Some encouraging news in the world of using story in teaching and learning...

The Washington Post recently featured The Story of Science series of textbooks for middle-schoolers by Joy Hakim.

The Post's Valerie Struass reports that the series:

tells the history of science with wit, narrative depth and research, all vetted by specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first book is Aristotle Leads the Way," the second is Newton at the Center and the third is Einstein Adds a New Dimension. The series, which has drawn acclaim, chronicles not only great discoveries but also the scientists who made them. ... Constance Skelton, science coordinator for Arlington County schools, said teaching science through stories rather than unconnected snippets of formulas and information is gaining popularity. "If you talk to any first-rate scientist about a particular development, you will very quickly hear a narrative, because the way good scientists think about developments in their field is in terms of stories," science writer Timothy Ferris said. "Telling a story reminds you of how you got to your present state of knowledge," he said, and scientists constantly test whether those steps were reliable.