From slavery to scientist: dramatising a historical story to creatively engage learners in resolving STEM problems

The involvement of children in dramatic inquiry, through activities introducing how scientists and technologists have worked in the past, can ‘set-the-scene’ to STEM inquiry and problem-solving. Historical stories provide rich, authentic contexts that engage children in imaginative and creative STEM-based challenges. In this chapter we describe how a sequence of dramatised activities enabled children to think about scientific and technological issues that were pertinent in the life and work of George Washington Carver (GWC), an American born into slavery. The children worked in-role, as GWC in dramatised inquiry activities, designing their own methods to investigate soil quality and plant growth and to explore how different plant parts might be mashed, ground, dissolved, sieved, mixed and heated to make different products. We describe how an action research approach was adopted, using mixed methods to collect the impact data. Data collected included field notes, informal discussions, interviews and questionnaires. Scrutiny of the data suggested that by participating in dramatised activities, learning became more meaningful for the children as they empathised with Carver’s situation as a scientist and technologist. The interventional project not only increased pupils’ engagement, learning about science and generation of original ideas but also demonstrated how teachers could be creative in STEM teaching.