About the Unit

"The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," she weaves together her personal story of growing up in Nigeria and moving to the United States to draw attention to what can happen if one defines an experience based on a single account. Defining an experience based on a single account gives us incomplete, and potentially damaging understandings of other people or situations. The investigation of the accuracy of a story is not only foundational to confronting our too-often one-sided viewpoints and biases, but also allows for the potentially "truer" stories to shine through.

Narratives do not only encompass the historical or written forms, but also include the spoken accounts of connected events. Many times a "story" is repeated so often, especially in the media, that people start to build misconceptions and believe them even when presented with other evidence that directly contradicts what they have heard to be true. These misconceptions are seen in current events, in history, and (where our focus was) in science. The misconception is presented as perception of "facts," but these misunderstandings or gaps must be looked at more closely for legitimacy and authenticity of the information being presented. The ability to train one's brain, to look more closely and with a skeptical eye is essential to the nature of science, and how scientists think and solve problems.

In this unit, 6th graders started off by seeing themselves as scientists, understanding the role of scientists, and learning the nature of science by looking at how scientists think. In large part, thinking like a scientist is about being a skeptic, and 6th graders recognized that curiosity, perseverance and the ability to solve problems are qualities they all possess. They also learned that scientists use many approaches in their work (not just the scientific method), such as posing a hypothesis and finding evidence that supports or invalidates it. Finally, learned how scientists communicate what they observe, and how this can sometimes lead to misunderstandings or gaps when not done well for a general audience.

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