Conventional instruction in science, technology, engineering and math, STEM is both specifically culturally biased against, and generally fails to engage students. Recent research shows that young people, ages ten to seventeen, have negative attitudes toward science and no interest in engaging with science (European Commission, 2015). In particular, underrepresented minority students may be even further marginalized by conventional STEM instruction which presents science as independent of value and context, and is at odds with their cultural self-identity.

In particular, the students I work with in Lower North Philadelphia express that science “is not [their] thing”, and express a sense of hopelessness when confronted with studying science content. Even students who demonstrate aptitude for studying science express a distaste for it, and a preference for studying language arts over STEAM.

The way that conventional STEAM instruction approaches the subject is counter-cultural and off-putting for my students; 85% of whom identify as Black/African American, 18% identify as Hispanic/Latino/a, 3% as White, and 3% as Multiracial/Other. Glen Aikenhead and Masakata Ogawa explore diverse cultural epistemologies in regards to the natural world, exposing the artificial monolith of The Scientific Method as a flawed paradigm based on a narrow, Eurocentric conception of empirical knowledge, including the functional presupposition that mystery is intolerable and must be, through thorough investigation, destroyed (Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007). Furthermore, Aikenhead (2001) supposes students whose world views and self-identities do align with the anthropocentric posture conveyed in STEM classrooms comprise a small minority. That is to say that only Eurocentric scientists hold self-evident the assertion that Eurocentric scientists, having defined the center of the universe to their own satisfaction, deserve therefore to be acknowledged as personally definitive of its center, and that laws of nature ought to be named after the men whose analyses on the topics are most broadly published, most likely in an Indo-European language.

One source of the problem is that STEM coursework provides exhaustive descriptions of problems. The potential for designing solutions to the problems are poorly, if ever addressed in primary and secondary classrooms, indeed the questions in science and math texts rarely, if ever beg innovation or novel ideas, but instead prompt repetition, regurgitation and the identification of a limited set of patterns and predictions. There is little, if any room for the kind of divergent thinking necessary for developing novel solutions.

There is no single solution to address this problem. A multi-pronged approach involving the exposure to science and mathematics fields at earlier ages across all school districts, encouraging science educators to spark the curiosity of their students and commend them for diligence and persistence. – Edward Colon (as cited in Shepherd, 2016)

A review of the literature shows that one approach to addressing the problem of young people’s disengagement with science is by exploring alternative and attractive modes of communicating science, such as with the use of narrative (Avraamidou & Osborne, 2009).

Prolific author and pioneer of Constructivist Theory, Jerome Brunner, in his book Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, differentiates between two distinct ways that humans order experience. He called the first one paradigmatic, which refers to organizing thought that is logico-scientific, based on empirical observation and reason, or ontological, describing what is known. The second is narrative and deals with the creation of stories. Narrative is part of how people understand the world they live in and serves as a way of communicating understanding to others or epistemological, describing a way of knowing (1986).

The understanding of narrative as a cognitive tool for learning is based on the fair assumption that students already know t narrative structure and content and consistently use them to understand and retell their experience. Narrative is a familiar tool given its use for communication in everyday life, and which students can use for interpretation. Hence, by introducing narrative to school science, students have a familiar structure to help them cope with all the unfamiliar elements that comes with learning a new topic, developing skills, and physically navigating in learning environments (R. Prins, L. Avraamidou & M. Goedhart 2017).

There have been several studies published demonstrating the utility of reading science content written in narrative context. In a study with primary school students, reading narratives resulted in a greater understanding of evolution than the expository text (Browning & Hohenstein, 2015). These results suggest that narrative text structure may lift some conceptual constraints for children. Negrete and Lartigue (2010) conducted a study comparing narrative texts to expository texts with a group of university students. Two different narratives and expository texts were used; one set about natural selection, the other about nitrogen. Students read either the expository versions of the texts or the narrative versions, and took quizzes. A week later, they completed the same quizzes. The expository group’s scores were initially higher, but their scores diminished after a week. No difference was found between sessions for the narrative text group. These results indicate that when reading a narrative, information is retained longer, suggesting narrative text has an enhanced effect on long-term memory.

My particular proposition, and the grounding of my objectives is based on the logico-scientific inference that if reading a narrative form of a science text, understanding and retention is enhanced, then both student understanding and retention will be enhanced significantly when students themselves authoring the narrative form from an expository science text, because of the integration of the Higher Order Thinking Tasks of creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying, all Best Practice staples from Bloom (1976).

I propose to integrate narrative production as well as narrative readings into high school biology instruction of a 100% socioeconomically disadvantaged, underrepresented minority urban population in North Philadelphia, where the dominant, problem storyline is that underrepresented minority students are marginalized by conventional, Eurocentric STEM instruction which presents science as independent of value and context, is at odds with their cultural self-identity.

The preferred reality is to position underrepresented minority students as STEM storytellers, who create and own content in their own learning context. The solution is in the process and product of storytelling. “The big message is that you cannot change the stories until you change the storytellers” (Welteroth, 2018). In my coursework in the University of Pennsylvania’s Teacher’s Institute of Philadelphia, Deven Patel’s Storytelling Traditions of South Asia and the Middle East, we were introduced to the happiness of fish. A modern translation of the traditional Taoist text by Zhuang Zhou follows:

Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the bridge over the Hao River. Zhuangzi said, “The minnows swim about so freely, following the openings wherever they take them. Such is the happiness of fish.”

Huizi said, “You are not a fish, so whence do you know the happiness of fish?”

Zhuangzi said, “You are not I, so whence do you know I don’t know the happiness of fish?”

Huizi said, “I am not you, to be sure, so I don’t know what it is to be you. But by the same token, since you are certainly not a fish, my point about your inability to know the happiness of fish stands intact.”

Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to the starting point. You said, ‘Whence do you know the happiness of fish?’ Since your question was premised on your knowing that I know it, I must have known it from here, up above the Hao River.” (Ziporyn, 2009)

This text not only only describes an entirely unscientific epistemology, it is also provided by the author without interpretation, and the point of the story is unclear, particularly without context.

If I were to use this story to teach a lesson, I would suggest the culture of the person who wrote this story is foreign to me, and I can only assume I understand the point, because I can no more be in Zhuangzi’s head than Zhunagzi can be in the head of the fish. It is up to the fish to determine what brings fish joy, success, or fulfillment.

If we read that story again, and this time replace the word happiness with the word epistemology, and the words minnows and fish with underrepresented minority students, my intended meaning may be more clear. If we seek to teach fish, we might learn more by considering how fish learn. Rather than observing fish swim, and making assumptions about what is useful for fish to build knowledge, a surer way to determine how fish learn best is to observe fish build tools that suit their own understanding. Once we have done a satisfactory job of that, then the fish are empowered to make meaning for themselves, without further interference from teachers, and isn’t that the point?

Particularly esoteric content from cellular and molecular biology topics has the most to gain from narrative construction. This includes, but is not limited to the following topics within Pennsylvania State Standards, Eligible Content for Biology:

BIO.A.1.2.1 Compare cellular structures and their functions in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

BIO.A.1.2.2 Describe and interpret relationships between structure and function at various levels of biological organization (i.e., organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and multicellular organisms).

BIO.A.4.1.1 Describe how the structure of the plasma membrane allows it to function as a regulatory structure and/or protective barrier for a cell.

BIO.A.4.1.2 Compare the mechanisms that transport materials across the plasma membrane (i.e., passive transport—diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion; and active transport—pumps, endocytosis, exocytosis).

BIO.A.4.1.3 Describe how membrane-bound cellular organelles (e.g., endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus) facilitate the transport of materials within a cell. BIO.A.4.2.1 Explain how organisms maintain homeostasis (e.g., thermoregulation, water regulation, oxygen regulation).

All of the above standards suffer from their artificial conceptual separations, as the understanding of each is essentially enmeshed in, and dependent upon the others. The study of any one in isolation is like trying to understand a play through hearing the lines of only one character of an ensemble. Stories are an integral part of cultural heritage the world over. Stories are used to teach values and morals. Stories are used to elaborate and to clarify. Stories are powerful vehicles for learning, “character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later” (Zak, 2014). Science texts incorporate very little in the way of character. Names and accomplishments are expected to be digested without emotion or drama. It is unsurprising that science topics come across as esoteric. Storytelling can enhance our understanding of science, but teaching storytelling through the vehicle of science serves the dual purpose of developing an essentially human skill, and increasing content mastery.

Problem-based learning, while not exclusive of project-based, differs in that the product solves a real existent problem, at least to some degree. The deliverable product is not therefore a project, but a solution. As the problems chosen are, to use a term coined by Rittel and Webber (1973) wicked problems; which are difficult to define, they have no one solution. As described in the previous section, the purpose of both the product, and the process of this unit is to incrementally solve the problem of young underrepresented minority people’s disengagement from science teaching and learning. The process, I hope is a valuable vehicle for students to make sense of the minutia of the content, while the products, I hope will serve to imbue some beauty and wonder into the material as the graphic novels should stand alone to communicate understanding, and be a provocative narrative vehicle to promote rigorous science learning. The problem is that the content is dense, foreign and incomprehensibly presented. The solution is the creation of a comprehensible, compelling narrative story to convey the meaning of the content, independent of the Eurocentric epistemology surrounding its discovery.

In the execution of this design solution, I am employing the stages of the U School Design Process (see figure). The initial stage is discovery. Here, the problem is making sense of cells through the narrative structure of the Hero’s Journey®. In order to define the content of which to make sense, students will employ their biology text. The School District of Philadelphia currently uses Holt Biology, which is adequate to the task. The text will be used as a reference to anchor the content of BBC’s Our Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of a Cell video, which is approximately one hour in length. In addition, the transcript is provided to facilitate higher-order thinking, rather than the taking of dictation. As the content is dense, and spans several chapters and multiple units of the text, I will divide the key terms to employ the jigsaw classroom technique.

The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique first developed by Elliot Aronson (1978). In the jigsaw classroom, material is divided into segments. Each student, is assigned to one of several jigsaw groups, not to exceed five students, is assigned to learn about one portion of the material. Then, students meet with the other students who have been assigned the same segment in a temporary ‘‘expert’’ group. Together, the experts cooperatively study and analyze their segment, as the goal is to share all understanding of the segment. Then, the expert students return to their jigsaw groups, and each student in each group provides their insight on their segment of the material. Aronson (2002) found that students learn the material faster and perform significantly better on objective exams than a control condition of students learning the same material in classes conducted with traditional instruction. Furthermore, the jigsaw structure encourages listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in academic activity (Hänze & Berger, 2007).

I employ a Jigsaw of a Hero’s Journey®, to facilitate the problem-based design of a twelve-chapter graphic novel. Using the list of textbook key terms most relevant to the content of the video, students will discover the relationships between their key terms and the video transcript (Appendix C). Students will share their discoveries. In the second stage of the U School Design Process, define the processes in the video by annotating a shared digital version of the transcript, commenting on excerpts relevant to their assigned key terms. I will also provide paper copies of the key terms and transcript, as several students have a preference for drafting and designing on paper before creating digital products.  Once the transcript is thoroughly defined and annotated, the experts will return to their Hero’s Journey® stage group.

Transitioning to the third stage of the U School Design Process (Appendix A), and in order to facilitate the translation of biological cellular processes into the narrative form of a Hero’s Journey®, students will use a template graphic organizer, based on Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® Schema, to begin to design a working model of viral immune response as detailed in the BBC’s Our Secret Universe; The Hidden Life of the Cell. Students will analyze the extended analogy provided in the program, and identify which cell structures and processes are identified and described, completing the concept map using the annotated transcript and their biology text. Having a completed concept map, and having familiarized themselves with the twelve stages, as as described by Joseph Campbell, of The Hero’s Journey® (2008), students will story-board the Cellular Hero’s Journey® in jigsaw, and collaborate to develop (Design Process step 5) a graphic novel chapter. When complete, students will Deliver (final Design Stage) twelve chapters, following the stages of the Hero’s Journey, in three or four or six or twelve cooperative student groups, whichever your class size is best suited.

The jigsaw groups will represent the assigned stages of the Hero’s Journey®, there students will be assigned a portion of the key terms for analysis in the expert groups. The alphabetical distribution of the terms ensures that experts are not limiting their study to a particular segment of the video, but exploring the entire storyline in the process of discovering the relationships between the terms, the textbook material and the video.

Lesson 0a; Narrative Informative Text Analysis (optional)

Materials needed include Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® schema from The Hero with a Thousand Faces, provided in appendix D. This lesson, while irrelevant to science standards, may clarify the genre of the culminating task, and can be used in whole or part depending on the particular student audience. This task should ideally take only one or two class periods.

Beginning on p. 130, read and provide this outline to students of The Eight Step Process of Successful Change.

1. Create a Sense of Urgency
2. Pull Together the Guiding Team
3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy
4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In.
5. Empower Others to Act
6. Produce Short-Term Wins
7. Don’t Let Up
8. Create a New Culture

You will divide students into as many as seven groups, and assign each group a process step, excepting the one that you are providing as a model. You will have students read either the whole narrative, or select portions for each group as is appropriate to your student body. You will have students provide evidence from the text that shows narrative illustration of their assigned step in the process, and annotate it with an elaboration of how it shows that step. First, in order to demonstrate what the product of this exercise should look like, model annotation and elaboration for the students, either as a marked-up photocopy of text, or an electronic document with comments.

Then, assign the same task to student groups, with your model available as a reference.

Finally, have students evaluate Kotter’s text against the same specific rubric you will provide for the culminating task, such as that provided in Appendix E, in preparation for self and peer evaluation of those culminating tasks, or you may save this exercise for Lesson 0b, if you are using it.

Have students provide specific examples of where in the text they find evidence supporting their evaluations.

Lesson 0b; Iceberg Hero’s Journey® (optional)

Following an introduction to the Hero’s Journey® structure by any one of several available Youtube videos, have students practice fitting the storyline of Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® schema.

You will divide students into as many as eleven groups, and assign each group a process step, excepting the one that you are providing as a model. You will have students read either the whole narrative, or select portions for each group as is appropriate to your student body. You will have students provide evidence from the text that shows narrative illustration of their assigned stage in the Hero’s Journey®, and annotate it with an elaboration of how it shows that stage. First, in order to demonstrate what the product of this exercise should look like, model annotation and elaboration for the students, either as a marked-up photocopy of text, or an electronic document with comments.

Then, assign the same task to student groups, with your model available as a reference.

Finally, have students evaluate Kotter’s text against the same specific rubric you will provide for the culminating task, such as that provided in Appendix E, in preparation for self and peer evaluation of those culminating tasks, unless you used this exercise for Lesson 0a.

Have students provide specific examples of where in the text they find evidence supporting their evaluations.

Lesson 1; Hidden Life of the Cell

Materials needed include the film and transcript of BBC’s Our Secret Universe; The Hidden Life of the Cell. The film is approximately one hour, it will take an additional two to six hours to complete the concept map for the film, depending on how much support is necessary and provided to students in order to complete the model.

Pennsylvania State Standards

BIO.A.1.2.2 Describe and interpret relationships between structure and function at various levels of biological organization (i.e., organelles, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and multicellular organisms).

BIO.A.4.1.1 Describe how the structure of the plasma membrane allows it to function as a regulatory structure and/or protective barrier for a cell.

BIO.A.4.1.2 Compare the mechanisms that transport materials across the plasma membrane (i.e., passive transport—diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion; and active transport—pumps, endocytosis, exocytosis).

BIO.A.4.1.3 Describe how membrane-bound cellular organelles (e.g., endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus) facilitate the transport of materials within a cell. BIO.A.4.2.1 Explain how organisms maintain homeostasis (e.g., thermoregulation, water regulation, oxygen regulation).

National Standards

Life Science (12CLS)

The cell (12CLS1)

Cell structures (12CLS1.1
Chemical reactions in cells (12CLS1.2)
DNA function (12CLS1.3)
Regulation of cell function (12CLS1.4)

BBC Our Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of a Cell Transcript (copyright permission pending) is provided in Appendix C.

Instruct students to annotate the transcript, identifying references to key terms, including but not limited to:

active transport

amino acid

antibody

antigen

ATP

carrier proteins

cell membrane

cytoplasm

cytoskeleton

DNA

double helix

endocytosis

exocytosis

gene expression

histamine

inflammatory response

interferon

lipid bilayer

lysosomes

macrophage

messenger RNA

microtubules

mitochondria

mucous membrane

nucleic acid

nucleotide

nucleotides

nucleus

passive transport

pathogen

protein

protein synthesis

receptor protein

ribosomes

RNA

transcription

translation

transport protein

vesicle

This task should ideally take only one or two class periods. While I plan to provide the terms to expert groups portioned alphabetically, terms can be sorted and chunked by the sequence in which they first appear in the video, as best suits your students and their needs. Some students may find the breadth of the task overwhelming. The textbook index should be made available to students, as well as searchable online textbook as may be available to you and your students, to facilitate cross referencing between texts.

Formative evaluation of annotation should address accuracy of the identification of the portions describing each term, expressed as a percent correct. incorrect or incomplete annotation should be corrected before transitioning to the Hero’s Journey® lessons.

Lesson 2a; Cellular Hero’s Journey®

Following an introduction to the Hero’s Journey® structure by any one of several available Youtube videos, have students practice fitting familiar mainstream storylines of their choice into the outline, based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® schema from The Hero with a Thousand Faces, provided in appendix D.

Once students demonstrate a functional understanding of the stages of the Hero’s Journey®, they are ready to apply this schema to a novel context.

Lesson 2b; Cellular Hero’s Journey®.

In this lesson jigsaw groups will select processes and portions of the BBC’s Our Secret Universe, The Hidden Life of the Cell as source material for their assigned stage of the hero’s journey. Jigsaw groups will complete their assigned portion of the shared digital organizer in order to define their stage. Formative assessment should be made before students transition to storyboarding to limit redundancies and omissions in the final product.

Lesson 2c; Cellular Hero’s Journey®,

Before moving on to this task, provide students with a task specific rubric, such as in Appendix E.

Assign jigsaw groups to create a text and sketch flow chart of twelve or more scenes abstracted from the materials provided to outline their stage of the Hero’s Journey® storyline.

Works Cited

Aikenhead, G. S. (2001). Students ease in crossing cultural borders into school science. Science Education,85(2), 180-188. doi:10.1002/1098-237x(200103)85:23.0.co;2-1

Aikenhead, G. S., & Ogawa, M. (2007). Indigenous knowledge and science revisited. Cultural Studies of Science Education,2(3), 539-620. doi:10.1007/s11422-007-9067-8

Aronson, E. (1978). The jigsaw classroom. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Aronson, E. (2002). Building empathy, compassion, and achievement in the jigsaw classroom. In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving academic achievement. Impact of psychological factors on education (pp. 209e225). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Bloom, B. (1976). Human characteristics and school learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Booker, C. (2017). The seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. London: Bloomsbury.

Browning, E., & Hohenstein, J. (2015). The use of narrative to promote primary school children’s understanding of evolution. International Journal of Primary, Education 3–13, 43, 530–547.

Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

European Commission (2015). Science education for responsible citizenship. Brussels: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Science with and for Society.

Hänze, M., & Berger, R. (2007). Cooperative learning, motivational effects, and student characteristics: An experimental study comparing cooperative learning and direct instruction in 12th grade physics classes. Learning and Instruction, 17, 29e41.

Negrete, A. & Lartigue, C.(2010). The science of telling stories: Evaluating science communication via narratives (RIRC method). Journal Media and Communication Studies, 2, 98–110.

Prins, R. Avraamidou, L. & Goedhart, M., (2017) Tell me a Story: the use of narrative as a learning tool for natural selection, Educational Media International, 54:1, 20-33, DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2017.1324361

Rittel, Horst W. J.; Webber, Melvin M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences. 4 (2): 155–169. doi:10.1007/bf01405730

Shepherd, M. (2016, January 19). Why do many minorities avoid science? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2016/01/18/why-do-many-minorities-avoid-science/#4362f6382ece

Welteroth, E (2019, June 18). Elaine Welteroth on transforming Teen Vogue And Knowing Your Worth (T. Z, Interviewer) [Audio file]. Retrieved from https://the1a.org/audio/#/shows/2019-06-18/elaine-welteroth-on-transformingteen-vogue-and-knowing-your-worth/118050/@36:10

Zak, P. J. (2014, November 05). Why your brain loves good storytelling. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good- storytelling

Ziporyn, B. (2009), Zhuangzi: The essential writings with selections from traditional commentaries, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing

Annotated Bibliography

BBC Our Secret Universe, The Hidden Life of the Cell, Retrieved from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6agslv

This is a source where I found the BBC video in its entirety. It was not available from the BBC directly at the time of this writing.

Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces. Novato, CA: New World Library.

This is the source of the Hero’s Journey Schema® which inspired the culminating performance task.

Chauncey, S., (2017, Jan 18). Using the hero’s journey to create resonant nonfiction. [Web log post] Retrieved from https://www.sarahchauncey.com/heros-journey-resonant-nonfiction/

This post has illustrations and elaborations on the stages of the Hero’s Journey®.

Elshafie, S. J., & Sumida, S. S. (2018). Science through Narrative: Engaging Broad Audiences—An Introduction to the Symposium. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(6), 1204-1212. doi:10.1093/icb/icy116

This article discusses narrative as an engagement strategy for communicating interpreting and presenting complex data.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston (Massachusetts): Harvard Business Review Press.

This book, by John Kotter, who is generally considered a foremost expert on business leadership is celebrated as a systematic guide to managing organizational change. It is followed by the book Our Iceberg Is Melting, which delivers the same Eight Steps in a narrative to which Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® schema might be applied. It is used in the optional Lesson 0.

Kotter, J., & Rathgeber, H. (2014). Our iceberg is melting. London, UK: Macmillan.

This book provides a narrative that serves as a modern parable illustrating the author’s Eight Steps for organizational change to which Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® schema might be applied. It is widely celebrated as easier to read and make sense of than the expository text, Leading Change by Harvard Business professor, John Kotter. It is used in the optional Lesson 0.

Lauritzen, C., & Jaeger, M. (1997). Integrating learning through story: The narrative curriculum. Albany, NY: Delmar.

This book elaborates upon, and provides examples for using narrative stories as a starting point for building compelling and integrated curriculum.

Padian, K. (2018). Narrative and “Anti-narrative” in Science: How Scientists Tell Stories, and Don’t. Integrative and Comparative Biology. doi:10.1093/icb/icy038

A critique of conventional scientific communication, and recommendation for scientists to adopt narrative forms to educate and compel.

Pinar, W. F. (1998). Curriculum: Toward new identities. New York: Garland Publishing.

This is a collection of postmodern pedagogy, addressing Eurocentrism in Science Education, and other dominant cultural paradigms implicit in curriculum which we as educators must be conscious to either continue to propagate or choose to subvert.

Johnson, G. B. (2004). Holt biology. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

This is the biology textbook used in the Philadelphia School District at the time of this writing.

TED-Ed: Winkler, Matthew–What makes a hero? [Video file].  (2012, December). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA

This video file introduces the Hero’s Journey Schema® with very clever animation. It is just over four and a half minutes long, references Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter and Frodo as archetypal heroes.

TEDTalks: David Bolinsky–Fantastic Voyage Inside a Cell [Video file].  (2007, Mar) Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_bolinsky_animates_a_cell

This video includes cell animations similar to those in the BBC video.

TEDTalks: Drew Berry–Animations of Unseeable Biology [Video file]. (2012, May). Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/drew_berry_animations_of_unseeable_biology

This video includes cell animations similar to those in the BBC video.

Raw Spirituality, The Hero’s Journey – Joseph Campbell (Teacher Edition) [Video file]. (2018, March 26). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eNun-x_s2Y&t=22s

This video file is a school-friendly version that introduces the Hero’s Journey® with colorful and compelling narration and video editing. It is just over ten minutes long.

Kurt Vonnegut, Shape of Stories [Video file] (Jul 14, 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGru_4z1Vc

I included this video of Kurt Vonnegut’s two dimensional analysis of stories because I find it brilliant. It illustrates some archetypal storylines in a novel fashion that may inspire others to think about the dimensions of good and bad fortune over time as a means by which to visualize the progress of a narrative.