Story Collider meshes science and storytelling

Krishna Pakala, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, leads a collaboration with The Story Collider, a national nonprofit that helps scientists talk about their work through personal storytelling events. Madison Dirks participated, sharing how she first embraced science with the help of an inspirational teacher.

The following is an excerpt from the story she shared on campus:

Growing up, I was homeschooled, and I absolutely loved it. I was involved in sports and music, but I also loved being at home reading books and writing stories. My dream was to be an author, while my younger brother was the science kid in our family - constantly collecting bugs and doing his own experiments. Both of my parents were engineers, but while I did well at math and science, I did not think it was for me.

When the time came to choose my 9th-grade science curriculum, my mom pushed me to try Mrs. Hull's physical science class. I was terrified.

After my first day, I began to realize that science was fun. Mrs. Hull had once worked as a scientist, and the way she explained concepts and sketched them out brought everything to life. After our first experiment, I spent hours typing out pages of observations, results, and conclusions, then waited anxiously to get my report back. When I flipped it over, I saw an impossible purple score: 35/30. I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

After a year of physical science came biology, and with it a 12-mile hike through the Columbia River Gorge. While my classmates paired off, I lingered behind, carefully filling out the worksheet, sketching leaves, noting insects and searching for answers. Near the end of the trail, I caught up with Mrs. Hull and asked about the last few questions on the worksheet. Instead of answering directly, she guided me: What did I notice about a tree ahead? A pile of wood shavings. A hole in the trunk. She encouraged me to look closer. Inside were carpenter ants - and the answer I needed. The following week, she told the class that I was the first student she'd had complete the entire worksheet.

Years later, as I sat staring at the blank dedication page of my master's thesis in chemistry, those moments came back to me. The habits she instilled, the attention to detail, the persistence, the curiosity, had stayed with me. I realized I would not have pursued science or gone on to doctoral work in biomolecular sciences without her influence.

Share This

• Share on Facebook
• Share on X
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share through Email