An exemplary scientist's storytelling in a high school students' science internship

With the rapidly increasing demand for STEM skills, many scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technology professionals encourage students to pursue STEM careers. However, communicating science to lay audiences is challenging due to complex scientific terminology. This qualitative research aimed to demonstrate how an exemplary scientist, Dr. Reed, used storytelling to teach science in a 7-month internship for high school students. Data sources included real-time videos, field notes, and individual student interviews. Labov's model was used to analyze 75 stories. The analysis shows that Dr. Reed's stories mainly targeted eight teaching purposes. Telling such stories allowed Dr. Reed to relate scientific practices to what the students were experiencing in the science internship. Science educators can use this study's findings to build their storytelling practice with the goal of communicating science to students more effectively.