Many liberal arts subjects are taught by retelling (or challenging) narratives that connect disparate facts into a coherent story of cause and effect. The narrative mode of teaching can be used in science as well, as suggested by scientists like E.O. Wilson. The book Houston, We Have a Narrative by Randy Olson suggests an "And, But, Therefore" narrative sequence for scientific narratives. This sequence fits with an evolutionary narrative focused on the different roles of the chemical elements over time. I have used this narrative to provide structure and drive to a B.A. physical chemistry survey course, and have summarized this narrative in my new book A World From Dust: How the Periodic Table Shaped Life, written for a general audience. Gala Bent, an artist, has provided dozens of figures for this book to visually illustrate important aspects of the narrative. Bent's sketches add another dimension to the literary narrative and help to clarify the complex beauty of crucial points in the story. The narrative therefore integrates both science and art. This narrative retelling of the chemical sequence of natural history is aligned with the sequence of topics in the textbook. The physical chemistry topics when told in the traditional order -- beginning with enthalpy and entropy and moving through phase equilibria and kinetics -- fit natural history surprisingly well. The narrative of chemical evolution provides a framework that helps students understand the relevance of the assigned physical chemistry exercises and can form a bridge to the primary literature in relevant journal articles. As a result, students engage the material at multiple levels through writings focused on various audiences, which helps them understand the role of the projected audience in their own writing. Student responses to this approach have provided positive, qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of this teaching strategy.

Telling the story of chemical evolution: How physical chemistry topics align with the narrative of natural history

251st National Meeting (2016)

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