Science is all around us. A chatbot can write book reports for students. A deadly fungal infection is spreading through the United States. Severe thunderstorms pelt the Dallas-Fort Worth area with rain and pea-sized hail.
Still, science can feel impenetrable — discussed with tricky jargon and chronicled in dense research papers that can leave us wondering where we fit in.
Saba Ansari, a teacher at Bridge Builder Academy in Richardson, wants to demystify science for her students right from the start.
“I put the bang back in science,” she said.
As a former chemistry student and improv student, Ansari gets creative in the classroom to bring science beyond the textbook. She breaks down biology, forensics and more for students, preparing them for a world bursting at the seams with science.
“If you do it right, you have a bunch of kids that are ready to face this future full of unheard-of, impossible things,” she said.
She will share her story at “Confidence,” a science storytelling event April 18 at 7 p.m. hosted by The Story Collider and The Dallas Morning News. The event will be held in The Dallas Morning News auditorium at 1954 Commerce St., and tickets are on sale.
Make it relatable
When they grow up, Ansari’s students want to be actors, singers and football players. To add “scientist” to the mix, she said it’s not enough to teach her students how things work. They also need to know why science matters.
“You want to teach them why it’s real, why it’s relatable, why do they use it every single day for the rest of their [lives]?” Ansari said.
Instead of lecturing about Newton’s laws from a PowerPoint, she tells her students to sit in a chair and try to stand up. The catch? They can’t use force to do it.
No matter how hard they try, Ansari’s students eventually realize they can’t get up without pushing down on the chair or the floor. Ansari can then start a conversation with them about what they learned, and bring Newton into the mix.
See it for yourself
“I don’t ever teach in a vacuum,” Ansari said. When possible, she shows her students how they can see and touch science in the real world, helping them understand why things are the way they are.
Ansari takes her elementary-aged students for nature walks. When they look under trees for dirt and mud, they learn how tree roots help hold soil in place.
When Ansari can’t bring the science directly into her students’ hands, she uses a different tool: their imaginations.
Think inside the box?
Ansari tried out improv comedy for a year and half in Dallas, even getting to know her now-husband in the process. She saw it as a chance to spruce up her lesson plans.
“The kids don’t want to be hearing the same thing over and over, day in and day out,” she said. “But if you put in a little bit of improv, you can make the classes more lively.”
Ansari once placed an empty cardboard box on a table, and told her students to imagine a grassland ecosystem inside of it. Every ecosystem exists in its own box, Ansari explained, but many ecosystems make up the planet Earth.
At the end of the lesson, one student asked Ansari if she could take the box home. Her mom told Ansari at the end of the school year that her daughter still kept it in her bedroom and used her imagination to turn it into anything she wanted.
“When you get that imagination going, you can have the kids thinking literally, pun not intended, out of the box,” Ansari said.
Want to hear more from Saba Ansari? Join The Story Collider and The Dallas Morning News for “Confidence,” an evening of true, personal stories about science.
WHAT: Five D-FW storytellers will share personal stories about confidence, and how it propels us to do crazy and wonderful things. Speakers include a doctoral student and budding rapper, a reptile scientist and a student entrepreneur.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 18, 2023, from 7 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Dallas Morning News Auditorium, 1954 Commerce St., Dallas, TX, 75201
TICKETS: Tickets are available for purchase at this link. Student discounts are available.
Adithi Ramakrishnan is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.
