We know the many ingredients that inspire engagement for learning: background knowledge, belonging, play, self-expression, wonder, beauty, empowerment, and imagination. Stories are among our oldest simulations to engage learning. It seems we are hardwired to create stories. Even as we sleep we dream in whole stories or in little vignettes. And we’re eager to share our good, bad, or weird stories as well as our night and day dreams! It seems that people are natural storytellers and receivers. Surely sharing a well written, age-appropriate story offers several kinds of imagination-magic. The active imagination stills the listener / reader into quiet, receptive, engagement. Fertile ground for wonder! The storyteller or reader gains rapport without being inventive or creative. The author has done that work for the facilitator. While experiencing a story, all share in a common, contemplative learning experience that calls to be explored through further inquiry. Nothing stimulates receptive listening better than asking students: Given the title, what do you imagine this story may be about, and then stopping at key points in the story to ask, what do we imagine may come next. For decades many curriculum designers have wondered how to create a Spiral Curriculum, one that would build from primary grades through graduation into a realm of knowledge deeply aligned with student developmental needs, cultural and societal requirements for belonging. Could we go from a siloed, academic curriculum with narrowly defined measurements to a more integrated and holistic curriculum where knowledge and skill development equated with empowerment, identity, and enthusiasm
for learning.
Prior to AI, the challenges of creating such a Spiral Curriculum overwhelmed our capacities so we settled for the academic / skill siloes at the price of teacher and student boredom and burnout. With AI we can change this. We can ask what are the key ideas that stimulate children to be interested, to wonder, feel belonging, safety trust and empowerment.
One such key idea is the science story of the relationship between sunlight and plants (photosynthesis). Without the help of AI I would not have attempted to write a story that explores this relationship though I had successfully introduced the wonder-filled idea that E=mc2 to 3rd graders. Below is the prompt I used to get ChatGPT to produce a story presented as a dialogue between sunlight and a sunflower. Following the prompt is the lightly polished story built
from what ChatGPT provided...
I offer this to demonstrate the possibility of creating stories for a well scaffolded spiral curriculum that takes SEL into the realm of STEM or STEAM and circles back to inspire an ever growing identity born wonder that transcends knowing and provides the soil in which inquiry and trust might be nurtured that our human spirit might, through education, become at home in the world.
Prompt
Write a story in which a light beam upon hitting a sunflower is greeted. The flower wants to know where the light beam came from and how long it has been travelling from how far away and where the light began and how it became light and why it has come to her garden. In the course of the story the light beam explains to the sunflower what the equation e-mc2 means and both the light beam and the sunflower grow still feeling the mystery of creation as it dances from light to matter and back to light in a dance as colorful and full of life as the butterfly that lands on the sunflower to listen to the conversation between the unflower and the light beam....
ChatGPT said:
Sunlight explains to Sunflower
As Sunflower turned to face the rising sun, a warm beam of sunlight kissed her smiling face. “Hello, light,” the sunflower greeted softly, “Where do you come from?” The light beam shimmered, warming Sunflower as it answered, “I’ve travelled a long way—93 million miles from the Sun, your closest star. But my life began even farther back, at the Sun's center, where I was born.”
Sunflower leaned toward the Sun, fascinated and curious. “Where were you born?” She asked.
The light sparkled, pleased to explain. “Deep within the Sun, atoms of hydrogen bump and fuse together forming helium atoms. When the two hydrogens become one helium they release a tiny bit of energy, me that is light and heat! You might know this as E = mc².” Sunflower tilted her head, intrigued by this new idea. “E = mc²? What does that mean?” Light flickered joyfully. “E = mc² is a beautiful equation. ‘E’ stands for energy, or me,, ‘m’ stands for mass, or matter, you. The ‘c²’ is the speed of light squared—an unimaginably big number. It means a small amount of matter turns into a huge amount of energy.
That’s how I was born from two hydrogen atoms fusing and causing an explosion in the Sun’s core. That explosion made me!” Sunflower glowed brighter, imagining this. “So, you were once matter that had mass like me, and now you’re warm light flying on silent bright wings? How marvellous! But why have you come all this way into my garden?” Light danced playfully around Sunflower’s face. “I came to give you warmth, to help you grow by helping you make food through photosynthesis. Without my light you couldn’t be you.”
Sunflower nodded in understanding, feeling the energy of Light sinking into her filling her with life.
Then she asked, “How long did you travel to reach me?”
“From when I left the Sun, it took about eight minutes to reach you,” Light answered. “But my real journey was much longer. After being born in Sun’s core, it took me millions of years to weave my way from Sun’s center to Sun’s blazing surface where I began my flight into space to reach you.”
Sunflower swayed in awe, feeling the wonder of time and distance. “Millions of years… to come into my garden,” she whispered. “Yes,” Light said gently, “Now that I’m here, I’ll become part of you. Your form will transform my light energy into food energy to help you grow tall, strong, and beautiful.” As Sunflower absorbed Light’s warmth, Butterfly landed gracefully on her golden petals. Butterfly listened to the soft conversation between Sunflower and Light.
Light shimmered and said. “Sun and Earth, Light and Flowers: Creation is a dance—sometimes we are light, sometimes flowers, we are always moving, always transforming. Today I will become sugar to feed you. Someday together we will return to earth so a new seed and sunbeam can form a new sunflower.”
Sunflower closed her eyes, feeling the mysteries of creation within her. “From light to matter, and back to light,” she whispered, “How beautiful. How mysterious.” Butterfly opened her wings gently, feeling the deep magic of Sun and Earth. Together, Sunflower, Light, and Butterfly remained still connected in the grand dance of creation, feeling the wonder of a vast and delicate universe. And though they didn’t understand everything, they loved the beauty of being together.