoes, or tsunamis. It is the most basic way of explaining a particular phenomenon. Although the stories are not always accurate explanations for why an event has occurred, the story itself provides insight into the culture telling it and how they are shaped by the event. An example of this is a group of Indonesian people that refuse to evacuate the area around an erupting volcano, Merapi, because of their belief that an ogre living on the summit must be appeased.
2. Stories are memorable and highly accessible: The way stories are told makes them easy for students to remember. Making the student wonder what happens next is a very easy way to keep them interested and engaged. Stories of cataclysmic events are very accessible due to the Internet. A good example of this is the Alaska earthquake of 1964. There are various websites collecting personal accounts of the earthquake. Alaska is packed full of local resources that have experienced, or know someone close that have experienced an Alaskan earthquake, volcano, or tsunami. Growing up in Sitka, I remember hearing stories about the tsunami that was a result of the 1964 earthquake. A good friend of the family, John Littlefield, told me of how the water was removed from the channel between Japonski Island and Baronof Island in front of Sitka prior to the tsunami reaching the town. He said it looked like an extremely low tide. Then the tsunami arrived, not in a wave, but washed in high enough to flood some basements. This story was told to me once, and I have never forgotten it.
3. Stories can provide local insights: Stories provide scientists insights about the geologic activity of a particular region. A good example of this is the story told by the indigenous people of the Columbia River Gorge area of a “bridge of the gods” that spanned the Columbia River. In the story the bridge collapsed due to a conflict between two male mountains in the area, over a female mountain. Scientific evidence tells that there was in fact a bridge that was created by an enormous landslide, but later collapsed due to the most recent Great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes.
Stories are one of the oldest and best ways to convey events to our students. It is no different when informing students about geosciences and cultures. Stories are a basic way to explain a phenomenon, they are memorable and highly accessible, and they can provide local insights.
Using resources such a Google Earth to orient students to a particular region can be invaluable. Actually being able to see the wave scar in Lituya Bay, and seeing the obvious fault plain to the right of the bay was essential to my understanding of the tsunami of 1958. Then, hearing the personal account from Sonny and Howard Ulrich made the event that more real in my mind. Resources such as Google Earth, YouTube, video clips on Teachers' Domain, stories, or personal accounts are essential supplements to any lesson or unit of study.
